Everyone wants a room where they can start fresh each morning, and relax and unwind after a long day. And the bedroom is an ideal place to get away from it all. Oftentimes though, we tend to misuse the bedroom as a dumping ground for laundry, the ironing pile, and unread books. All that stuff everywhere makes it hard to truly relax. In this post, let’s look at a few simple relaxing bedroom ideas for creating a neat, calming space. A space that you’ll love spending your downtime in, and catching a better night’s sleep.
We all know how it is when we wake up in the morning. Your mind starts racing with everything on your plate for the day, and you’re looking at the clock every two minutes. The last thing you have time for is searching through a pile of wash on your bedroom chair for that blouse that goes with your blazer.
Your bedroom is supposed to be your sanctuary — when you’re tired, stressed or anxious, it’s where you go to recharge. But all too often, the room that should be the most relaxing in a home is filled with clutter, dust and distractions.
Carving out a space that’s both tidy and relaxing can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. The good news is that creating a tidy, calm bedroom doesn’t have to be complicated, costly, or time-consuming. Here are ten simple zen bedroom ideas on a budget you can implement right now to create a more calming space. Without spending any money.
Table of Contents
Tidy Up!
The last thing you want to start your day with is searching for stuff in an untidy bedroom. Number one on our zen bedroom ideas list is — ta-da! — keeping the room tidy and decluttered.
Having a clear, well-organised bedroom not only creates a space where you can comfortably relax and get some good snoozes, but it can also calm your mind and reduce stress. You’ll have less to clean up, enjoy a better night’s rest, and feel more relaxed because you’ll be able to find things when you need them. Like that blouse!
Get excited: a tidy bedroom can also foster a better sense of organisation in other aspects of your life as well. When you awake rested, not confronted by a pile of laundry, and can sail through getting together for your day, you’re off to a great start. That can spill over to the desire for a tidier desk at work, less anxiety, less searching for stuff, less stress.
Need help clearing the clutter in your bedroom? I always start with textiles. Put the clothes away. Are they clean? Hang them up. Are they dirty? Into the hamper they go. Are they washed, but need ironing? Create a dedicated ironing pile in your closet, or in your laundry room if you have one.
Any dirty cups or glasses? Take ’em to the kitchen. Old newspapers or magazines? Toss ’em. Ditto for used tissues, empty hand cream tubes and the like: into the bin with it all. You’re already halfway home towards creating a more calming bedroom if you do a blitz tidy-up on a daily basis.
Make Your Bed
I’ve mentioned it in a number of posts here at Tidymalism, and it’s still my number one tidy tip: if you only do one thing in your household every day, make your bed!
Why? Your bedroom will look instantly transformed. Cleaner. Bigger. More calming and inviting.
Try it out. Take two minutes every morning in between coffee and showering, and make the bed. When you get ready to hit the hay in the evening, your bedroom will look welcoming, inviting, and calming. All because you made the bed.
Keep Your Bed Clear of Clutter
Once you’ve made your bed, keeping it clear is key to maintaining a calming bedroom. If your bed is covered in laundry and odds and ends that have landed there during the day, you’ll be mildly stressed when it’s time to retire in the evening.
You might even be so tired that you’re tempted to quickly deposit everything lying on the bed onto the floor or bedroom chair. And so begins a vicious circle. You wake up the next morning and see that pile of stuff first thing, and feel stressed all over again.
It’s better to get into the habit of putting things in their place immediately. If you grew up in a messy household or just never formed this habit, here are some tips for integrating daily decluttering bursts into your routine. Once you get into the mindset of putting things away, it tends to stick and has a great effect not only on your bedroom but entire home.
Don’t Store Things Under the Bed
There are a number of reasons why keeping stuff underneath the bed is a bad idea. They range from health-related factors such as increased allergens and hygiene, to feng shui. In a nutshell, if you have stuff below the bed, energy is unable to freely flow. That is the opposite of calming and relaxing, and can disrupt your sleep.
If you’re looking for relaxing bedroom ideas, it’s hard to deny the importance of keeping the space underneath the bed clean. Even if you don’t believe in feng shui, you’ll profit from a cleaner environment with less dust, and it’s an easy win you can achieve in just a couple of minutes.
Keep Surfaces Tidy
Tidy surfaces are essential for a calm bedroom, not only because they look nice and make the room feel calm and clean, but also because they allow us to wind down before we sleep. If there are lots of random items and clothing everywhere, we’re less likely to feel relaxed as we get ready for bed.
Plus, keeping your surfaces cleared means they’re easy to dust and keep clean. This in turn benefits your sleep simply because the air in the bedroom will be better when less dust is being whirled around.
Ditch the Devices (Or At Least Quiet Them)
TV, smartphone, tablet, magazines, books… how much media is surrounding your actual bed every night when you retire?
Sort out any books you’ve already read, and put them away on your bookshelf, or sell or donate them. Toss any old newspapers and magazines in your paper recycling bin.
Out of all the relaxing bedroom ideas out there, the most popular is likely the tip to ban electronic devices and televisions from your sleeping chamber. Why? The argumentation goes something like this: screens give off a blue hue which disrupts your natural circadian sleep-wake rhythm. Some even go so far to say that your wireless devices give off EMF radiation.
I don’t know if the latter is true, but I do know how tempting it can be to doomscroll on your phone when you’re lying in bed. And that is neither relaxing, nor calming.
If you rely on your smartphone to wake you in the morning, you can still put it in sleep or airplane mode overnight. Try reading a book instead of staring at a screen in the dark. You’ll find it makes you wonderfully sleepy!
Curate Your Bedroom Decor
Decoration is a highly subjective topic, and everyone has their own personal taste and style. Whether you love English colonial decor or modern minimalism though, you can achieve a more calming look in the bedroom by avoiding a mish-mash of loud patterns and tons of bric-à-brac.
Too many knick-knacks attract dust and ultimately create more housework for you. Loads of pictures on the bedroom walls can cause our minds to go into overdrive instead of relaxing. Pick your favourites to have on display in the bedroom, and distribute the rest elsewhere in your home. Or, swap out pictures and decorative items every so often, and keep the items you’re not currently using in a box in the closet.
Take a look at what you’ve got going on in your bedroom. You don’t necessarily have to purge your collections, but make an honest assessment of what you have out on display. Determine what you still love, see what you can get rid of, and think about how you could pare down the rest for a more calming look.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to give your bedroom a spring cleaning every few months, and getting rid of decorative clutter in your bedroom can do wonders for making it feel like a calming, peaceful space.
Don’t Work in Your Bedroom
This is a tricky one if you live in a bedsit, studio, or a tiny city flat. It’s not only tempting to set up shop in your bedroom when you live in a small apartment, but sometimes it’s your only option when you have to work at home! Yet this can make it harder to relax and fall asleep at night.
We all need a break from work at the end of the day — and that means not having any reminders of work out in plain sight in our bedrooms. So if you have the space, set up your workstation in a dedicated home office or corner of your living area.
If you don’t have room to work elsewhere in your home, it’s a good idea to at least visually separate your work space from your personal space. That means putting your laptop and other work utensils away at the end of each workday. And switching off the corporate phone until the next morning!
Use Your Bed for Sleeping
If you work from your bed, use it to watch Netflix, text with friends, or eat in bed, you’re going to have a harder time relaxing in it and getting a restful night. That’s because your brain then associates the bed with non-sleep activities, when it should be the other way around.
Making a concerted effort to avoid bedrotting and not hang out in your bed is one of the easiest ways to create a more calming space in the bedroom.
Change Your Bedding on a Regular Basis
Keep your bed linens clean and wash them on a regular basis. Here again, everybody is different. If you share your bed or have night sweats, for example, you’ll probably want to strip your linens at least once a week. Those who sleep alone might feel comfortable washing their bedding on a bi-weekly schedule.
Air out heavy duvets in the mornings so that moisture can escape, and launder larger bedspreads as needed.
Relaxing Bedroom Ideas in Conclusion
Tidy bedrooms offer several advantages, from a more comfortable sleeping environment to reduced stress and improved work performance, as well as health (and even safety) benefits. If a messy bedroom is rattling your nerves, taking some time to sort it out can calm both the space and you down.
Your bedroom is a sanctuary for the body and mind after a long day of work, school or housekeeping. The ideal bedroom is one that allows you to relax, restore your energy, and sleep comfortably so that you can wake up rejuvenated. Ready to face the challenges of the next new day ahead.
How about you? Do you have any relaxing bedroom ideas not on this list? We’d love to hear them in the comments below!
Leave a Reply