Guest Bedroom Declutter Mission: How To Clear The Clutter

Today your mission is to focus on a guest bedroom declutter session, so that your guest room, or spare room, is ready to be used by guests as intended.


This mission is designed to be done whenever you need to do it, but it makes sense when also focusing on either your own bedroom or your kids' bedrooms, as part of one of these two challenges as part of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge.

If you have the luxury of having a spare room that guests can sleep in (and trust me, I know it's a luxury, I don't have one!) you probably don't have the luxury of using the room exclusively for when guests come over, but it often serves multiple purposes.

That means when you work through this mission you've got to think about not only decluttering a bedroom but also some type of other space at the same time.

Some of the most common dual functions for a guest room in a home include:

• Home office;


• Craft room; and/or


• Storage space

Consider The Function(s)
Of The Room

The first thing you should do when tackling this type of project is to clearly think, in your mind, of how you already use the room, and how you want to use it in the future.

For example, for a room to be comfortable for a guest to sleep in, itt has got to have a bed, and plenty of space to hold luggage or other items guests have brought with them while traveling. This should also include some space in a closet for clothes, as well as drawers to store items.

Therefore, when you're decluttering make sure to clear out sufficient space for these activities to occur.

Further, if you use the room for other functions, you've got to think what items need to stay in the room there to allow those functions, such as a desk and file drawers, for example, if you want it to be a home office, or perhaps a sewing table if it's also your sewing room.

The trick is to figure out how to fit these dual functioning tasks into the space where they don't interfere with each other, which can be a bit of a challenge.

Therefore, clearing out excess clutter is one of the best ways to do this.

Don't Make The Project Overwhelming But Instead Work On It A

Little At A Time

As always, work 15 minutes at a time on the mission so you don't get overwhelmed.

For one thing, this is a task to declutter an entire room, so who would expect you to be able to do it in one 15 minute session?

For your own bedroom, and for those of your kids, I've got quite a few missions devoted to the task of decluttering it, including focusing in separate sessions on flat surfaces, under the bed, drawers, cubbies and shelves, and more. It would be no different here in the guest room.

Here's my instructions on how to declutter using 15 minute intervals, so you don't make too huge of a mess at one time, nor overwhelm yourself by biting off more than you can chew at once.

The nice thing about spare rooms and similar spaces is that you can make things a bit of mess in there in the process of decluttering without it causing too big of a problem, in the short term, because no one is consistently using the room. (Keeping things from getting too messy is much more important, for example, in the kitchen which you are guaranteed to use more frequently.)

However, working in short bursts, and cleaning up your decluttering process as you go, can also keep you from feeling overwhelmed, so that's why I still recommended doing it a little at a time.

You can start in one corner of the room, for example, and move methodically through it so you actually are forced to deal with each item and make a decision about it before moving on to the next thing.

Because these rooms are often storage areas and dumping grounds in your home, here's also an article about how to declutter these storage rooms, which includes a discussion about how a lot of what we store includes items where we haven't yet made a decision about them.


I know that decluttering your guest room can seem like a daunting task if you've let it become more like a junk room. However, you'll be so happy when you've got it cleared out and ready for other uses beside just storage.

To get you inspired below I've provided several before and after collages from readers who've tackled their own guest bedroom clutter and made the space inviting and ready for both guests and for their other projects they do in these rooms.


Photos courtesy of Jamie Brandon

Before & After Photos From Readers Who've Decluttered Their Guest Rooms

The photos above were sent in by a reader, Linda. Her guest room, like for many people, also was her home office. That meant she had to focus on several different tasks that I have here in the Declutter 365 missions all at once, which is why I'm glad she focused on working just a little at a time.

For your convenience, as she mentioned one of the daily missions we focus on as part of this broader mission, to declutter a guest room, I've tried to provide a link to those declutter mission articles, in case your guest room contains some of the same types of items.

Linda said, "This section of my declutter process included sorting under the bed container, clearing off and finding the actual guest bed, as well as the bedside table!

Added to donation bag, added to recycle bin, have a basket of shredding to do, filed some papers! And since section 1 declutter was the dresser drawer for spare sheets, had room to actually store the extras I had on the bed because there was no room for them in the dresser!!!!

Took a bit longer than 15 minutes but I did a bit each day to give this section proper attention!!!"

She continued, explaining, "I did completely clean and reorganize the dresser, where I keep table cloths, doilies, etc.

I do still need to clean and organize each of my desk drawers, and my filing cabinet needs a purge and sort. Those I can pull a drawer out and deal with one at a time.

Going to fit in 1 desk drawer at least daily plus keep up with our daily tasks. I have a 31 bag with handles that I keep on the desk for mail/bills that need to be handled. If company comes I just have to grab that out of the room and no sensitive info is just laying on the desk.

The file cabinet can lock if need be, everything else in the room if guests feel like snooping they won't find much unless seeing how many pens and pencils with sticky notes I have is exciting!!!!"


This set of photos, above, was sent in by another reader, Cheryl.

Cheryl said, "I decluttered and reorganized my craft/guest room. It was a mess due to I used it throughout the holiday for wrapping and storing gifts and as a place to get other stuff from the living area out of the way temporarily."

But it looks great now Cheryl! You really did a great job cleaning and decluttering the space!

You can get more tips on how to declutter your craft room here, if you too use your guest room also as a place to work on these types of hobbies.

Are You Ready To Get Rid Of The Clutter In Your Guest Bedroom?

Finally, the photos above were sent in by a reader, Chris.

She said, "Phew! I just cleaned up my dumping ground/office/guest room! This is a room that I have decluttered a lot in already. In fact, I had it cleaned up for a guest in December, who left just a couple days before Christmas. I managed to fill it up with all kinds of stuff since he left, but it only took me about 90 minutes to get it tidied up."

That's great Chris! Sometimes we've got to work for a while, slowly but surely, to get an area decluttered, but when we get it done it feels great!

I hope seeing these pictures has inspired you to get rid of the clutter in your spare room or guest room now too.

When you begin to declutter the feeling you get is contagious, so if you're loving the results you're getting I would encourage you to keep going.

I've got a whole series of 15 minute decluttering missions (eventually 365 of them!) that you can do.

Just pick and choose the ones you want to do, that will make a big impact in your home. But if you want someone else to tell you the order you can also grab the 15 minute daily decluttering mission calendars and follow along as we all get our homes clutter free together!

In addition, once you've got the room decluttered, make sure it's actually ready for guests. Here are 20 guest room ideas and essentials for you to stock in your guest bedroom, to make overnight guests feel right at home!

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Getting Rid Of Bedroom & Closet Clutter Hall Of Fame

5 Tips For Preparing For Guests In Your Home

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