Calming or chaotic? Which best describes your bedside table?

Now think for a moment, how would you like it to be?

I hope you answered calming! According to the principles of feng shui and the National Sleep Foundation, a bedroom should be a calming and relaxing space. Fewer distractions—and clutter is a distraction—promote better sleep and improve your energy.

Spend 30 minutes de-cluttering your bedside table as a first step towards creating a more peaceful bedroom. 

First, clear off everything that has accumulated on the surface of your bedside table. Throw out the trash and recycle the catalogs and magazines you aren’t reading any more…or haven’t had time to read. 

Be ruthless and realistic with your reading material! Make a rule for yourself: keep no more than 5 items to read…or use the one-in one-out rule: as soon as a new issue of a magazine or newspaper arrives, recycle the last one even if you haven’t read it.

Next, remove anything that has to do with work. Put work in your office, briefcase or create another area out of the bedroom for work-related papers and projects. (Also check out this blog entry, Don’t Take Your Work To Bed With You, on www.organize-office.com.)

Don’t forget to look in any drawers or shelves of your bedside table. What’s in there? Kleenex and cough drops? 15 bookmarks? Expired medicine? Old glasses? Only keep easily accessible what you use most often.

Now put back your reading material (see rules above).  Maybe add a small dish or basket to catch your jewelry or watch. You can also add something you’d enjoy looking at every morning like a photo, special piece of artwork, or other memento. Keep a pen and paper (or PDA) to jot down quick notes. 

In just 30 minutes, you’ve cleared a space and improved your bedroom. Enjoy your de-cluttered bedside table, and have a good night’s sleep!