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How to Clean a Messy Room in Five Easy-to-Follow Steps

Learn how to clean a messy room with these easy steps that even your kids can follow. And the good news is that this method works on any room in the house!

Cleaning up a messy room can be a daunting task. It’s hard to know where to begin and what to think about first when faced with the clutter that accumulates on a daily basis.

And can someone please tell me how it is that I clean up the kitchen and living room every single evening and still wake up to a mess in the morning? Seriously!?

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I guess real people living real life equals everyday messes sometimes. And when you throw in the clutter that has piled up over days, weeks, or even years, it can seem almost too overwhelming to handle.

But whether I’m tackling a long-overdue disaster zone or simply attacking the mess in my kitchen first thing in the morning, there’s a basic “formula” I usually follow. It helps me take the first step towards cleaning up, which usually leads me to take the next step, and the one after that.

What’s great is that these steps work on any messy room in the house, no matter how big or small it might be. And they’re so simple that the kids can even use them to clean up their own messy room!

A kitten sleeping in the covers of an unmade bed

How To Clean a Messy Room

1. Throw away any trash.

First things first, throw away the food wrappers, empty snack packages, junk mail, and unnecessary shopping bags to make the room look better with very little effort. You might want to use a timer and see how much trash you can find in just a few short minutes. The quick success will give you motivation to keep working.

2. Put away items that obviously do not belong in the room.

Put the vacuum away in the front closet, return the scissors to the kitchen drawer, toss the dirty towels into the bathroom hamper. Often, a quick look around will reveal things that can be removed from the room without much thought. This is a basic “grab-and-go” before you begin any kind of sorting and organizing.

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3. Put away anything that can be take care of quickly.

If you see things in the room that just need put in their proper places, it’s usually best to take care of them first, before moving on to the more challenging cleaning, sorting, and organizing. For example, when cleaning up the kitchen return any food items to the fridge and pantry and put away the clean dishes before moving on to scrubbing the appliances or sorting the pile of paperwork on the counter.

4. Moving around the room, clean small sections at a time.

Pick one area of the room to start with and work on a very small section until its completely clean and clutter-free so you can easily recognize your progress. Work your way around the room from there so you can always see how far you’ve come and what is left to do. This way, if you have to leave the task to be finished another day, you’ll know exactly where to pick back up.

5. Clean up at the end of cleaning up.

If you’ve spent a lot of time cleaning a messy room, be sure you leave the area looking as nice as possible when you’re ready to call it quits, even if the entire job isn’t done. Toss the cleaning cloths into the laundry, take out the trash, and tidy up the room so it looks like you’ve been working as hard as you know you have!

Avoiding the mess doesn’t make it go away. But following these simple steps for cleaning up a messy room will help you tackle the day-to-day messiness or even an overwhelming disaster zone. Just keep at it a little bit every day and watch your progress add up!

Get your FREE Simple Decluttering Cheatsheet!

Start feeling at peace in your own home! Learn how to pick the best spot to start decluttering AND step-by-step how to tackle the mess in any room in your house. PLUS get my best tips right in your inbox…and it’s 100% FREEEEE!

Your email is safe with us. We wouldn’t dream of sharing it with anyone else!

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19 Comments

  1. This really helped me and know I like cleaning my room!

      1. thankyou so much it really helped me.

      2. Jahlie Motsinger says:

        Yes I cleaned my room So quickly

    1. Andrea Lynn Washington says:

      I downsized my home and have so much stuff that I keep saying I’m going to have a yard sale. I have my out-of-town kids say you need but, are not here to help with the hard work of getting everything together, Gratefully it was the spirit of God that told me to look up on the internet how to declutter my home and I came across this information cleaning small piles first then before this blog I read one that starts in one room and chooses a place to start y using 4 boxes methods. Thank you for seeing this wonderful need for help

      1. Yard sales can be great, but sometimes it’s better to just get the things O-U-T as quickly and easily as possible. You could always start by looking for consignment shops in your area where they either pay you money on the spot or where you can drop things off for them to sell for you. It can also be helpful to find a charity you’d like to support and simply donate to their thrift store. Sure, you’ll miss out on the money you could make, but you can feel good about helping others PLUS have the reward of a decluttered house!

  2. super esey thank you

  3. Oh my goodness. You litterally just saved my whole life thankyou so much. I have been struggling on how to clean my room.This is a life saver!!!
    🙂

  4. I’m definitely going to try this. Probably shoudl be done once a week, I think will work for me! Thanks for the help!

  5. I am about to clean my room now. These tips sound very helpful and it sounds like they would make it easier to clean a room. My room is a big mess, but it won’t be in a day or two (hopefully). Thank you so much for making this it is gonna help so much.

  6. I think this will help my daughter VERY much and when i say “VERY” I mean it!

  7. Very nice guide, I struggle because Life is so busy, and I see the value in doing everything but cleaning! There is simply no time when you’ve got to cook, and work, manage responsibilities, cleaning is something I ignore, and live in my messy space. I’ll try this guide! and your steps, thank you!

  8. Thank you a lot that helped me clean my kitchen do you think you can do one for the kids rooms next

  9. This is very helpful I was planning to clean my room but when I saw this I started cleaning right away and I got it done in 10 mins thank you so much for the tips

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