How to Keep Your Room Clean
Pick up clothes from the floor and bed., Collect and take out garbage., Clear away plates and utensils., Wash your linens., Make the bed with fresh linens., Clean up your desk., Organize your night table., Organize your dresser., Organize your...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Pick up clothes from the floor and bed.
Clothes lying around on the floor, bed, and hanging over chairs can make even a clean room look dirty.
Collect clothes from around the room and sort them into a dirty and a clean pile.
Place dirty clothes in the laundry hamper.
Fold and put away clean clothes.Don’t forget to look under the bed, on the closet floor, and on top of furniture when you're collecting. -
Step 2: Collect and take out garbage.
When you're busy with work, school, and other things, it can be easy to let garbage pile up in your room.
Go around the room with a garbage bag and pick up wrappers, food, old papers, and any other trash you find around the room.When you’ve collected all the garbage, empty your bedroom garbage bin into the bag and take the bag down to wait for collection day. , Keeping plates, cups, and old food in your room can attract bugs, cause spills, and make your room messy.
Collect anything that belongs in the kitchen and take it downstairs to the sink or dishwasher.
Items to watch for include:
Plates and bowls Knives, forks, and spoons Glasses and mugs Food packets and food cans Food storage containers , Strip the comforter, sheets, and pillow cases from your bed.
Throw all washable linens into the hamper and take the linens to the laundry room for washing.
If you can do a load of laundry on your own, wash your linens in the washing machine using your regular cycle.
Otherwise, leave the linens for an adult to wash. , Grab a fresh set of linens for your bed, or wait until yours are washed and dried.
Put the fitted sheet on the mattress first, followed by the top sheet and any blankets you regularly use.
Put the pillow cases back on the pillows.
Put the pillows on the bed and pull the blanket, comforter, or duvet up and over the pillows. , Bedroom desks are magnets for messes because that’s probably where you read, do your school work, and spend time on the computer.
To tidy up your desk:
Pick up all the papers, notes, and other loose sheets that are lying around Organize and file your papers away.
Throw useless paper.
It is a great idea to Reuse paper in different ways.
Collect your pens, pencils, and other writing tools and store them in a cup, pencil case, or special drawer Put away any books or magazines that are lying around.
Give useless magazines to paper recycling centers. , Your night table is probably a dumping ground for anything you’re doing right before bed, like reading, listening to music, taking off accessories, and other stuff.
Clean off your night table and put away anything that doesn’t belong there.To keep your room looking clean and neat, store common bedside items, like tablets and books, inside the drawers of your night table rather than on top of it.
Keep the top of the night stand for some simple items, like a lamp or a single picture. , Your dresser may also be a dumping ground for books, toys, accessories, jewelry and knick-knacks.
Put jewelry back in a case or drawer, return books to the shelf, toss out garbage and junk that’s accumulated, put makeup back in the vanity or makeup case, and put accessories and other objects back where they belong., Closets tend to be where you throw everything that you don’t want to deal with right away, and now it’s time to address all those things.
Tidy up your shoes, hang up clothes, throw out junk, and organize the shelves., Use a duster or damp microfiber cloth to dust corners and wall joints, the ceiling fan, light fixtures, shelves, where the wall and ceiling meet, and all the furniture in your room.
As you dust, pick up objects that are obstructing your work, such as a lamp on the dresser, and dust underneath them., Use a vacuum to suck up dirt and dust from a carpeted floor, or use a broom or vacuum to clean up a tiled or wood floor.
Use special attachments on the vacuum to clean the corners where the floor and wall meet, the baseboards, and other cracks and crevices.
Don’t forget to move furniture so that you can clean under and behind the bed, dresser, and desk., Spray the mirror with window cleaner, or with a solution of one part vinegar and three parts water.
Use a clean microfiber cloth to wipe the mirror dry.
Repeat with all the interior windows in the room, and any dusty or dirty picture frames., One of the most important things you can do to keep your room clean is making your bed every morning when you wake up.
Straighten the top sheet and tuck it under your pillows.
Straighten and fluff your pillows.
Straighten the blanket or comforter and pull it up and over your pillows.Once your room has been thoroughly cleaned, keeping it clean is the simple part.
It’s all about doing a few things every day, like making your bed, to maintain the cleanliness. , Many people like to change into comfy clothes when they get home after a long day at school or work.
When you do this, hang up your coat, throw dirty clothes in the hamper, and fold and put away clean clothes that you're going to wear again.After a long day, it can be tempting to come home and just throw your coat and clothes on the floor or bed.
But if you want to keep your room clean after all that hard work, you have to put your clothes away. , Never leave dirty clothes on the floor, on the bed, or lying around in the bathroom or laundry room.
When you take off dirty clothes, throw them right into the hamper.To make this job easier, consider leaving a few laundry hampers around the house in areas where you regularly change, like in the bathroom, in your closet, and near your dresser. , It can be just as easy to leave your clean laundry piled in a basket instead of putting it away.
But again, this will quickly lead to a messy room, and it'll cause wrinkles in your clothes.
When your clothes are fresh from the dryer, fold them neatly and put them away, or hang them back in the closet., Having food in your room can attract bugs, cause spills, leave crumbs all over the place, and lead to a buildup of plates and cups in your room.
Instead, make your room a food-free zone, and do all your eating and snacking in the kitchen.
Take plates, cups, utensils, and food waste back to the kitchen immediately if you ever do eat in your room. , One of the biggest contributors to a messy room is having too much stuff.
To prevent this, go through all your things, including clothes, toys, accessories, and other items and decide what you want to keep and what you want to sell, donate, or throw away.To help you decide what to keep and what to get rid of, ask yourself what items you haven't used or worn in over a year.
If you haven't used something in over a year, there's a good chance you can get rid of it without missing it.
Good items to sell or donate include clothes, toys, shoes, and books.
Only throw things out if they're broken, have holes, or can't be reused or recycled. , When you have stuff that you don’t have a place for, you tend to just leave things lying around, because there's no special spot where you can put it back when you tidy up.
Go over each item in your room and make sure each one has its own special spot.Use baskets or other storage containers to keep extra stuff organized if you don’t have a spot for it.
Create a random drawer in your desk or dresser for small objects that have no fixed place. , Once everything has a special spot in your room, tidying up will be easy, because you'll know where everything goes.
Here are some ideas for putting things back:
Put books and magazines back on the shelf when you're done reading them Hang up clothes in the closet when you're done wearing them Put toys back in the drawer or on the shelf when you're done playing File away papers and notes in a drawer or binder when you don’t need them Return office items, like pens and paper clips, in the desk drawer when you're done , Keeping your room clean is about getting into a good routine, and there are some things you should be doing every day.
Make a list of these daily chores, and post the list somewhere visible.
Set aside about 10 minutes every day to address these cleaning tasks.
Daily chores should include:
Making the bed Putting away clothes Tidying up toys, papers, and other items Throwing out garbage , On top of your daily chores, there are other cleaning tasks you should address regularly.
Make a list of all those tasks, and make a schedule where you tackle a different weekly cleaning task each day of the week.Here's a sample list:
Monday: vacuum and dust Tuesday: strip the bed and wash the linens Wednesday: wash, dry, fold, and put away laundry Thursday: clean the mirrors and windows Friday: take out the trash Saturday: tidy up the desk, dresser, and night table Sunday: clean and organize the closet , Pull the blankets, top sheet, fitted sheet, pillow cases, and other linens from your bed.
Throw them in the hamper and take them to the laundry room for washing.
It’s important to wash your linens weekly to control dust, dirt, and other allergens., It can be easy to just let the dirty laundry pile up for weeks.
However, keeping your room clean means staying on top of dirty laundry.
As soon as you have a full hamper or enough for a load of laundry, get to the laundry room and wash a load. , Garbage is another reason rooms get messy quickly.
To stop this from happening, keep a garbage bin in your room, either beside the bed or desk, and make sure you always throw trash out rather than leaving it lying around.
As soon as the garbage can is full, take it to the garage or shed until collection day. , Use a damp microfiber cloth to dust all the surfaces in your room, including furniture, fixtures, fans, pictures, shelves, and tables.
Vacuum the floors and baseboards to suck up dirt and dust.
If you have pets or allergies, vacuum and dust two to three times a week. , Ignoring your cleaning duties for just a few days can create an overwhelming list of chores.
Before you know it, your room will be messy again and you'll have a major cleaning job on your hands.
Once you create your daily and weekly cleaning schedules, keep to it to make sure your good cleaning habits sink in and stick.
If you miss a day of cleaning for whatever reason, address the chores you missed as soon as possible the next day to prevent duties and messes from building up. -
Step 3: Clear away plates and utensils.
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Step 4: Wash your linens.
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Step 5: Make the bed with fresh linens.
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Step 6: Clean up your desk.
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Step 7: Organize your night table.
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Step 8: Organize your dresser.
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Step 9: Organize your closet.
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Step 10: Dust everything.
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Step 11: Vacuum the floor.
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Step 12: Clean the windows and mirrors.
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Step 13: Make your bed every day.
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Step 14: Hang up your clothes when you get home.
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Step 15: Put dirty clothes right into the laundry basket.
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Step 16: Put away clean laundry immediately.
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Step 17: Don’t eat in your room.
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Step 18: Purge clutter regularly.
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Step 19: Find a place for everything.
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Step 20: Return things to their rightful place when you're done with them.
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Step 21: Make a list of daily chores.
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Step 22: Create a cleaning schedule for weekly chores.
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Step 23: Wash your linens weekly.
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Step 24: Do laundry as soon as you have a full load.
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Step 25: Keep a garbage can in your room and use it.
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Step 26: Vacuum and dust weekly.
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Step 27: Don’t put off cleaning.
Detailed Guide
Clothes lying around on the floor, bed, and hanging over chairs can make even a clean room look dirty.
Collect clothes from around the room and sort them into a dirty and a clean pile.
Place dirty clothes in the laundry hamper.
Fold and put away clean clothes.Don’t forget to look under the bed, on the closet floor, and on top of furniture when you're collecting.
When you're busy with work, school, and other things, it can be easy to let garbage pile up in your room.
Go around the room with a garbage bag and pick up wrappers, food, old papers, and any other trash you find around the room.When you’ve collected all the garbage, empty your bedroom garbage bin into the bag and take the bag down to wait for collection day. , Keeping plates, cups, and old food in your room can attract bugs, cause spills, and make your room messy.
Collect anything that belongs in the kitchen and take it downstairs to the sink or dishwasher.
Items to watch for include:
Plates and bowls Knives, forks, and spoons Glasses and mugs Food packets and food cans Food storage containers , Strip the comforter, sheets, and pillow cases from your bed.
Throw all washable linens into the hamper and take the linens to the laundry room for washing.
If you can do a load of laundry on your own, wash your linens in the washing machine using your regular cycle.
Otherwise, leave the linens for an adult to wash. , Grab a fresh set of linens for your bed, or wait until yours are washed and dried.
Put the fitted sheet on the mattress first, followed by the top sheet and any blankets you regularly use.
Put the pillow cases back on the pillows.
Put the pillows on the bed and pull the blanket, comforter, or duvet up and over the pillows. , Bedroom desks are magnets for messes because that’s probably where you read, do your school work, and spend time on the computer.
To tidy up your desk:
Pick up all the papers, notes, and other loose sheets that are lying around Organize and file your papers away.
Throw useless paper.
It is a great idea to Reuse paper in different ways.
Collect your pens, pencils, and other writing tools and store them in a cup, pencil case, or special drawer Put away any books or magazines that are lying around.
Give useless magazines to paper recycling centers. , Your night table is probably a dumping ground for anything you’re doing right before bed, like reading, listening to music, taking off accessories, and other stuff.
Clean off your night table and put away anything that doesn’t belong there.To keep your room looking clean and neat, store common bedside items, like tablets and books, inside the drawers of your night table rather than on top of it.
Keep the top of the night stand for some simple items, like a lamp or a single picture. , Your dresser may also be a dumping ground for books, toys, accessories, jewelry and knick-knacks.
Put jewelry back in a case or drawer, return books to the shelf, toss out garbage and junk that’s accumulated, put makeup back in the vanity or makeup case, and put accessories and other objects back where they belong., Closets tend to be where you throw everything that you don’t want to deal with right away, and now it’s time to address all those things.
Tidy up your shoes, hang up clothes, throw out junk, and organize the shelves., Use a duster or damp microfiber cloth to dust corners and wall joints, the ceiling fan, light fixtures, shelves, where the wall and ceiling meet, and all the furniture in your room.
As you dust, pick up objects that are obstructing your work, such as a lamp on the dresser, and dust underneath them., Use a vacuum to suck up dirt and dust from a carpeted floor, or use a broom or vacuum to clean up a tiled or wood floor.
Use special attachments on the vacuum to clean the corners where the floor and wall meet, the baseboards, and other cracks and crevices.
Don’t forget to move furniture so that you can clean under and behind the bed, dresser, and desk., Spray the mirror with window cleaner, or with a solution of one part vinegar and three parts water.
Use a clean microfiber cloth to wipe the mirror dry.
Repeat with all the interior windows in the room, and any dusty or dirty picture frames., One of the most important things you can do to keep your room clean is making your bed every morning when you wake up.
Straighten the top sheet and tuck it under your pillows.
Straighten and fluff your pillows.
Straighten the blanket or comforter and pull it up and over your pillows.Once your room has been thoroughly cleaned, keeping it clean is the simple part.
It’s all about doing a few things every day, like making your bed, to maintain the cleanliness. , Many people like to change into comfy clothes when they get home after a long day at school or work.
When you do this, hang up your coat, throw dirty clothes in the hamper, and fold and put away clean clothes that you're going to wear again.After a long day, it can be tempting to come home and just throw your coat and clothes on the floor or bed.
But if you want to keep your room clean after all that hard work, you have to put your clothes away. , Never leave dirty clothes on the floor, on the bed, or lying around in the bathroom or laundry room.
When you take off dirty clothes, throw them right into the hamper.To make this job easier, consider leaving a few laundry hampers around the house in areas where you regularly change, like in the bathroom, in your closet, and near your dresser. , It can be just as easy to leave your clean laundry piled in a basket instead of putting it away.
But again, this will quickly lead to a messy room, and it'll cause wrinkles in your clothes.
When your clothes are fresh from the dryer, fold them neatly and put them away, or hang them back in the closet., Having food in your room can attract bugs, cause spills, leave crumbs all over the place, and lead to a buildup of plates and cups in your room.
Instead, make your room a food-free zone, and do all your eating and snacking in the kitchen.
Take plates, cups, utensils, and food waste back to the kitchen immediately if you ever do eat in your room. , One of the biggest contributors to a messy room is having too much stuff.
To prevent this, go through all your things, including clothes, toys, accessories, and other items and decide what you want to keep and what you want to sell, donate, or throw away.To help you decide what to keep and what to get rid of, ask yourself what items you haven't used or worn in over a year.
If you haven't used something in over a year, there's a good chance you can get rid of it without missing it.
Good items to sell or donate include clothes, toys, shoes, and books.
Only throw things out if they're broken, have holes, or can't be reused or recycled. , When you have stuff that you don’t have a place for, you tend to just leave things lying around, because there's no special spot where you can put it back when you tidy up.
Go over each item in your room and make sure each one has its own special spot.Use baskets or other storage containers to keep extra stuff organized if you don’t have a spot for it.
Create a random drawer in your desk or dresser for small objects that have no fixed place. , Once everything has a special spot in your room, tidying up will be easy, because you'll know where everything goes.
Here are some ideas for putting things back:
Put books and magazines back on the shelf when you're done reading them Hang up clothes in the closet when you're done wearing them Put toys back in the drawer or on the shelf when you're done playing File away papers and notes in a drawer or binder when you don’t need them Return office items, like pens and paper clips, in the desk drawer when you're done , Keeping your room clean is about getting into a good routine, and there are some things you should be doing every day.
Make a list of these daily chores, and post the list somewhere visible.
Set aside about 10 minutes every day to address these cleaning tasks.
Daily chores should include:
Making the bed Putting away clothes Tidying up toys, papers, and other items Throwing out garbage , On top of your daily chores, there are other cleaning tasks you should address regularly.
Make a list of all those tasks, and make a schedule where you tackle a different weekly cleaning task each day of the week.Here's a sample list:
Monday: vacuum and dust Tuesday: strip the bed and wash the linens Wednesday: wash, dry, fold, and put away laundry Thursday: clean the mirrors and windows Friday: take out the trash Saturday: tidy up the desk, dresser, and night table Sunday: clean and organize the closet , Pull the blankets, top sheet, fitted sheet, pillow cases, and other linens from your bed.
Throw them in the hamper and take them to the laundry room for washing.
It’s important to wash your linens weekly to control dust, dirt, and other allergens., It can be easy to just let the dirty laundry pile up for weeks.
However, keeping your room clean means staying on top of dirty laundry.
As soon as you have a full hamper or enough for a load of laundry, get to the laundry room and wash a load. , Garbage is another reason rooms get messy quickly.
To stop this from happening, keep a garbage bin in your room, either beside the bed or desk, and make sure you always throw trash out rather than leaving it lying around.
As soon as the garbage can is full, take it to the garage or shed until collection day. , Use a damp microfiber cloth to dust all the surfaces in your room, including furniture, fixtures, fans, pictures, shelves, and tables.
Vacuum the floors and baseboards to suck up dirt and dust.
If you have pets or allergies, vacuum and dust two to three times a week. , Ignoring your cleaning duties for just a few days can create an overwhelming list of chores.
Before you know it, your room will be messy again and you'll have a major cleaning job on your hands.
Once you create your daily and weekly cleaning schedules, keep to it to make sure your good cleaning habits sink in and stick.
If you miss a day of cleaning for whatever reason, address the chores you missed as soon as possible the next day to prevent duties and messes from building up.
About the Author
George Ferguson
Brings years of experience writing about cooking and related subjects.
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