Quickly Organize A Messy Room in 5 Easy Steps

Learn How to Clean And Organize A Messy Room quickly and efficiently!

Cleaning and organizing can be overwhelming, even if you’re gung-ho and ready to jump in and get it done.

I’ve tried a lot of decluttering and cleaning. To be honest, I’ve spent a lot of time moving around but getting nowhere.

Yes, you can devote a whole day to cleaning and get very little done. But there’s hope! Below I share my proven method for cleaning and organizing a messy space quickly!

How to Quickly Clean A Messy Room – 5 Easy Steps

Step 1: Work when your energy level is high

I know that I have the most energy around 10 a.m., after my morning coffee — and that around 1 p.m. my energy slowly starts to fade. Figure out when your highest-energy point is in the day and tackle a messy room then.

Step 2: Pile It Up

Pile up the clutter I mean. This may seem counterintuitive, but the best way that I’ve found to clean a messy room is to make a mess of sorts.

Begin by searching around the room and gathering up everything that doesn’t belong there. I use the largest flat space in the room, like the kitchen island, the dining room table, or the bed! At this stage, you’re not organizing, you’re just putting all of the items that don’t belong in that room into one big pile!

Step 3: Tackle the pile

Next, take things one by one from your clutter pile—or by the basket full—to spots and rooms in the house where the items belong.

An example of this is the dreaded paperwork stack. If you have paperwork cluttering your kitchen counter, take it to its real home—the filing cabinet, your home office inbox, or the circular file, wherever the papers go. Just don’t get sidetracked and start organizing the file cabinet. Stay focused, tackle the file cabinet another day, and come back to the clutter pile.

This step should go quickly because you’re not organizing, you’re just moving things. Take everything from the clutter pile to the place where it belongs in the house until there is no more pile.

Step 4: Move on to Drawers, Closets, and Bins

Now that the surfaces in your room are clutter-free, it’s time to tackle the drawers, closets, cabinets, toy boxes, and bins in that room one by one.

If you’re cleaning up a big space like the basement, you may want to tackle one or two storage bins. That’s ok, do what you can and pick up where you left off at another time.

To clean a storage bin, closet, or cabinet, I use the same method. Everything comes out—shelves or bins get wiped down, and I make a separate pile for things that I will keep. Put items to donate in a box or bag to take to a local donation center.

If it’s a closet, take all the clothes out and lay them on your bed. Go through them and only put back what you love and will wear. I understand keeping dresses or suits for special occasions, but try them on to see if they still fit. If not, consider donating them.

Decluttering can be a very emotional process. For a little emotional support and ideas on what to keep and what to donate, check out my post 5 Easy Steps to Go from Pack Rat to Minimalist.

Step 5: Deep clean if you have time

At this point, your room should be clutter-free. Awesome job! Take time to give yourself kudos. You should feel a little tired but super excited now that you’ve regained control of your space.

You could stop here, but if you have time, add deep cleaning to the mix by moving furniture, vacuuming, dusting light fixtures, washing bedding, washing curtains (they get dusty too), and wiping down surfaces. Extra credit for wiping down walls, and cleaning windows and sills 🙂

Those are my five steps for cleaning and organizing a messy room! I know if you tackle one messy room at a time, you’ll feel so much better, and the air will even feel cleaner and lighter.

– MORE TO EXPLORE –

Propagation Station Ideas + Tips on Painting Interior Stairs + Spring Crafts