How to Keep a Bedroom Looking Clean

Notice I said "looking" clean.  Because the thing is, even if we're most or full-time homemakers, life gets busy, and it can be hard to keep the clutter down.

Bedrooms are lived-in space, and if you share a bedroom, the other occupants might not share your idea of clean.  Yet a clean bedroom is a haven, and an important one to protect.  Here are four simple things I {try to} do every day to keep the mess from getting overwhelming.

Make the bed every day.  In my room, the bed is the largest uninterrupted space.  If I keep it made every day, the largest space in the room stays free of clutter.  You can see I don’t do a lot with extra pillows, so making the bed each morning takes less than five minutes.  I make the bed, choose my clothes for the day and lay them on top, and then shower.  That way, it doesn’t hang over my head when I feel like I should already be on the go.  {You'll notice mine isn't perfect.  But it's done.}

Close the closet doors every time you’ve opened them.  And many times, even if you’re not the one who opened them.  No matter how organized your closet is, it gives the eye a lot more to look at.  The room looks simpler with the doors shut, and if you’ve decorated the room (like I haven’t yet—only a few months since we got into the house), keeping the doors closed keeps the focus on the atmosphere you’ve created.

Don’t use the tops of your dressers to store the mail.  Or anything else.  Decorate them however simply or detailed you want, but don’t put anything extra on the dressers in the room.  If the dresser tops are pretty—or at least neat—it’s another place in the room where your eyes find rest.  Right now, my dressers are a bit randomly decorated, but most of the surface is clear, so it helps the room keep a clean look.  Fresh flowers from the yard and garden in the summer are a nice touch.  {You'll see a sort of random gathering of items on mine.  1.  They're not totally random to me.  2.  I haven't really decided how to decorate our room yet because the non-neutral color they painted the house just before we moved in is throwing me off.}

Put your dirty clothes inside the laundry hamper inside the closet with the doors closed every day.  You really don’t want piles anywhere, and this  helps oh-so-much.  It feels easy to step out of clothes and into bed, but then there’s a pile to clean up the next morning.  Even if the pile takes thirty seconds to put away, it’s one more thing to do before you start the day.  {I haven't done this yet today...but I WILL!}