I have cleaned my room sometime at the beginning of this year and I am telling you, it was the first great decision of this year – everything is where it should be, I can work faster and more efficiently and what is more: I don’t lose time on finding things that I urgently need for something.
What is a clean room?
I don’t think you need to know what a clean room is, but at one point even I was questioning that while cleaning.
It is a place where you feel that everything is in order, and you don’t have to worry about your environment that much. Also, it i giving you the benefit of knowing where everything is, therefore saving your time in the future. There are countless benefits of clean room, just clean a part of your bedroom and you will see yourself.
At the end of the day, everybody has different opinion on the level of tidiness of a room, it all boils down to you and you alone – you are the one living in your bedroom, so you should decide when the room is organized, otherwise you will spend your time on useless cleaning that wasn’t necessary in the first place.
Before you start
As the saying goes, it is always better to think before you do. These 3 steps can help you to create a quick plan. Just remember that doing is almost every time better than planning, so don’t spend too much time on this.
1. Think where you will put things that aren’t needed to be in your room anymore
Trust me, you don’t want to think about it while being in the middle of a mess you made before. You won’t be able to think clearly at that point and also might get into decision paralysis because you won’t know what to do first.
It can be anywhere, really, it just depends where you live. Some may put it in attic, others in basement., even wardrobe will do. (Or any other seldom used room.) The important thing is you have a place where to put everything you need at some point in the near future.
2. Get something to store your stuff
For example plastic boxes, which I used personally, or just trash bags will do. It doesn’t matter what you use, just keep in mind you need to get it out of your room, otherwise it will be full of useless things forever, therefore making your room messy (forever).
Funny thing is, while cleaning you might find some boxes in the process, or anything else that can help you move everything around. It happened to me actually, I found 3 plastic boxes in a place that I wouldn’t even think of while finding them.
3. Prioritize what must be cleaned first
You might just about now say that everything must be cleaned in this exact moment, which is simply false. Use 80/20 rule to help you decide. This rule states that 20% of causes do 80% of outcomes, so to translate, 20% of your energy will clean 80% of your room. The other 80% of your energy will be used by cleaning little bits of something, perfecting the clean or just moving things that could have stayed in their original place. So, if are you cleaning the other 20% of your room while using majority of your energy means you might have fallen to a perfectionism trap. Beware of that, it is not worth it.
Analyse and implement
After getting an idea which part of your room deserves the first priority, you should think about a place to put things, which are not used daily. However, what shall be considered useless, once-in-a-while and daily used stuff?
4. Divide “mess” by how often you use it, then clean it
That might be easier said than done, however I will give you some rules I used while cleaning my room personally, based on frequency of use:
| Frequency of use | Where to put it |
| Every single day | On your table or in main drawer |
| Weekly / every second day | In your drawer or on a shelf |
| Once a month | In your wardrobe, or similiar place |
| Less than once a quarter of a year | Other rooms (attic, basement, garage etc.) / sell it |
| Never | Throw it out or sell it, do not hesitate to do so! |
| Memories / trophies | Special case, see below |
Memories are special case: it is hard to decide which memory to let go of or which one to hold until our very last moment. This is the important thought: sometimes, we need to let go of something we once liked, loved and mainly made us feel pain. If you decide to keep some, create a special place for them, for example a briefcase, like I did.
Of course, some things may be used as decorations and these rules should be used while considering this. Example are books, which look good on shelves, but are used once a year or never, and trophies, which aren’t practical, but can be considered as memories, so definitely keep them!
You can always sell stuff, please remember that. I am planning on doing so on a greater scale, as during this summer I am going to do a huge house clean up and get rid of or sell many unused things. Not only everything will be clean, I will also get some money on top of that (a good deal).
5. Try moving your furniture
If you really want to feel that your room is perfectly clean and new, try moving some furniture around. It always helps because it feels new to us, and we psychologically think that “new” means clean. Added to that, you will be more satisfied with your clean up overall at the end of the day.
Last things to add
Personally I think it is about the feeling of living in a clean environment and having majority of stuff efficiently organized. Speaking of environment, you can read here how deeply it influences you.
My last advice is to really understand the importance of “not holding onto possessions you no longer need”, a quote by Myamoto Musashi, regarded as the best samurai to ever live. This is the quote that inspired me to throw many things away while cleaning and helped me to formulate this blog. This, I think, is the quote you should have in mind while cleaning your room.
