From a Teen’s Perspective: Conquering a room cleaning

Many (though certainly not all) teenage rooms seem to have a decoratory theme that can only be described as “chaos.” I typically consider myself an organized person, but when it comes to my room — well, it’s often a jungle of scattered clothes, schoolwork, books, and other items I was too lazy to put away earlier.

Every few months, I get a burst of inspiration to clean my room, and I spend a few hours stuffing t-shirts into my drawers and papers into my desk. However, the pigsty reappears in mere weeks.

As a result, I’m trying to clean my room with greater intention and precision, to ensure the mess not only disperses but has a harder time coming back. After all, I want to come back from a cramped college dorm to an organized room during breaks.

Here are some of my top tips for undertaking the harrowing yet extremely rewarding journey that is cleaning your room:

1. Make a plan: Prepping for cleaning will make it easier and more efficient. First, figure out your order of operations. For example, I like putting everything together, sorting through it, and then putting it all back, whereas other people like to work by sections of the room or specific categories of items. Speaking of categories, I recommend designating where each type of item will go in your room. Pick a place in your room or another room to consolidate and store items you don’t actively need but desperately want. Additionally, it helps to set deadlines for each step of the process in order to spur motivation.

2. Go all in: The most successful cleans require focus and dedication. Therefore I suggest cleaning without watching movies or T.V. shows and keeping cell phone distractions to a minimum. However, I do love listening to music and find that it can actually help me focus. I also avoid splitting up my cleaning into multiple periods of time so I don’t lose steam (even though the prospect of a nap often tempts me while I’m organizing). The key to every transformative clean is remaining locked in on the goal.

3. Sort it right the first time: Sorting is the most important step in cleaning your room. My trick is to approach each item with an emphasis on logic over emotion. The obviously sentimental or useful-in-the-future stuff goes into storage, currently necessary objects remain in my room (which I later place in an organized fashion), and unnecessary, non- sentimental things get trashed or donated. I often mistake unnecessary items as necessary, so I sometimes ask myself, “If I moved, would I take this with me?” If you still need help giving up certain objects, remember that less “keepers” means less organizing.

There’s no one way to clean a room. However, staying focused and following certain steps can elevate your organization. Just remember that after the room is nice and neat, the consequences of building up a new mess are worse than just putting that t-shirt away in the first place.

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Dylan Lanier is a senior at Menlo-Atherton High School. His column appears weekly.

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