February is the month when hearts and love surely enter our consciousnesses. So what better time to give some love to our bedrooms?
1. Remove Things That Don’t Belong
A bedroom is supposed to be our sanctuary. A place to relax at the end of the day and a place to wake up, refreshed, to a new day.
Yet, bedrooms can collect all kinds of things if we’re not careful.
Scan your bedroom, keeping in mind the purpose of the room. Is there anything that doesn’t belong there? If yes, remove it from the room (or the house if it doesn’t bring you joy) and take it where it belongs.
2. Put Clothes Where They Belong
Make sure there are no clothes on the floor or draped over chairs. If you’re not yet in the habit of putting your clothes back into the closet (I can relate! It took me decades to master this) consider these factors:
Is your closet so full that getting anything back in there is just too difficult? If yes, try to create 20% free space around your clothes.
Do you have a chair in your bedroom that ends up only holding your clothes and no one ever sits on it? If yes, consider letting go of the chair.
Do you have a spot for clothes that you have worn but are not yet dirty? If not, consider creating a dedicated spot for these clothes.
3. Remove Extra Books
If you like to read in your bedroom make sure your bedside table only holds the book you’re reading. Maybe two if you like to read different types of books at the same time.
There shouldn’t be too many ‘books I want to read one day’, because that one day never comes. As Marie Kondo says in the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:
“You may have wanted to read it when you bought it, but if you haven’t read it by now, the book’s purpose was to teach you that you didn’t need it.”
And:
“There’s no need to finish reading books that you only got halfway through. Their purpose was to be read halfway.”
Liberate yourself from the need to read a particular book. Read whatever you want to read!
4. Remove Paper Clutter
Paper clutter is not sexy. In most people it invokes dread. Please remove it from your bedroom.
5. Add Sparks Of Joy
Finally, after removing what doesn’t belong, add a little something, if needed, to make the space beautiful and joy sparking to you. This could be as little as nice sheets, maybe a piece of art that you find beautiful, or a plant.
Still, keeping in mind the room’s purpose, anything that makes it hard for you to relax at the end of the day or wake up refreshed and ready for the new day, is not serving you.
An extra decorative pillow or a nice bedspread might be beautiful but the act of putting it on and taking it off every day also has to spark joy. Otherwise, you’re better off without them. Same with plants. A dying plant is worse than no plant.
Try to be realistic with the amount of energy you have at this moment in life and how you want to use that energy.
Create a beautiful bedroom that you can easily upkeep and experience how relaxing and refreshing that feels!