How to Improve a Bedroom

When someone says it is time to redo or improve a bedroom, there are several main objectives. One common desire is to eliminate the clutter. Another way to improve a bedroom is to add storage space - though this does not always eliminate the cluttered and busy look of a bedroom. Some projects focus on the desire to turn a bedroom back into a peaceful oasis conducive to sleep. What cost-effective solutions help you achieve these objectives?

• Hang cargo nets or storage nets from the corners above the child’s bed to hold them all stuffed animals except for his or her favorite few.
• Go through your reading stack by the bed. If you haven’t read it in six months, put it on the book shelf or add it to a stack to donate to charity.
• Place trash bins in unused corners, especially places where small items and paper tend to accumulate.
• If you have a problem with small blankets, comforters and pillows piling up on the bed, get a hope chest. Blankets and pillows can be tossed into it when not in use and easily retrieved when desired.
• Place thin, multipurpose storage bins under the bed. Then actually use them. Don’t purchase shoe bins and fitted storage containers that can’t be re-purposed as your needs change.

• Before you redo a room to refresh it, strip the bed to the mattress, take all of it to a laundry mat and have it washed and dried. The feeling that the room is dreary and claustrophobic may just be the dirt and mildew in the bedding.
• Instead of repainting the room, simply strip the walls down to the underlying wall. Remove the posters and fill in the pin holes with spackle. Take down the pictures. Use the room for a few nights with just the bare walls. You may have wanted to repaint the room to give it a new look. Instead, enjoy the bare canvas. Notice where your eyes go and the specific items you want to see, such as a favorite family photo. Replace those few items. The rest can go into storage or be given away. The solution may have been a visual de-cluttering instead of a total redo.
• Get rid of the chairs that are accumulating old clothing. Replace them with a laundry basket. The room will look less messy, and you’ll do laundry more often.
• Place a toybox in every room where your child regularly leaves toys laying about. It does not have to be a large toy box - large plastic bins are sufficient. If your children have a toy box in their rooms, require them to put toys in the toy box before starting another activity. Or require the children to pick up their toys before they can go outside to play. Even toddlers can learn to pick up the items in their rooms.

• Get rid of the TV. Either move the TV to another room, or promise never to watch TV on a device while in bed. When you watch TV in bed, its light interferes with your circadian rhythms, making it harder to sleep. And one partner watching TV in bed will interfere with the other’s sleep. Take the TV out of your children’s bedroom. It interferes with their ability to sleep, parents cannot adequately supervise what they are watching late at night, and those with a TV in their rooms watch far more TV each day to the detriment of their grades.
• Eliminate the clutter from end tables and stands next to the bed. It should only hold a clock, a light and perhaps a holding place for one’s glasses or contacts. If there is a pile of clutter next to the bed, it is harder to put aside thoughts of things to do before going to sleep and you may have to dig around in the pile for important items.
• Move the charging station to an area away from the bed so that the lights of the electronic do not keep you awake at night.
• Put heavy drapes and/or solar screens on bedroom windows so that headlights and city lights won’t keep you up.
• Move the desk away from the bed. It is hard to sleep with such a visceral reminder of the work you need to do so close to the bed.

• Make a habit of putting electronics into sleep mode when you put them onto the charger or turning them off.
• If you have a work space in your bedroom, either segregate it with a cubicle wall or move it to another room altogether. It is hard to sleep if you have the temptation to stay up late working.
• Consider removing the land-line phone from your bedroom so that late night calls don’t wake you up.
• Remove a lot of the decorations from the walls. A quiet, boring room is more conducive to falling asleep.