Slow and Gentle Decluttering |02 Bedroom and Clothes

Is your home feeling cluttered and overwhelming? Do you feel like you don’t know where to start? You have come to the right place.

Apr 27, 2025

The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t. —Joshua Becker

Hello my friend

Decluttering is very close to my heart and has played a key part in how I have simplified my life thus far. As you are here with me right now I am guessing that this is something that you want to explore too?

You are so very welcome to come along on this wonderfully freeing journey of clearing our space, both our physical and mental space.

We will explore the process of decluttering and organizing our homes together and at a nice calming and slow, but structured pace. No point rushing through this, right?

If you are new here, welcome, you can find part one here. If you are not already subscribed please consider doing so to receive future publications straight to your in-box.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional declutter. Everything I share with you today is based on my own knowledge and experience from decluttering my own home to enable me to live a more simplified and slower life. My only wish is to pass on some of my experience to help you on your own decluttering journey.

Before we get going, how did you get on with last months tasks of finding your why and setting your intentions? Did you do any of the journal prompts?

So, are we ready to begin clearing out our clutter?

For the next month we will be working on our bedrooms and clothes.

Remember, work through this at your own pace, there is no rush. It’s a journey so enjoy the ride.

First of all we need to define our space.

What do you want your bedroom to represent? How do you want the room to feel? How do you want to live in the space?

Perhaps you want your bedroom to give you a sense of peace and tranquillity when you walk in. You might want to encourage better sleep patterns.

Russian Blue cat sleeping on whit textile — Photo by Alexander Possingham on Unsplash

Your bedroom might also serve a dual purpose room. Perhaps your home office is set up in a corner of your bedroom, or your gym equipment. It might also be the place where you store all your bed and bath linens and your beauty and personal hygiene products.
For the purpose of this months task if you have a dual use bedroom, we will be focussing just on the bedroom, linens and hygiene/beauty products.
We will cover your office space next month.

Take a few moments to think about what you want from your bedroom and the mood you would like to create as this will be your guiding light as we go through this process.

white bed with gray and white bed linen — Photo by Spacejoy on Unsplash

Ok, are we ready to start?

First things first - put on some happy music, music that raises you up, music that makes you sing. Don’t worry about the neighbours 😉.

Have a quick look around your bedroom and remove anything that doesn’t belong there. Perhaps a dirty mug from this mornings cuppa in bed. Empty the bin if you have one. Books or paperwork piled up.

When sorting, create three piles keep, donate and discard. At the end of the process make sure that anything in the donate or discard piles are removed from your home as soon as possible. Putting them to one side can result in them making their way back in.

Clothing and Shoes

If you have room, gather all of your clothes and shoes together in one place. I find using the bed to be a good place. If not, work through drawer by drawer or rail by rail depending on your storage options.

When going through each item of clothing or pair of shoes ask yourself the following questions.

Does it fit? Perhaps it’s too small, too big. Can these go?
Do I have duplicates. Do I need more than one?
Do I have clothes or shoes that no longer align with my current style or phase of life?
Do I still like wearing that colour?
Is it something I really need?
Is it looking worn, or in need of repair? If it’s an item you really love then consider repairing before it goes back into your wardrobe or drawer.

Jewellery

Jewellery is a very personal category and often sentimental but it’s worth going through each item. Perhaps you have costume jewellery you wore as a teenager. Consider if you intend to wear the item again. Maybe it’s time to let go or give to a family member who will get some joy out of wearing the piece.

Bags

Collect all of your bags together in one place. For each bag ask yourself if you still use it and if so, for what purpose. Can another bag that you use regularly serve the same purpose. If you have several colours that go with varying items of clothing, consider keeping just neutral ones that go with anything and everything.

Personal Hygiene and beauty products

Whilst going through our hygiene and beauty products check if the item is still in date and if you still use it. It’s quite common to bulk buy on things like shampoos and shower gels etc so it is worth going through these.

With make up, is it a colour that you still wear and is it still useable and in date?

Bath and bed linens

As a rule of thumb we don’t really need more than two bath towels and two hand towels per person in the household. Same with bed linens. One in use and one in the wash. This is entirely up to you of course, but think about this as you go through each of your towels and sheets as they are quite bulky to store.

Knick knacks, soft toys and pictures

These categories can make a room feel cluttered as they are visible, but I’m sure there will be an element of sentimentality to some of them.

Reduce them down as much as you feel able to.

Consider the vision for your bedroom as you go through each one item. If you want a room than induces a good nights sleep ask yourself if the item hinders or supports that vision.

If you want to keep an item perhaps think about whether it would be better suited to a different room in your home if it doesn’t suit the purpose of your bedroom.

Books

If, like me you have a lot of books, you will likely have some in your bedroom too.

Parr down your books if you can. Donate any that no longer serve you or no longer interest you.

For those that you want to keep do you have a designated space for your books? If you don’t, relocate them to their normal place and maybe just keep the one(s) you are reading on your bedside cabinet.

a stack of books sitting on top of a bed next to a lamp — Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Here is a useful checklist for you to use if you wish to go through your belongings category by category -

Tops
Bottoms
Dresses
Coats
Socks
Underwear
Shoes
Swimwear
Costumes
Bags/Purses
Jewellery
Accessories (Ties/hats/gloves/scarves etc)
Books
Knick-knacks
Pictures
Soft toys
Personal hygiene products
Beauty products
Bath linens
Bed Linens

If you prefer to work through your possessions by location here’s a checklist for you.

Wardrobes
Chest of Drawers
Bedside cabinets
Blanket box
Under bed storage
Anything that is on the floor
Shelves
Drawers that store miscellaneous items

Sorting and Organising

You can do this as you go through each section or category, or it can be left to the end. All depends on how much room you have to play with and your own personal needs.

Give your room a deep clean first. Clean the cupboards, drawers etc.

When it comes to storing clothes I am a fan of Marie Kondo’s folding method. It was a game changer for me. So much space can be saved using her process. If you have hanging space and drawers you may want to consider this method.

Use hanging space for delicate items only, items that crease easily, dresses and shirts etc.
Use drawers or wardrobe shelves for everything else.
Take a look at the following short video for some of the folding techniques I use.

TOP TIP: When putting your hanging clothes back in the wardrobe, put the hangers the opposite way round to how you normally hang them. As you wear each item put them back the “right” way. After say, a year down the line you still have items that are turned round the opposite way, it’s likely that you won’t wear that item again any time soon, so you could perhaps discard it. This is a great way of maintaining control over the amount of clothes you own. It’s also a good way of identifying what you enjoy wearing and learning your style too.

If the bags you’ve kept are of varying sizes, consider storing them one inside another.

In the decluttering process you may have some empty boxes to discard. If they are small enough can they be used as storage dividers in your drawers? Suitable boxes are very handy for storing make up and personal hygiene products. They enable your items to be visible too so you can easily find what you are looking for.

Utilise space under your bed if necessary with clear storage boxes so you can easily see what you have. This is ideal for seasonal clothing like bulky jumpers.

Consider where you display any knick-knacks, soft toys and pictures. For example you could create a gallery wall so that all of your pictures are in one place rather than scattered.

white bed linen on bed — Photo by Spacejoy on Unsplash

We have now come to the end of sorting our bedrooms and our clothes. How do you feel? Do you feel freer, does your room feel lighter? No difference? I am excited to know how this process has been for you.

Remember, this isn’t a race, go at a pace that suits you and your lifestyle. If you only have 15 minutes a day to spare that’s fine. Just work on one drawer or one rail. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in 15 minutes.

Donating and Discarding

Now that our bedrooms have been decluttered and our remaining belongings have been given a permanent home we now need to consider how to dispose of the items we want to get rid of.

Donate all of the good items to charity if you can, or if you have friends or family that would like them. There are also donation websites you can use.

Another option is to sell your discarded belongings, but I recommend caution as there is a possibility you could be holding onto the items longer than you might like if they don’t sell quickly.

Discard only what cannot be used or donated. If you have a crafty friend, maybe they can recycle or mend and pass on.

Please discard responsibly.