Spring Clean Tips For The Master Bedroom

Spring clean tips for the master bedroom.

Don’t allow your master bedroom to become a cluttered space. Bedrooms are often used as a dump zone for items that lack a proper home. After all, nobody besides you and perhaps your partner spends much time there. Living rooms, kitchens and other more communal areas are usually the most well-kept areas of a home due to their more public nature. On the other hand, it can be easy to fall into the habit of neglecting chores about the bedroom. Nobody else sees it anyway, so why bother?

A decluttered bedroom leads the way for a clutter-free mind

A cluttered, disordered home leads to a cluttered, messy mind. Cluttered minds are prone to stress. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to sleep at night if your bedroom was peaceful and calming? Clutter and mess have a genuine impact on your ability to focus and perform tasks correctly. Mainly due to its tendency to affect your sleep.

Even if your bedroom is generally tidy and organised, we all need a deep clean now and then. Clutter tends to hide in plain sight. No matter how neat you keep your space, dust builds up on your surfaces and in hidden corners.

How important is a clean, clutter-free bedroom?

Just think about any movie that features parenting as one of its themes. Mom walks in and completely freezes, open-mouthed in horror. Her children become statues as she surveys the destruction that has befallen her beautiful house. Scenes like this exist for a reason. We have all felt utterly defeated by clutter at some point in our lives.

Research has shown a direct link between a messy, cluttered bedroom and increased sleep deprivation. Having a messy space can make you avoid spending too much time in your bedroom. You might even start feeling like the environment around you is your enemy.

Our brains see disorganisation as an unfinished job.

No matter how accustomed someone is to messy surroundings, their mind does not tune it out. The longer we avoid it, the more the mess grows, and our feelings of stress and guilt grow along with it.

Eliminating clutter and mess in your bedroom will not automatically guarantee a good night’s sleep, but it will help. Who doesn’t feel like relaxing when the space around them is clean, peaceful and sending their brain all the right signals?

Clutter aside, nobody needs convincing that a clean environment is optimal.

Cleanliness has a direct impact on our health.

Dust might not make us violently ill immediately, but allergies can have a significant effect on our daily lives in the long run. How clean we keep our home can also affect our self-image and thus our self-esteem.

After all, cleanliness is a virtue.

If your bedroom is a real mess, cleaning a small bit every day might make it seem as if there is no end in sight. The same goes for a bedroom that appears relatively clean — doing a deep clean once or twice a year is necessary for everyone. No matter the state your bedroom is in, giving it a through, deep clean will do you good.

Here is a five-step guide to giving your master bedroom a deep clean:

Start with dirty items.

Take all the sheets, comforters, pillows, pillowcases and blankets off the bed. Throw them all into the washing machine. Cushions included. Most washing machines can handle two pillows in a load. Make sure only to do two at a time, not one, as this can throw the machine off balance.

Use the time that the bedding is in the washing machine to take down your curtains. Once you completed the first load, wash your curtains in if they are machine washable. Otherwise, air them outside or send them to the dry cleaner.

Grab a flat sheet and cover your bare mattress to protect it from dust and dirt.

While the washing is drying, do a good decluttering.

Empty your closet. Sort everything into piles to keep, donate or throw away. Be ruthless. Otherwise, let someone else be ruthless for you. Um-ing and ahh-ing for hours will get you nowhere.

Letting go can be hard. We may love some things but never find the occasion to wear them. In that case, we can make it a bit easier on ourselves if we think of the item as a living thing. Sitting unused in your closet must make it feel quite sad. Wouldn’t it be better off being worn and loved by someone else? Someone who needs it? Knowing that you are helping others can make it easier to let go. It can make us feel quite good! Plus, if something has not been worn in more than six months or a year, you probably won’t be wearing it again.

Once the closet (the task involving the most thinking) is sorted, go around taking everything off dressers and tables. Empty all dresser drawers and side tables.  Pile everything on the bed. Decide what to discard and what to keep after you have finished cleaning. Go through the items as you are putting them back.

Next comes the real deep clean.

You are going to want to be super thorough in achieving maximum freshness.

Grab a bucket of soapy water, a couple of rags, window cleaner, your vacuum cleaner and bring them all to your bedroom.

Wash all surfaces from the walls and window sills, to photo frames and door handles with a damp cloth. Anything that can handle some water, no matter how small, should be wiped down.

Don’t forget to dust off the ceiling fan either! Breathing in the dust it spreads around the room as it spins is not healthy. While you are at it, take the light fixtures down and give them a gentle wash. Make sure they are adequately dry before replacing them.

Do this before vacuuming and making the bed to avoid getting everything dusty again.

After that, grab the vacuum and give the floor a good clean. Pay particular attention to corners and remember to vacuum underneath the bed.

When it comes to cleaning the windows, the best time to do it is when the sun is shining. Streaks and missed dust will show up as the light comes through the window. Wipe all other glass surfaces down at the same time. Remember to get any mirrors too.

Once everything is clean, put everything on the bed back in its place.

Take everything you will be getting rid of out of the room and put them in into plastic bin bags. Wipe drawers before replacing the items. If they are dusty, vacuum them with the hose. Get rid of old magazines that are lying around and file away paperwork. Put books in their rightful place on the bookshelf. Loose CD’s and DVD’s should be put away in a CD wallet or on a designated shelf.

Now that the bed is empty do some maintenance.

Take the mattress off and give the floor underneath a good vacuum. The darkness under the bed can hide whole armies of dust bunnies and other less pleasant things. Best to tackle it with as much rigour as possible.

Rotating the mattress for even wear is also a good idea. Doing this twice a year should suffice.

Push the bed back and put the mattress back into place. Now that everything is clean and again and in its place, you can finally make the bed.

After that, hang up your curtains, put your cleaning supplies away and you will be done!

Doing all of this can take only a day if you are mainly dedicated and have the time. Otherwise, it might take two afternoons. Either way, it will be worth it in the end.

We spend about a third of our time in the bedroom. Taking some time to make sure our rooms are clean, comfortable and peaceful will certainly help us breathe easier. By the end of this, you will be looking forward to snuggling up for a night. Many nights of relaxation lay ahead!