by Tierney O'Hara

Created on: September 06, 2009   Last Updated: September 07, 2009

Usually bedrooms are not main thoroughfares in one's home. People are not walking into them nor do people entertain in them. Because they are unseen, they often get used as repositories for orphan items like family photo albums, kids' school projects, clothes baskets, mending and stationary supplies. Bedrooms frequently become the place to put things that have no home.

How do you take a cluttered bedroom and turn it into a neat, tidy retreat for yourself? First you must get the mindset that you are worth a space that is attractive, neat and organized. Your bedroom is not an oversized storage area for a whole family's worth of random possessions, it is your special private space to wake up or go to sleep in.

Here are some tips on how to make over your bedroom from hellish to heavenly and without spending a lot of money.

1) Find a new home for items that don't have one. If you can't think of a new spot to store an item, rethink whether you need the item at all.

2) You can't sweep things under the rug, but you can hide things under the bed. Under-the-bed storage is available in many styles and shapes. You can store off-season clothing, craft projects, or boots and shoes in these inexpensive containers that slide under the bed and out of sight.

3) Cull clothing from your closets and bureaus. The rule is if you haven't worn it in one calendar year, you aren't going to wear it again. Don't keep clothing that doesn't fit; if you need to lose weight or gain weight before you can wear something, chances are you will never wear it.

Don't keep clothing for sentimental reasons, if need be, take a picture of the item to remember it by and then give it away, sell it on eBay or put it in the trash.

4) Find the hidden beauty of your bedroom space. Maybe it's the alabaster lamp that sits on your night table, or the hand-pieced quilt your grandmother made. Maybe it's the large window that opens out to the back yard or the plump chintz chair that was once your mother's. Once you locate the hidden beauty, use that as your inspiration to continue to remove clutter, reduce clothing and create organization.

5) Organization is putting like things with like things. Get shoe bags, tie racks, belt racks, jewelry boxes or book shelves, whatever it is that will help you organize your collection of bedroom items and put like with like.

6) Mount your bedroom TV on the wall and you will open up space and eliminate clutter.

7) Wash your windows and evaluate your window treatments; sometimes a pair of new curtains will give a bedroom an inexpensive but attractive lift, reminding you that not only are you going to have a clutter-free space, it's going to be beautiful too.

8) Purchase a bed skirt if you are going to store items under the bed so that they won't be seen and to keep dust at a minimum.

9) Keep personal health and beauty items in the bathroom if possible, and limit what is allowed into your bedroom and on your furniture. Keep the least amount of items on your nightstands or bureaus so they are easy to dust and are not accumulating clutter because clutter is a magnet for more clutter.

10) If you can fit a chest or trunk at the end of your bed, you can store extra bedding, pillows and linens inside or any large item.

Once you start to love your bedroom, you will be more vigilant in keeping it tidy and organized. You are deserving of a space that looks and feels cozy and charming to you and you can have it with a little work, a few dollars and some creativity.

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