Fast Way to Clean any Messy Room

Time always seems to be against us, especially when we need it the most. When we’re running late for work, someone is coming over, or we have a ton of things to get done, cleaning can take the back burner and we might find ourselves dumping stuff and thinking “I’ll clean up later”.

Other times, there’s so much mess we just don’t know where to start, and that itself makes us avoid cleaning up. With so much stuff lying around, the thought of cleaning can be overwhelming - who knows how long it'll take? Those feelings make you want to procrastinate - “I’ll do it later,” we’ll say. Somehow that later never seems to come… until things really start to pile up and feel hopeless.

Well, whether you’re in a time crunch and need a quick clean up for guests, or you’ve just about had enough of the mess and don’t know where to start (or feel like you don’t have the time to tackle all that mess) here’s a method that I find to be quick, easy and effective immediately. I will lay it out in 2 easy phases.

Phase 1 - Get a big bag or basket (it could be a trash bag or a laundry bag, whatever is handy or convenient.) Fill everything that’s on the floor and tabletops in it – clothes, papers, magazines, loose change, whatever’s making that mess. Voila! Instantly, your room will look much tidier and that instant gratification will have you feeling better already.

After gathering all the items together in the bag, put it aside and complete cleaning the room fully. Make the bed, dust, vacuum, and straighten up anything that might've gotten out of place.

Phase 1 of cleaning that messy room is done - the most satisfying part!

Now for the slightly more dreaded part;

Phase 2

Go through that huge bag of stuff we collected in Phase 1. Let's stay optimistic! It’s much easier to go through a bag of stuff and organize it than picking each thing off the floor and trying to figure out where to put it or what to do with it.

All that clutter that was strewn about is now constrained and confined to one bag. Phew!

So now, all that's left is to set aside time to actually go through that bag, and I would advise not to delay this! I’ve found that just by getting everything off the floor and cleaning the room makes me motivated to keep going and finish the job properly, not just superficially have everything out of the way. Seeing the room clean and clutter gone really gives sense of satisfaction that drives me to fully finish the job by going through the big bag of stuff (another reason I love this method of cleaning).

You might be thinking going through that big bag seems daunting and time-consuming… Don’t worry. Do the following and it will go super smoothly;

Keep 4 empty boxes on hand (or plastic bags if you don’t have boxes handy). Label each one with a marker;

• Store
• Keep
• Donate/Sell
• Trash/Recycle

Start going through the bag one item at a time and decide which box it belongs in. If you’re having trouble deciding which pile it goes in, (should I keep this or throw it?) head over to our blog on “8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Declutter”. You can also try the Konmari method and hold each item and decide which ones spark joy to keep 😊.

Once they’re all divided, you’re nearly done! The final step is to go ahead and act upon each box - actually make a stop at the thrift store to drop off the donations, find a good storage place for the things you want to store, trash and recycle the stuff in the boxes, and so on.

So, there you have it. The whole process is basically broken down into collecting all the mess in one place, and then systematically going through that mess and making decisions about where each thing actually belongs. The result – a satisfyingly clean room! Not so bad, right?