How to Clean Your Room

If you want to know how to clean your room without getting frustrated and wanting to give up, here's the place to find out how.  These tips can help anyone clean and organize their bedroom thoroughly - faster than you probably think.  It will take a couple of hours, especially the first time, but after that - it should be quicker every time.Your first paragraph ...

Nobody likes to clean their room - it can be overwhelming.  But - it always feels sooooooooo much better once it's done.  It always surprises me to discover how much happier and lighter I feel once my room is cleaned.  Learn how to clean your room today, and next time you will not feel so upset about it - but you will be able to get to it easily.

I have one tip before you start - get some music and work to music.  Music always makes everything go faster!

Almost every bedroom in the western world has the same stuff in it - garbage, clothes, papers, toys and furniture.  The furniture is normally similar for everyone too - a bed, desk, dresser, shelving and perhaps a bedside table.  If you have a lot of clothes, you might have more than one dresser.  As you think about how to clean your room, you need to think about the things you have in your room, and what they are supposed to be used for.  Most people can handle their rooms with just a few easy steps:

1.  bag garbage
2.  sort stuff
3.  return stuff to the kitchen, garage, bathroom etc.
4.  laundry
5.  clean
6.  put things away
7.  final vacuum

Step #1  Get Rid of Garbage

Obviously,  you don't want or need the garbage in your room, so the first step in how to clean your room is to start by bagging garbage.  Garbage includes old food, papers you don't need, candy wrappers, dirty tissues, anything broken that can't be fixed - you know - garbage!  If you start this before doing anything else you can get rid of a bunch of stuff right away - which means less to move around and sort later.  Once you have picked up everything you can see, empty your garbage can too ( you do have one - right?) and put the garbage bag in a corner.  You will probably find a few more items as you go along.

Step #2   Sort Your Stuff

One of the most important steps in how to clean your room is not the cleaning part - it is going through all the 'stuff' you accumulate.  In fact, it always takes way more time to take care of the stuff than to actually clean.

Take the junk out from under your bed and the floor of the closet where you stuffed it to make your parents think you actually cleaned your room.  Put it in a pile in the middle of the room and add anything lying on the floor, your bed, or your desk/dresser top. 

If you are desperate to get everything under control, dump out your drawers and empty your closet as well.  Put aside anything sharp or that could spill before you start dumping though!

After you have everything in a pile (you can put delicate items together on your dresser to keep them from getting broken), start sorting - like with like.  Try these categories for your piles:

Electronic Accesories (DVD's, CD's, game cartridges, connectors etc)
Books
Paperwork, including schoolwork
Clothes and bedding
Shoes
Toys
Stuff that belongs in other rooms (dishes, tools, stuff that belongs to other people)

If you do this at the start of your cleaning project, your will discover that the steps of how to clean your room are less overwhelming.

Step #3   Put Things Back in Other Rooms

Take everything that doesn't belong in your room and put things back where they belong - dishes in the sink or the dishwasher, tools in the toolbox/shed/garage, and your sister's hairbrush back in her room.

Step #4   Laundry

Take all the clothes and bedding pile and start washing them.  If you are 10 years old or more, you are old enough to wash your own clothes.  If you don't know how, ask someone who does, or find out how to do laundry here.  

Don't forget to sort your laundry so that it actually looks clean after all your hard work.  At least wash the very light colours and the bright or dark colours separately.

Step #5   Clean

This is the 'cleaning' part of how to clean your room. 

If you go back to your room now, there should be a lot less stuff there. This is the time to clean.  Wipe down all your furniture, including the shelves, tops, fronts and sides of your dresser, desk and bedside table.

I like to use a microfiber cloth and a pan of warm water.  If you don't have a microfiber cloth, then ask a parent for a cleaning cloth, a little dish soap, and a bucket or bowl of warm water.  If no one can find a cleaning cloth, just cut up an old white T-shirt.

Use only a small amount of dish soap (about 1 teaspoon) in the water - if you have too many suds, it will make everything look streaky, and you will have to rinse it - an extra step (and who needs extra work).  Wring it out before cleaning.  If you find sticky spots, wet them and let them sit for a few minutes while you clean something else.  By the time you get back to them - they should be easier to clean.  Rinse your cleaning cloth in the water whenever you see it get dirty, or if it starts leaving streaks - it will only hold so much dirt.

Use paper towel and a little water and white vinegar to clean your windows.  Clean windows make your whole room feel cleaner!  If you want more information on cleaning windows go to the section on how to clean windows.

Step #6    Put it Away

All your surfaces should be clean now, so as soon as they are dry you can put everything away.  

Here is the real trick to how to clean your room and keep it clean longer - don't keep more stuff than you actually need.  Most of us (adults and kids) have way too much stuff - and have to spend way too much time finding space for it, moving it around, and taking care of it.  Make a game of getting rid of as much as you can - "How much can I get out of here?".  Obviously you want to keep the things you use a lot.  Things that you don't use, but 'might have a use for one day' - can probably find a new home.  Stuff that was under your bed and in the closet that you never thought about or went looking for - that can go too.  You didn't miss it before, you won't miss it now.

Make a rule for yourself - that you will only keep as much stuff as you actually have room for.  If you don't have any more space in your bookcase for a book, donate a few old ones to the local hospital or thrift store. Same for everything else.

If you find more garbage - put it in the garbage bag.  If you need a second (or third) garbage bag - get one.  For stuff that is in good shape, but you don't really want or use anymore, put it in a bag or box to take to the local thrift store, give away, or sell at a garage sale. Do that with your clothes too. If you don't know what to do with this stuff, ask someone who does.

As your clothes are done in the laundry - do one of three or four things with them:

1.  Put good items away.
2.  Anything too small, that doesn't fit, or you plain old just never wear it - put aside to give away.
3.  Items with buttons to replace, or pants that need hemming etc - should be put aside for repair.
4.  Anything stained or otherwise ruined goes in the garbage.

Now that you know that basics steps of how to clean your room, if you are really feeling ambitious, (especially now that things are looking so much better) - go through your drawers and shelves and sort through them as well.  The less unnecessary stuff you have, the easier it will be to find and take care of the things you really love and use.

Step #7   Make the Bed and Vacuum the Floor. 

You're done!  Go do something fun, or go teach a friend how to clean their room!