Organising any space can be overwhelming, so here are the exact steps you need to take to sort out your room perfectly every time. Learn exactly how to organise your room so it works for your day to day life.
There are times when you look around a room in your home and just, sigh…
It’s got out of control, looks a mess, doesn’t work for you any more – and is just, well, in need of a total sort out.
But where should you start?
Having organised many rooms over the years – for myself and for clients – I’ve distilled the entire process into easy steps that you can achieve within the time you’ve got available (a lot more easily than trying to do it all in one go).
The method has, in fact, been trademarked – and I’ve called it “The ADORE Method“.
What Is The ADORE Method?
- A is for Assess – making sure you start with a plan and a good idea of the task will help you get things right first time and stop you making costly mistakes)
- D is for Declutter – once you know what you need the space for, you can then take away anything that doesn’t belong.
- O is for Organise – after decluttering what you don’t need – you can tackle what’s staying. The organise phase is all about creating the right storage, systems, and solutions for the project you’re tackling.
- R is for Real Life – now it’s time to live with your new space! Giving it a decent amount of time to see if it works as you want / expect it to.
- E is for Evaluate – If all goes well then you can just sit back and enjoy the space. But you have to keep taking a step back to check in on whether it’s working as well as it should. If not, then you go back to the start of the process.
At any time, every space in your home will be in one of these steps – and as the picture above shows, it’s a cyclical method and not a task with an end.
Don’t worry though – that’s not to say you’re going to be working on it forever – it just means that you should be aware of the fact that life happens and things will change.
So now we’ve looked at the overarching process – it’s time to get your room sorted out, step by step…
How To Organise Your Room – Step By Step Guide
For this step by step guide, I’m going to go through an example of a bedroom – that way you can visualise the steps more easily…
Step 1 – Tidy up
Before you can decide on anything in a room, you need to be able to see it properly.
Surface level mess won’t help you make the right decisions – so you want to get your room to be as tidy as possible and then you can really see what you’re working with.
Take a bit of time to put things way where they currently live, and tidy around.
Bedroom Example: Make the bed, put things away in drawers and cupboards, hang up any clothes lying around.
Step 2 – Decide on what needs to be in the room
If you just start to sort things out then you’re likely to end up with a room that still doesn’t work at the end.
Why?
Because you haven’t assessed the space to see what you really need and want from it.
So, before you start to do anything – take some time to think about the following:
- What is the main point of this space? (bedroom, study, living room etc…).
- Is this the right room for that function?
- Who uses the room?
- What activities take place in it?
- What is working in the room for you right now?
- Are there things about the space that are frustrating?
- What needs to be in the room to fulfil all that you need it to?
- Are there any things in the space that really shouldn’t be there?
By the time you’ve finished this brainstorm, you’ll have a much better grasp of what you’ll need to do change and what you can leave as is – to make the room work at it’s best for you.
Bedroom Example: It’s the master bedroom, and yes, it’s the right room for this use. You need to have storage for clothes, toiletries and general items including some decor. You haven’t currently got a place to easily get your makeup on each morning, and struggle with space for storing your clothes. You’ve also got stuff in the room that you don’t want in there anymore – like some work, and the ironing board! You’d like to have the space as a relaxing haven that helps you get a better nights sleep.
Step 3 – Declutter The Room
Now you know what you need in the space, you can declutter everything that doesn’t belong.
Remember that clutter isn’t just the obvious rubbish in a room – there’s a lot more to it than that!
Your main task here is to get everything out of the room that doesn’t belong, so that you’re left with only what’s needed.
Bedroom Example: Go through your clothes and declutter any that you really don’t wear or need – this will free up some much needed storage space. Completely remove the work items and the ironing board that’s ended up living there. Also this is the time to curate the other items in the room to keep only items that you feel help you relax and feel calm.
Related: Discover Over 60 Amazing Decluttering Tips To Try For A Clutter Free Home
Step 4 – Clean everything
Now is the time to give everywhere a good clean – because there’s less in the space now to deal with.
Take a little time to wipe down all surfaces so you’re ready to organise what’s left without having to deal with dust or dirt at the same time.
Step 5 – Create Storage That works for you
Now is the fun part!
This is the step that most people start with – but as you can see, there’s been a lot of work up front before you get here.
Why?
Because you can now be more sure that what you’re organising is the right stuff for the space – and any excess has gone.
You’re also more sure of how you want the room to function – so your decisions on organising it will be more likely to work.
Go round each part of the room and decide on where things should go, how they should be stored, and what you want the storage to look like.
Bedroom Example:
- Your wardrobe: You’ve now only got the clothes that you know you want to keep, and can see that you DO have enough space to hang all your clothes (except fitness clothes, underwear, and all out of season clothes). You therefore know how many hangers you’re going to need, and can get matching ones if this is important to you. You can also have a few extra hangers as spare so you don’t run into issues should any break or if you get new clothes etc…
- Your bed: You’ve realised that the room would be a lot more easy to manage with more storage, and a storage bed is the perfect solution. It will give you a hidden away space for your out of season clothes, that’s still really accessible.
- Your makeup area: Now you’ve freed up space by putting excess items under the bed, you can get a simple console table under your window (for natural light) that you can keep a mirror and your makeup on.
Related: How To Successfully Organise Anything in 4 Easy Steps
Step 6 – Live in the new space
Another place most people stop their organising is right now – because it’s all done, right?
Wrong!
Yes, you’ve organised things. But you still don’t know whether you’ve organised them in the right way.
You may think you have – but the only way to really know is to live with how you’ve organised things for a while, and be aware that this is your testing time where you’re going to be conscious of what is and isn’t working.
Live with your new space for a few weeks at least – so you get a really good idea of how the room will work for you in the longer term.
During this time, be aware of things like the daily routine your room is supporting, what you need to hand and what you don’t.
And most importantly – be open to things needing to be tweaked if necessary.
Step 7 – Tweak!
Now you’ve lived with the room for a while, you’re going to know whether you need to change anything.
If everything in the room IS working – then great!, you can move on to the last step.
If any part of the room ISN’T working – then head back to step 5 and working through again until it all works for you as you want it to.
Bedroom Example: Your clothes storage is working brilliantly – apart from the under bed storage for out of season clothes. You want to have more space for this, and free up more space under the bed. You’ve decided to try using vacuum storage bags to minimise the space needed – so you want to tackle this idea next.
Step 8 – Maintain Your Room
Now you’ve got things working well, you’re in maintenance mode, and you’ll be staying here until anything changes (see step 9).
Now it’s time to simply keep things as they are.
Don’t allow any clutter to build up, clean things regularly, and tidy up each day.
The beauty is that once you’re in this step, your day to day life will be a lot easier – because the hard work of sorting it out has already been done.
Step 9 – Know When Things Change…
Life happens.
Whether it’s a life change (new home, child growing up etc…), a lifestyle change (working from home etc…), or just that you haven’t maintained the space properly – you may well have to update the room at some point.
When anything happens that means the space stops working well for you, then it’s time to head back to the start and re-evaluate everything.
Maybe you only need to do a little change, maybe you need a complete overhaul – going back to step 1 will help you decide on the right next steps.
And there you have it! The exact step by step process for how to organise your room that will get you the space you’re craving.
Stay in the cycle of this method – and your entire house will thank you for it!
Read Next: How To Make Your Home Work For You – A Space For Everything
