5 min readMarch is a good time to start organizing and decluttering your home. This month is often associated with “spring cleaning,” and for those of us coming out of a bitterly cold, snow-laden winter, the warmer weather gives us the energy and motivation we need to finally tackle some projects. With any big tidying-up task, the question is where to start, and we think the best place is the bedroom. Laura Ellis, founder of Organized by Ellis, agrees, saying, “March is the perfect time to reset your bedroom for better sleep. The light, time, and weather all change at this time of year, and any one of those shifts can disturb our sleep.”
While time and weather are beyond our control, we can take ownership of creating a calmer, cleaner environment in our bedroom. “Now is the perfect time to edit your bedroom—let go of clothes you don’t wear, mismatched linens, and half-empty products on your nightstand. When you remove what you don’t truly use or love, you create space not just physically, but mentally,” says SPIFF founder Jenna Haefelin. “Your brain processes your environment even while you sleep, so a calmer, more intentional bedroom often leads to deeper, more consistent rest,” adds Kenika Williams, founder of Tidied by K. “Think of your bedroom less as storage space and more as a recovery zone designed to support quality sleep.”
Are you ready for more restorative sleep and a much cleaner bedroom for the season ahead? If that’s a yes, follow the smart advice from our favorite pro organizers below.
Don’t Buy Anything This Month for Your Bedroom
That is, until you declutter. Take a look around your space and identify any items that don’t belong and what needs tidying up: perhaps that pile of wires in the corner needs its own storage box?
“Remove everything that doesn't serve you in that space,” says Jessica Litman, founder of The Organized Mama. “Sometimes you have things that don't belong in your bedroom, like a kitchen pot—yes, this did actually happen to me when I was organizing in-home clients—so declutter the space by placing that item back where it belongs!” Less visual junk equals better sleep at night.
Make Your Bed Every Morning
If you don’t already make your bed every morning, you should. According to Litman, this quick task in the morning will encourage you to keep clutter off the bed. That feeling of looking down at your tucked-in sheets and fluffed-out duvet will give you a serotonin boost in the a.m., while at night, you have a pristine, clean spot to relax on for your wind-down routine.
Designate a Spot for Your “Worn but Not Dirty Enough for the Hamper” Clothes
Everyone has faced this conundrum: the sweater and jeans you wore for a few hours on an errand feel too dirty to put back in the closet with your clean clothes, but not dirty enough to toss into the hamper. These garments inevitably end up on a chair, draped across your Peloton bike, or sitting on your bedroom bench for weeks.
All this visual clutter can contribute to poor sleep at night. “Chairs, benches, and corners [can] become clothing magnets. Anything visible from the bed subconsciously signals unfinished tasks to the brain,” says Williams. To address the issue ASAP, Litman suggests getting an “in-between clothing basket” to contain all those pieces. You can also hang clothes behind your bedroom door, which is a good designated spot, so they’re not all over your floor and bed.
Remove “Daytime Energy” Items
What are “daytime energy” items? According to our pros, they can be work-related items like laptops and phones, piles of books, work documents, boxes on the floor, or children’s toys that somehow ended up on your pillow. “Bedrooms should cue relaxation, not responsibility,” says Williams.
Meanwhile, Ellis notes that charging devices near the bed is known to disrupt sleep cycles, so move your electronics farther away, or, if you can, totally out of the room. (Getting a Hatch alarm clock or a similar item can reduce your reliance on phone alarms.)
Tidy Up Your Nightstand or Dresser
The surfaces of these furniture pieces often become dumping grounds for everything, from earrings to lotions to scrunchies. “It’s the first place you see every morning and the last thing you see before you go to sleep. It should bring you peace and structure, not stress,” says Janelle Lam, founder of Straighten Up by Janelle and Straighten Up Home. “I suggest taking everything out, adding dividers or baskets (depending on the structure of your furniture), and then putting away just the essentials.”
“Only keep what you actually reach for at night: a book, a quality eye mask, earplugs, and a lavender spray are recommended go-to essentials for a restful night,” Ellis echoes. “Remove any clutter that doesn’t belong in your sleep zone and use drawer organizers in your nightstand to hold sleep-time essentials. These containers create definition and boundaries in the space, making it more difficult for clutter to return.”
Similarly, Haefelin says keeping a vintage tray on your dresser for perfumes and daily accessories can help create structure if you need to keep these pieces in your bedroom. “[A simple tray] can style your space while creating a storage space,” she adds.
Invest in Under-Bed Storage
While many of our pros advise keeping the floors cleared and non-sleep essentials out of the bedroom, when your home is short on storage, you have to make use of every inch you get—and this includes keeping miscellaneous items under the bed. If you can, opt for a bed with storage underneath (our editor loves this one), but otherwise, Haefelin says invest in chic under-bed storage. “This keeps off-season pieces out of sight but beautifully contained, which instantly creates breathing room,” she adds.
Do a Five-Minute Tidy Every Evening After Dinner
The morning rush is real, so if your bedroom took a beating that day, simply take a quick moment after dinner to clean up the space. “The five-minute tidy in your bedroom returns the space to a sleep-ready haven. This reset creates a calm atmosphere and signals to your brain that this space is for rest,” says Ellis.
This tip works well, too, when your bedroom looks a bit cluttered after a week or two of neglect (life happens!). Worry not. Instead of feeling like you need to dedicate a whole weekend to organizing, just take five minutes every evening to tidy up what you can. Maybe it’s putting away the clean clothes in the laundry basket, returning your suitcase to storage, donating that bag of clothes in the corner, or something as simple as bringing back your contact case to the bathroom.
