5 Ways to Organize a Messy Room

No one likes a messy room—but that doesn’t mean we don’t find ourselves staring down at a cluttered space and thinking: “How on earth do I fix this?” The best way to deal with a messy room is to tackle it head on with some careful planning and plenty of storage options. Let’s take a look at the following 5 ways to organize a messy room that will leave the room looking fresh and put-together.

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Plan out a place for everything—and put everything in its place

The key to organizing any messy room is to have a place for everything that goes in that room, so that you can put everything in its place and stay organized. The best way to approach this is to get a pen and paper. Then, sit down to plan it out from scratch. Write down what objects tend to be in the room, and assign an appropriate storage place. For example: Clothing in bedrooms goes in the closet; books in the bedroom go on the wall shelf; extra pillows go in the drawer under the bed; etc.

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Shelves, shelves—and more shelves

Shelves are a great addition to messy rooms. They add tons of storage space without taking up precious square footage on the floor. Your shelves can be bookcase-style, or freestanding shelves bolted into the wall. Make sure that you don’t overstuff the shelves or let them get cluttered. This can make a room look just as messy as before.

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Keep a covered clutter basket or fancy box to reduce visible clutter

Keep a room from looking messy from clutter and designate a covered storage basket or box for anything that needs to be in the room but doesn’t have a specific space. Since the basket or box is covered, it won’t look as messy as simply leaving the clutter in the open or chucking it into an open-air basket.

Keep laundry baskets, garbage baskets, and “put away” baskets in the room

Most messy rooms start off small; some laundry thrown on the ground here, garbage tossed onto the kitchen counter there, and books from the living room everywhere. To get rid of these all-too-common mess starters, you will need to set up a laundry basket, garbage bin, and a “put away” basket for objects that belong somewhere else. This will allow you—and everyone else in the household—to keep the most common messy objects in tidy bins to be taken care of at an appropriate time.

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Use furniture to add additional storage

Furniture storage is often overlooked, but it’s an excellent way to organize a messy room. This keeps potential messes and clutter out of sight. And best of all, it doesn’t take up additional floor space since you’ll need the furniture in the room anyway. Furniture storage includes many features. These can include drawers underneath beds, ottomans with storage compartments, coffee tables that open up to reveal a chest, and more.

Do you have a room that won’t stay clutter free? Our foyer is the room that collects the most clutter. It’s the room where all the backpacks, mail, snow boots and flip-flops (depending on the season) collect. I’ve done a few of these hacks and the room stays so much cleaner. 

You can take a look at these other posts for great organizing tips. What are some of your favorite ways to organize a messy room?