Not every apartment, condo, house, or home you live in is going to be perfect. You might not have as much space as you’d like to start with, and that’s before you put furniture in the rooms. But just because you have a small bedroom doesn’t mean you have to abandon your big design ideas. Here are four ways to make your space feel less claustrophobic and more claus-terrific.
Declutter and Organize
There are lots of ways to organize a small bedroom. First and foremost, you want to simply put things away – in a cabinet, bookshelf, or end table. It can be in any shape or style, as long as it makes what you need easier to find. Items you use regularly should be at eye level; things you need to keep but don’t use often can go at the bottom or on a top shelf. Don’t have space in the room itself? Putting a shelving unit in your closet can maximize the space in a way that both builds upwards and organizes what you’re storing. A full-sized set of drawers won’t fit in most closets. But a smaller storage unit is great for storing things like socks and underwear.
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If you have space underneath your bed, it’s a great spot to keep shallow organizers or shoe boxes. If you can, choose clear containers so you can see inside without having to pull them out and open them. This will save you both time and making a mess when searching for an object. You should also consider wall-mounted shelves. These create storage in the spaces left empty by your typical bedroom furniture, and help you make better use of your walls. Don’t forget to label your existing folders, boxes, and drawers. If they look tacky, you can always remove the labels later once you’ve memorized your new system. Until then, they are a huge time-saver!
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Get Rid of the Garbage
While reorganizing a small bedroom, you’re bound to find a lot of belongings you’ve forgotten about or don’t use hidden away in the corners. I can’t emphasize this enough: throw them out. You’re never going to find that missing sock if you haven’t found it while cleaning in the first place. To help this process, a small garbage can in your bedroom can do wonders for mismatched belongings and loose debris that you find. Bandages, dead pens, shirt lint, candy wrappers, and more can easily get swept under the bed if you don’t have somewhere to immediately dispose of them.
Go Down a Bed Size
King sized beds may be peak sleeping luxury, but they simply aren’t practical for a small bedroom. If you can go down a size to a queen or full, you’ll definitely feel the extra floor space it opens up. Oversized headboards are the trendier option, but this is a smart place to choose substance over style. And you have lots of options. A low headboard will leave you room to put shelving above your bed; captain-style storage beds build shelving directly into the headboard (and often other parts of the bed frame. You can even opt to have no headboard at all – a less-stylish option that can save you precious inches of floor space in a cramped space.
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While you’re at it, replace any worn-out bedding you’ve accumulated but “technically still does its job.” You’ve already made a sacrifice to have less bed space, you’ve earned a new comforter that isn’t a hand-me-down from three beds ago. And I’m not just talking fitted sheets. Stylish, properly sized bedding will not only look neater, but it’ll make “cleaning” your room as easy as making your bed.
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Keep It Simple
Can you push your chair into your desk when you’re not using it? If not, replace it with one that stows better. If you can’t fit all your clothes in your dresser? Weed out the ones you care the least about for the donate pile instead of trying to cram everything in. Keep making little decisions like these throughout the room, and you’ll surprise yourself at both how much you don’t need and the feel of your bedroom afterwards. That said, you don’t have to get rid of everything you don’t immediately have a space (or use) for; less-read books and periodicals you still enjoy can go in the living room, either in their own bookcase or as coffee table reading.
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This is the hardest advice to follow because it requires a lifestyle change. You may think, “I don’t need to do these things because I won’t have a small bedroom forever.” That may be true. But feeling cramped inside your own personal space can negatively impact your mood over time. If you can’t open your drawers all the way because they hit the bed every time, it gets to feel discouraging that you’ll never “fit” at your own home. Objectively, that’s just not true! If you change the way your small bedroom feels, it changes the way you feel, and that makes a world of difference.
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