15 min Organizing Challenge #5 Nightstand

 

Let’s keep this Organizing Challenge going!  Next up is an organized nightstand.  I’m so excited to share with you my tips, tricks, and secrets on how I organize and keep my systems in place.  There is nothing like having a professional organizer come to your home with bins and ideas to help you get organized, but if you don’t have the means to have a professional over then you can count on me to teach you ‘my ways’.  Sometimes getting started on organizing your house seem very overwhelming.  Questions like there is so much to organize and where do I start, pop to mind.  It’s like eating an elephant you have to do it one little bite at a time.  I will walk you through some of the most frustrating places in your house and teach you how you should be organizing these small spaces.  Then you will be able to see how easy it is and want to tackle the bigger projects.

Your bedroom should be a relaxing peaceful place, when you walk into that space you should not feel agitated stressed or frustrated.  How can you get the sleep and relaxation you deserve if you have lots of clutter in this space?  Today lets start with our one bite, your organized nightstand. Whether you have one drawer or a whole dresser the concepts are the same. Your nightstand should be a place that is clear of clutter and has all your nightly needs at your fingertips.  who wanted to get up in the middle of the night looking for earplugs?  or is that just me?

First step

open up every drawer and take everything out, clear off the top of the nightstand, look around the base and see what you have accumulated there.  I hope you don’t have a pile of stuff on your floor but most people do, magazines slippers etc.  Get ready to go through it fast.  These are the piles you will need to make on your bed or floor.

1. I need this at night

2. throw away

3. Move to another area

You will want to go through all your things and ask yourself if you want this item to stay in my newly organized nightstand? Everybody has different needs at different times in life, my mom is sick and spends a lot of time in bed so her needs are different than mine or yours.  Do you read, or do your planner? Do you knit or watch TV? Really be truthful with yourself about the things you want near you as you sleep.

 

Second step

After your decluttering, you will be left with a pile of things that will go back in your organized nightstand.  Having a drawer organizer or boxes to put all your things in isn’t mandatory,  however, any space you organized will be even better when you make a spot for each thing.    look for a few boxes around your house or invest in a few organizers for your newly organized spaces.  I also love to label the boxes as well so that you don’t revert to adding more things.

Third step

put it all back into the drawers, let’s talk about some of the things that will go back into the drawer.

The one thing that every person will have is their cell phone.  I have a dresser as a nightstand and cut a hole in the back of it to run an extension cord to my charger.  I only wanted decorative things on top of my nightstand and a phone cords are not nice to look at.  If you can’t drill a hole in the back of your furniture you can use these little cord holders that stick to the side of your nightstand and will hold your cord into place. And you will get in the habit of putting your cell phone in the same place because your cord will be attached to the back of the nightstand.

most girls need their lotions and foot creams in their organized nightstand. I love using the clear deep drawer bins for these items. If you don’t have deep drawers like this then the use the shorter ones to create a place for everything.  these beautiful white ones from the container store make my heart beat with happiness just looking at them.

I love to keep all things organized in their own bins or little boxes this is a necessary tool in organizing your house and being able to keep systems in place.  You will get sick of me preaching this but its very important. I like to keep just one of what I need. if I happen to have two lotions then I store the extra in the bathroom cupboards.  The more you have the harder it is to find what you are looking for, especially at night.

Because I have space and I like to write and decorate my planner while watching tv at night, I put that in my nightstand as well. I like to use a drawer divider to keep it in its place.   You can also put your bible, or a reading book in your drawer as well. Other things that I have in my nightstand are no mess nail clippers tweezers, a small bottle of headache med, pen, fingernail file, earplugs, extra phone stuff like chargers and headphones.

I’m lucky to have a large dresser as my organized nightstand beside my bed because I also like to store my heated neck wraps, heating pad, and extra towels and washrags in there as well as sheets in the bottom drawer.  See how different we all are?  Make sure you ask your self the question of do I need this at night? and keep only those things especially if you have just one little drawer.

If you have room on top of your nightstand you might want to put a cool charging station like this one from the container store.  I also like a lamp and a small plant to keep it fresh and happy.  but whatever you choose make sure that its simple and low maintenance.  You want your nightstands to be a beautiful calm clear space so that you can fill your mind with dreams and not be too stressed out before bed.