Hello, friends! Welcome to Day 11 of our “Organize Your Entire Home in 20 Days” series! We are officially on the downhill slope of having your entire home nice and neat.
We’re going to change things up a little for today’s project, instead of focusing on one room, we’re going to tackle two in one day!
No worries, though! The two rooms we’re going to organize today are the guest bedroom and bathroom, two rooms that aren’t used too often and won’t take too much time to get them looking great.
Since a guest bedroom and bathroom are typically in close proximity to each other and don’t house a lot of items in them, we’re going to treat these two spaces as one room, just two different zones.
The first step to organizing is to gather all of the items in the room together.
That means anything and everything that is in a drawer, cabinet, dresser or closet, pull it out and gather it together in the middle of the bedroom.
Then, move to the bathroom and the do the same thing, bringing all of those items and combining them with the items in the bedroom.
By pulling everything out and gathering it into one area, you will easily be able to see everything that is occupying the room and determine what actually belongs there and what is unnecessary clutter.
Once you have gathered all of the items into the center of the room, start categorizing them into groups based on what the items are.
Put all of the decorations together, the clothes together, personal hygiene products together, cleaning supplies together and so on until everything that you pulled out in the last step, is in a group with similar items.
By grouping together like items, you will be able to make decisions on the items that you want to keep and the items you want to get rid of.
Because up next, it's time to start making those decisions. The decisions are to either keep, donate or trash everything.
Items that you want to keep should be things that serve your family a purpose and you definitely will be using in the future. These are things like current decorations, seasonal items that you store in this bedroom, and clothes that your family still wears.
Items that need to be donated are things that are still in good condition but no longer serve a purpose for your family. These are things like old decorations, items that you have an excess of, and clothing that no longer fits anyone in your family.
Items that are trash are things that don’t serve your family any further purpose and wouldn’t serve anyone else purpose either. These are going to be things like burned candles, clothing that is torn or stained, a stack of old newspapers, or any other item that you were holding onto that won’t serve anyone a purpose.
If you are having difficulty deciding on what items should be kept or donated, ask yourself questions such as, when was the last time someone in my family used/wore this item? Does this item still serve its original purpose for me? How many of this one item do I have and is more than one really necessary? Would someone else better benefit from having this item than I would?
By asking yourself these questions about items you aren’t sure if you should get rid, you are opening your mind and being honest with yourself about the needs of your family.
Any items that you keep but you don’t need, will continue to add to the clutter around your house for no reason. By giving away these items you are not only clearing the mess from your house, you are also allowing someone else to use these items that may need them more than you.
After that, it's time to clean the two rooms!
Starting in the bathroom, scrub inside and out of the shower, toilet, drawers and cabinets. Wipe on top of the bathroom counters and mirror. Disinfect commonly touched surfaces like the door handles and the light switches.
Add any trash that was in there to the trash that you have been accumulating from the beginning. Finish up by sweeping/mopping the floor.
After the bathroom has been cleaned, it's time to move into the bedroom for cleaning. Dust and wipe off any flat surfaces, clean any mirrors and polish any decorations or knick-knacks that were being displayed.
Strip the sheets and pillowcases from the bed to wash and in addition, wash any throw blankets and rugs (wash the hand towel and rugs from the guest bathroom as well!). Finish the cleaning by sweeping/vacuuming the floor.
After the two rooms have been cleaned, its time to contain and put away the items.
Using bins to contain the items will help ensure the bathroom stays organized past today. This creates "homes" for everything.
Another way to help the bathroom stay organized is placing the items into the bins based on the categories that you previously sorted them in.
These bins are great for storing larger items in cabinets. Back stock products like shampoo, conditioner, face care and soap can be placed in these bins and stored away nicely.
For smaller items that are stored in drawers, these bins are great for keeping everything organized when not being used.
Finish up in the bathroom by labeling any bins you used!
Then move back to the bedroom and start putting away the items in there.
Guest bedrooms are typically used for overflow storage for homeowners so you want to make sure anything being kept in there is nicely organized so guests don't feel overwhelmed by your stuff when staying at your house.
Which is why using bins and labels for everything in this room is so important. Not only will you be able to easily find things when you need them, you're guests won't feel like they're sleeping in your dump zone.
These large storage containers are perfect for storing away clothing, seasonal items, decorations and sports gear when not in use. They take any closet storage from drab to fab!
Finish up in the bedroom by labeling any bins you used and making the bed with a fresh pair of sheets and pillowcases.
The last step in the organizing process, is to deal with the leftover items in the guest bedroom. These are all of the items that were in the two rooms at the beginning of today’s process, didn’t get put away because they don’t actually belong here, and need to be put away now. Take these items to whichever room they belong to.
You want the guest bedroom and bathroom to be a place that is up to date in organizing and cleaning for any potential guest.
The last thing you want to worry about when you’re having family over for the weekend is getting their room cleaned and ready to go, take care of it today and then you don't have to worry about it later!
If you are still feeling swamped with the organizing or would like extra help, please reach out to the Clutterless Home Solutions Team.
Talk soon,
Clutterless Home Solutions