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Bedroom Organization Ideas

How to organize your primary bedroom and walk-in closet with these tips and bedroom organization ideas. 

If you’ve been following along for a while, then you know I’m currently tackling my TEN WEEK ORGANIZING CHALLENGE again. This time I’m organizing our entire new build home. So far I’ve worked through the first five weeks of the challenge and I’m on Week 6 and sharing my best bedroom organizing ideas. It’s awesome to have our house feeling much more organized and functional, and that feeling will carry me through all the hard work I have left ahead. I loved tackling our dresser and walk-in closet this week, featuring the Ikea Pax wardrobe system of which I’m a huge fan.

So far, I’ve worked my way through our paperwork and setup a family command center. I tackled our kitchen organization, as well as the laundry room.  I created a functional family entryway mudroom, organized our bathroom cabinets, and tackled the linen closet organization. This week I’m sharing one of my biggest jobs yet: dealing with our clothing and closets in our primary bedroom.

bedroom organization ideas with Ikea Pax system

Organizing Our Primary Bedroom

The key focus of my bedroom organization ideas this week is dealing with all of your clothing.

When we moved into this house last Spring, I hastily unpacked our clothes placing them willy-nilly into our closet and dresser. When you have a whole house to unpack, you don’t always put the most care and thought into where things are going. My initial unpacking job definitely left a lot of room for improvement which I was looking forward to finally dealing with this week.

I also had a lot of clothes that I haven’t worn for months (or even years?). I tend to gravitate towards the same favourite items again and again. My drawers were somewhat overflowing in their disorganization, which meant that it was easiest to grab what was near the top instead of searching through the mayhem for something I hadn’t worn for a while.

It was looking like this…

clothings in a disorganized bedroom closet

Kind of overstuffed, with a bunch of things just spread out on the shelf. Because the drawers were overstuffed I was starting to not put my clothes away properly, which meant that there were a bunch of clothes etc. spread out on the shelf above our drawers. We used the Ikea Pax system in our walk-in (or walk-through) closet, which I discuss more further down in the article. I think that using a super functional system like Ikea Pax is one of my favourite bedroom organization ideas, and am pretty much obsessed with this closet system.

The Process:

I purged, sorted, and re-organized our walk-in closet and dresser in a way that makes sense (finally!). Now, our clothes all FIT into our space and, in fact, there is empty drawer space left over! They are also much easier to find which means I will start wearing things that I had forgotten I’d even owned. Finally, utilizing these bedroom organization ideas also means that it is much easier to put away our clean laundry, therefore keeping things functional and tidy on a consistent basis.

Where to Begin:

The first place to start when it comes to bedroom organization is your clothing. It is generally the main item that we store in our bedrooms, and clothing is something that can easily become out of control and overwhelming. We often hold onto clothes that no longer fit or that we don’t like or wear, and they build up taking up precious space in our closets as well as creating clutter in our minds.

Are you guilty of that, as well? Holding on to clothing that you never wear and don’t even like just because you own it and feel like you should keep it. Even if it doesn’t make you feel good when you wear it?

After I had gone through EVERYTHING (and I mean – everything!) that I own, I ended up with a laundry basket of clothes to hopefully sell at a local consignment store  as well as half a large garage bag full of clothes to donate. A few torn items ended up in the garbage, as well.

clothing in a bin to sell and a bag to donate

Tips for Purging Clothing:

I wrote this article back when I originally tackled this challenge about how to purge clothing.  Getting rid of things that you don’t need, wear, or like anymore is definitely key when it comes to setting up a functionally organized primary bedroom. Whether you are dealing with a large walk-in closet, a regular reach-in closet, or a dresser or armoire; if you have more stuff than you have room to store it, you’ve got yourself a problem!

What to do with your clothing? Do you want to keep, toss, donate, sell, or toss it?

bedroom organization ideas questions to ask when purging your clothing

KEEP

If you haven’t worn something for a while but ‘think’ you still love it and will wear it again, then try it on. Make sure you still feel good in it. Do you feel GOOD when you wear it. Does it look great on you? Or are you keeping it because you feel vaguely guilty about getting rid of it.

Are you keeping it because you are ‘going to lose weight again and it will fit’? Then you might want to pack those items up and store them elsewhere to revisit in a few months time. Or was it a gift or an impulse buy? Maybe you spent too much money on it and you hate to let it go because you rarely or never wore it?

If it’s one of these items, then it’s time to consider: Toss, Donate, Consign/Sell, or Store:

TOSS

Get rid of and toss any items that are stained, torn, ripped, broken and unfixable (zippers, buttons etc).  Time to say ‘goodbye’ even if it’s been a long-time fave.

DONATE

Anything that is in good shape still but that you no longer wear, like, need or doesn’t fit well should be donated or sold. Don’t keep things just because you feel guilt about getting rid of them, even if they were expensive. If they were, you might want to put them in the consign/sell pile rather than donate.

CONSIGN OR SELL ONLINE

Facebook Marketplace or online garage sale sites are another option to sell good quality, lightly used clothing. Just be ready for selling clothes online to take a bit more effort than just dropping off bags of clothing donations to your favourite thrift store.

You might want to check if your town has a local clothing consignment shop if you own some really nice items that you no longer want. If you don’t know of any in your community, ask some friends or coworkers.

STORE

Seasonal items that are taking up space and could be stored away. I’m not actually a fan of seasonal clothing because I’m too distracted and will definitely forget to make time for switching out my closet, but if you have a tiny storage area in your bedroom or live in a place with really significant seasonal weather differences, then this may be a good option for you.

Tips for Organizing a Walk-in Closet:

bedroom organization ideas in a walk-in closet featuring Ikea Pax system

If you don’t have a walk-in closet, then you might want to read this article about setting up a reach-in closet for multi-purpose storage. 

To organize my clothes in a functional manner that makes sense, I followed a few simple rules that I’ve outlined below. I’ll also tell you that we used the Ikea Pax System for our walk-through closet, and are HUGE fans of this wardrobe system. We’ve used it multiple times before, and you can read the following articles that I’ve shared previously about Ikea Pax:

Group items by type:

One of my favourite bedroom organization ideas is to group all your clothing items by type. Setting your drawers and closet up this way helps with function. It makes it much easier to find what you need once your clothing has been purged. I grouped my clothing into items that hang: dresses, dressy tank tops, short sleeve shirts/blouses, long sleeve shirts/blouses, sweaters, cardigans, jackets/blazers, skirts, dress pants. I also grouped them into items that fold in my drawers: hoodies, casual t-shirts, casual tanks, shorts, casual pants, jeans, tights, pyjamas/loungewear, workout clothes, old/project clothes, socks, underwear.

bedroom organization ideas in an Ikea Pax wardrobe system

bedroom organization ideas featured in an Ikea Pax wardrobe system

Use drawer organizers to keep large drawers tidy:

Another favourite of my bedroom organization ideas is to divide your drawers up in sections so that like items can be grouped more easily. These specific drawer organizers are from Ikea, and are designed to fit inside the Pax drawer units. I love how they make it easy to keep different types of items grouped together in such a neat and functional manner. You could do the same thing with other organizers or baskets; just make sure to measure your drawers (width, height, and depth) and then bring a tape measure to the store before you buy anything to fit inside of a drawer space.

felt drawer dividers in an Ikea Pax system drawer for bedroom organization ideas

Make everything visible:

I love this bedroom organization idea for the way you fold your clothing. This is a trick I learned a few years back through reading Marie Kondo, and I really love having my drawers organized in this way. It means that you can actually see all the things you own, so you are much more likely to wear them than you are when they are buried under a flat pile.

shirts organized in felt drawer organizers as a bedroom organization ideas

folding clothes so you can see all of them bedroom organization ideas

If you’re unsure of an item – turn the hangers:

One of the bedroom organization ideas I haven’t yet tried, but have heard about many times is turning your hangers. Normally when I purge I get rid of anything that I’m not sure about, and I’ve had very few occasions where I regretted and missed an item after parting ways with it. But I had a couple of clothing items that time that I considered getting rid of, but that I still liked (and just don’t wear very often). I decided I’d try this hanger strategy: turn the hangers of these items the opposite way to start. If, after a few months, you still haven’t worn it (considering the season, of course) then it might be time to part with it, after all.

Done!

I’m so happy to have our primary bedroom (mainly clothing) dealt with; purged and organized and our closets and dresser so much more functional! This week ahead I’ll be dealing with the boys’ bedrooms – wish me luck. It’s a VERY big job. Especially for my youngest, who at the ripe age of 11 seems to be an hoarder extraordinaire.

Are you hoping to get your entire house whipped into fabulous organizational condition?! Sign up for my free emails to go through this challenge step-by-step, starting at the beginning:

So far in this year’s updated version of the challenge, I’ve shared:

 

Want this in an easy to digest e-book form? You can learn more about that here!

You can see all of the posts related to my original take on this Ten Week Organizing Challenge by visiting my challenge Intro article here.  

AND…the first time I tackled this challenge back in 2017, I shared these posts for Week

Week Six: The Primary Bedroom

How to Complete Purge Your Clothing

7 Tips for Organizing Your Closet & Dresser

Inspiration Articles:

25 Ingenious Ways to Store & Organize Jewelry

20 Incredible Small Walk-in Closet Ideas & Makeovers

Each week over the course of this challenge, I’m going to be sharing my process of working through this challenge in our new home with updated tricks, tips, and organizing systems. If you want to follow along with my new version of the challenge, sign-up below for my new email list! Ten Week Organizing Challenge 2022.

 

 

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4 Comments

  1. LOVE your blog! Been following you since the lake house. I see you’re on the island, and I know there isn’t an Ikea there. So did you order online and have stuff shipped to a pick-up location? Or did they deliver to your house? I currently live in the Kootenays of BC, and will be moving to Victoria probably early summer, and have been trying to figure out how I’d get Ikea stuff. Or will I just have to go over to the mainland and shop in person at one if the 2 Ikeas there? Thanks!

    1. Hi Paulette!
      Thanks for your kind words! There is not an Ikea here, though there are some shipping options. Ikea has shipped to us directly at our home, and we have also had larger items shipped to Nanaimo (about an hour drive away), and we pick up there. You can also use the service “Add to Cart” and I know they pick up stuff at Ikea (and other Vancouver stores like Structube) and deliver to your home on the island. Hope that helps!
      Krista

  2. Love this! I am getting ready to tackle my walk in closet this spring. I really like the IKEA system but it feels overwhelming to me (by myself) to tackle putting it together. Any suggestions on getting it installed?

    1. Hi Michelle,
      Yes, I could see that. Building the large wardrobe boxes is fairly straight forward, as are the drawers etc. but you might want to look online for a local handyman who could do it? Maybe try Facebook marketplace for someone who advertises their handyman services? Or ask friends or coworkers if they know anyone who does those kinds of jobs. If you have a local Ikea, they may have names of installation people – especially for their kitchen and closet systems. If you do build the boxes yourself, definitely get a friend or family member to help, as some parts of it are a two person job. I hope that helps a bit:)
      Krista

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