Organizing a Small Master Bedroom

It is finally, finally starting to feel like spring might be coming soon.  This was a weird winter in New England with more rain than snow, and when we did get snow, it wasn't the pretty Hallmark movie snow. It was more of that icy, slushy, icky stuff, so I'm really ready to let it all go. 

 I'm not sure what has gotten into me, but I can't stop cleaning out drawers and organizing everything.  It's like spring cleaning on steroids. 

Since I love reading posts about decluttering, I thought I'd share what I've been up to and what systems work for me.  

I'm in the empty-nesting end of life now, but I've always been an organized person, even when I had 3 little ones running around. I like everything to have a place, and I really don't function well with clutter around me. 

We have an old house, and with it, the requisite small rooms. We have found ways to make this home feel uncluttered and neat in spite the limitations. 

Here's how we make our very small master bedroom work for us.

Our bedroom is long and narrow, and at the far end is our closet. It is not a typical closet for an old house, and in that we are very lucky. The closet takes up the entire back wall. 

A few years ago, we reworked this closet on a very small budget.  Originally, it only had a single pole going across the entire length. My husband built the cubbies in the middle, cut the original metal pole, and added a second pole to create two levels for hanging clothes. This more than doubled the usable space in here. There is also a narrow shelf along the top (you can't see it in this photo), where we store seldom used dress shoes.

The cubbies are for my clothes, since I have more and my husband also has a huge armoire for his clothes. I store all my jeans, slacks, leggings, sweat pants and yoga pants here. The bottom shelf holds blankets scarves and shawls. Right now, our summer clothes are in tubs in the garage, and I will switch things over once the weather warms up. 

I keep my clothes organized by hanging long, cardigan sweaters first, then casual dresses, long sweaters, tunics, blouses, and then dressier clothes that I don't wear often. The top row is mostly my school clothes. The bottom pole has vests, sweatshirts, casual shirts, and t-shirts.

I keep some of my shoes and slippers in this hanging bag on the door, but most of our shoes are kept in baskets in the mudroom. 

Boots that are not snow type boots are in this basket.

This is Brian's side of the closet.  He just cleared out everything he didn't want anymore (he watched 2 episodes of Tidying Up with me), and now it's looking a little sparse.

The open door leads to the bathroom. 

The hamper on the left stores extra linens but if I had a baby, I'd have a chair in that spot.

Moving on to my dresser now.  We just removed the heavy, ornate mirror that was original to the dresser and replaced it with this round one. I love the change and how much it lightened up the room. We already had the mirror so it didn't cost anything, and it made the dated dresser feel fresh again.

Starting in the middle of the dresser, the top drawer stores my bras.  We will just skip that part.  Below that, the 2 doors open to 2 more drawers. Here, I keep less frequently used items.

The first drawer holds sports bras and socks, and braces I sometimes need to wear on my hands to sleep when my carpal tunnel starts acting up.

Below that is my ski pants and turtle necks which will change over to bathing suits soon.

Yes, I really do fold my underwear like this.  

(The black case holds my headphones which are usually in the basket next to my bed, but I put them away for the photos). 

These are camis and tank tops, along with knee highs (yes, I wear them in winter).

Lots and lots of socks.

Pajama tops

Pajama bottoms

I like to keep the top of my dresser as uncluttered as possible. The small heart box holds a few bracelets and earrings. I'm not a big jewelry person.

My hubby's giant armoire is like the elephant in the room.

He has his own system and I leave it alone.

On the back of the door, I hang scarves and extra pocketbooks.

And finally, as you can see, there is no room for lamps or a bedside table next to the bed.  

We solved the reading light dilemma by hanging a light over the bed (above the coffee filter wreath).

And we hung a ladder next to the bed.  It serves as storage and decor.

I hang a current magazine on a ladder rung, and the basket holds my Nook, lotion, and usually headphones, a book, tissues, and cellphone. 

And I have a thing about storing stuff under beds. 

 I just don't do it.  

Since the room is so small, I like to keep everything, including the bedlinens as simple as possible. I love the fresh, clean look of an uncluttered room.