Bedrooms should be a place of peace and provide a feeling of knowing you are safe. Often, though, our bedrooms can become overloaded with clutter and chaos just like the rest of the house.

The bedroom is usually far from all the other rooms, meaning that it can quickly become a dumping ground for stuff that actually goes elsewhere in the house.

It’s easy to let things build up on the night stand. Things from emptying your pockets before taking off your pants, if you snack in the bedroom there may be some garbage or plates and cups, even extra folded laundry that doesn’t belong in the bedroom may be taking up some real estate!

One quick way to help deal with some of those cluttery objects is to have a basket in each bedroom. The basket can be used for a variety of purposes, but I am going to share my two favourite uses!

Donate bin

Use the basket as a donate bin. It is beyond handy to have a donate bin in each room, especially if you have growing kids. I can not say how handy it is to be able to toss clothes that no longer fit into the bin, even the kids do it on their own! It’s great for clothes, shoes, toys, books, stuffies, basically anything! Once the kids have decided they no longer want something, it can just go straight into the bin so that it doesn’t keep cluttering up their space. Of course, you do need to eventually gather all the stuff from the bins and actually donate it! You could also go through some of it to see if you can sell any of it instead. Use a donate bin in your own room for clothes, jewelery, ties, dress shoes that no longer fit, even decor items if you are changing things around. Rather than having a pile building up on your dresser, by the bed, or by the door, you can now have it all in the bin. It also becomes easier to deal with when you are ready to take it to a donation center, just gather up all the stuff from the bins and away you go!

Catch-All

Use it as a catch-all bin! Anything that you find in your room that doesn’t actually belong in the bedroom. Use a bin as a dumping zone. At bedtime, gather up anything in the room that doesn’t belong. Things that I mentioned before, like cups, plates, toys, someone else’s dirty socks, even someone else’s dirty undies – if you have kids… you know! In the morning, when you are leaving your room, grab the bin, and while your coffee is brewing, see if you can manage to get everything in the bin put away. Challenge the kids to put their catch-all bin belongings away too – there’s no need for parents to do everything, am I right?

Try out the baskets or bins for a week or so and see how it goes. I bet you’ll be surprised how easy it becomes to deal with some of that crazy clutter that just sneaks up on you.

The bedroom really should be a place of peace. So take it back and make it your sanctuary again – and make it so for the kids, too!

Thanks for coming home!