Start Your Spring Cleaning in Your Bedroom

Spring is the time of year when everything is fresh and new. And it's when people are motivated to freshen up their homes. But too often an important room is overlooked because it's not a room everyone sees. But you spend at least every morning and night in your bedroom, so give it top priority.

Cleaning every dusty corner is a start, and maybe a new comforter will spruce it up, but if you cover every surface with a bunch of clutter, it doesn't look clean or calming. I've jumped on the "less is more" train and even after getting rid of a lot of things you don't need, there's still all that stuff you do need. So the trick is in the clever ways of hiding it.

My favorite space savers are my mirror and picture frame jewelry boxes. Instead of having jewelry boxes cluttering up your dresser, where your jewelry gets tangled and hard to find, you can hang it inside a full-length mirror. You're jewelry hangs neat and easy to see - like in a store display - and the one below even has spaces for other things that clutter your room like lotions, make-up and nail polish.

You may have framed photos of your loved ones on your nightstand or bureau, and you don't want to hide those. Instead you can get a picture frame collage on a hanging jewelry box, too.

My next favorite hideaway storage solution is underbed drawers. I'm not talking about tubs you have to pull all the way out to get the lid off to get into them, but you can find bins with actual drawers that pull out for easy access.

If you like a bench to sit on to put on your shoes, why not get one with hidden storage like the one I found below? It looks nice and neat, and you can't see what's in it like those storage cubes or shelves.

Since this is about turning your room into a calming sanctuary, let's remove the frustration of digging through your sock drawer when you're in a hurry. I love these drawer organizers for all your small items. One quick look and you can see everything. "A place for everything, and everything in it's place", as my Mom used to say.

Now, for those precious items you don't want laying around, I love these "books" with secret hiding spaces. You can get them with a lock or not - they won't replace a safe for real important treasures, but they're good for keeping things hidden away.

The last clutter-maker that prevents your bedroom from being a sanctuary is a desk. Your bedroom is not the place you want to do work or bills, so if there's another place for it in the house, get it out of there. But sometimes you still want a little desk area for writing down things or using your laptop, so I found this great fold-away desk that can close up for neatness and takes up no more room than the stool you put under it.

So if you decided to jump on the "less is more" bandwagon with me, what do you do with all that stuff you don't need? After getting rid of tons of stuff myself, I've narrowed down the best ways to get rid of it.

For things you feel have value and you'd rather sell than give them away, I've done well on eBay with small items I don't mind shipping. If you've never used it, it's very user friendly so don't let it intimidate you. A postage scale comes in handy to estimate shipping costs.

For larger items, I sold a ton of stuff on Facebook yardsale sites. I join groups that are local and have them come to my house (when the men are around) with cash payments. But if you're uncomfortable having people come to your house, find out if your town's police station has a safe place set up in their parking lot for people to meet buyers.

If you want to give your items away, there are two great charities that I use that will pick up your goods. A local veterans group will sell your goods and use the money to help vets, and the Salvation Army uses the money it gets from its thrift stores to help rehab adults with drug and alcohol addictions.

Oh, there's one more thing I almost forgot...get that exercise machine out of your room that your clothes are hanging on! Facebook yardsale...

Now, go have fun creating that sanctuary!