Declutter Your Bedroom: 10 Things To Toss Today (Part 7)

 
Decluttering is a real buzzword these days—but it’s not a fad, it’s a trend. It’s here to stay. Decluttering is so important because the more clutter that’s in a space, the harder it is to clean, and the harder it is to clean, the less it gets cleaned. One room that we really need to stay on top of is the bedroom. It’s a space that you want to come home to and feel at peace and relaxed in. Excess clutter in the bedroom can be stressful and take away from a good night’s sleep. So, let’s look at 10 things we can declutter in the bedroom!

Extra Pillows

If you have old pillows kicking around and think to yourself, “You know what? I’m definitely going to need that one day when I go on that camping trip, or when those guests come by”, and you start stacking up and storing pillows. You’re essentially hanging on to these because of the “one-day” mentality. In my opinion, when a pillow has outlived its usefulness, you need to get rid of it, not save it for what-ifs.

Socks

Take a look in your sock drawer and I can almost guarantee that there are socks that don’t belong. Either they didn’t get picked up at the singles dance—that’s my way of saying they’re single—or they have holes in them and they’re not useful anymore. Sort through your socks, even the ones that you have bunched up, anything that has a hole in it or it doesn’t have a partner needs to go. Now, for the stocks with holes in them that are really bad, those ones you can actually get rid of. For the ones with small holes in them or they’re fading at the bottom, there are definitely second uses for them. The same goes for the single socks. And in fact, we are so passionate about this very topic that we have an article featuring 7 great uses for single socks.

Jewelry

Now, here’s something I think a lot of us ladies can admit to. We probably have jewelry that we don’t wear anymore; whether it’s broken, tangled and mangled, or just discolored beyond repair. We all have these random pieces of jewelry that hang around and get passed over everytime we choose what to wear. The truth is, I know that there are lots of people in my life who would be interested in things like this. There are lots of different things you can do with jewelry if you don’t want it anymore. You can find someone else who might really love it. You can donate it to a second-hand shop. Or if it’s something that’s precious or semi-precious, you can take it to a jeweler and see what kind of cash you can get for it. Either way, get rid of the jewelry you don’t wear anymore and clear up space.

Shoes

Do you guys have any shoes that you bought because they were on sale, or you really liked them but they weren’t quite your size, or you bought them for a specific one-off event? Or maybe you have shoes that you used to wear, but you never quite pick them to go with an outfit anymore but are still hanging on to them? All of these are good signs that it’s time to get rid of those shoes. So, take a good honest look at the shoes that you have in your closet, whether they’re new or worn and ask yourself, “Would these be the shoes that I would pick if I were wearing a certain outfit?”. If you always pick another pair of shoes instead, it’s time to move on from those shoes.

The Junk Drawer

The nightstand (or dresser) junk drawer is a common species in pretty much every bedroom, in pretty much the entire world. We all have that one drawer where we put things that we don’t really have a spot for but think we’re going to need at some point. Frankly, the majority of the stuff that’s in there, we just don’t need. I go through mine a couple times a year because inevitably things just end up in there. Strangely enough, when you eliminate the mentality of a junk drawer, junk doesn’t end up in there! So, get in there and declutter that drawer!

Books & Magazines

I have the best intentions when it comes to reading before bed. That’s why I always have a few of my favorite magazines lying around, as well as a book or two, on my nightside table. Now, every now and then I do get to one, but in most cases, they just sit there and gather dust. I don’t know if you guys go through the same thing but if you do the idea here is to keep a single item (whether a book or magazine), and set a due date to read it. If you haven’t read it by that point, put it back on the bookshelf. If it’s a magazine, put it in the donation pile. There are so many people who will gladly accept donated magazines! I give mine to my sisters-in-law whenever we see them at family events so they don’t have to go out and buy magazines.

Men’s Ties

Back in the day, Chad had a job which required a suit and tie each day. He works from home now, but he still has all of these ties hanging around. Now, over the years, I’ve had to do a lot of work on Chad’s tie collection, but he does have pretty good taste once you get past the obvious offenders. So, if you’re the guy with a whack-o-ties, but don’t need them on the regular, pick out a few—three or four at the most—and get rid of the rest.

White Undershirts

White undershirts are funny things. They’re prone to those yellow underarm stains, ring around the collar, and just stains in general. But because they’re often under other clothes these stains aren’t obvious so we just hang on to them way past their best-before date. If we try to get rid of them and we can’t, we often end up in denial, “Maybe one day I’ll get rid of that stain!”. Seriously though, if you would be horrified if anyone actually saw that shirt in public, get rid of it! You can donate them, or if you’re too embarrassed to do that, you can even just cut them up and use them for one time cleaning rags.

Closet Cleanout

I recommend cleaning out your closet twice a year when the seasons change. Go through all of the clothes from the past season and take stock of the stuff that you didn’t wear and put it in the donation pile. Doing this closet clean out twice a year is super helpful, it keeps you on top of what you have (and what you need), and it inevitably ends up saving you closet space.

Hangers

While you’re in your closet have a look and see if you have any old, broken, or unused hangers. A few years back when Chad and I did our initial closet cleaning video, we got rid of all of the mismatched wire and plastic hangers and moved on to wood hangers (great deals on bulk wood hangers at Amazon!). Once we did that we noticed that our closet just looks so much nicer and more uniform. Now, every now and then we do find a plastic or wire hanger circulating through and we just prune it out. If you’re somebody who gets your clothes dry cleaned, you probably have a lot of these wire hangers hanging around (see what I did there). And yes, it’s a free hanger, but they aren’t meant to be actual hangers in your closet. They’re a very cheap temporary solution used by the dry cleaner, so toss ’em!