Introduction + Day 1 [Thursday 14 August 2025]
Welcome to Episode 4 of my 4th annual Whole House Declutter series! In this episode, I’ll be cleaning and decluttering my son’s room, starting with his closet.
When it’s time to organize and decorate during Phase 2, my basic plan for my son’s closet is to replace his hanging shelf with a 6-cube organizer and bins, and also add a simple shoe rack – just like the plan for my youngest daughter’s closet, which was the last room I decluttered.
Updates
Also, I have a couple of updates! First, I’ve decided to clean and declutter the children’s rooms and their loft before organizing and decorating them, instead of completely refreshing one space at a time. I’ve been trying to save money to complete these projects, but all of our extra money for August went to school supplies and uniforms, so it’s been a bit of a struggle to save for anything else. But, by decluttering all of their spaces first – which is free ($0.00) – it’ll give me more time to save.
Secondly, in the last episode of this series, I mentioned that I had applied for a job at a company I worked for years ago. Well… I got the job! I’m just waiting for an email with the onboarding information after they clear my background and drug test. I’m due to start on September 15th, and I’m really excited about this new chapter!
Now that my son’s closet is cleared out – and I’ve also spot-cleaned the walls and dusted the baseboards, off-camera – it’s time to start putting his clothes back in nicely.
Day 2 [Friday 15 August 2025]
It’s Day 2, and I’ve already started piling my son’s things back onto his bed again after clearing it off last night so that he could sleep in it. Now, I’m clearing everything out from under the bed; then, I’ll be moving items off the floor onto various surfaces in his room so that it’ll be easier for the next step of detailed cleaning.
After that, off-camera, I dusted his ceiling fan, spot-cleaned the walls, wiped down the baseboards and doors, and vacuumed his floor.
Now, I’ve moved on to decluttering the room itself, starting with his bookshelf. After that, I cleared off the bed and sorted everything into piles… also off-camera.
Day 3 [Monday 18 August 2025]
It’s Day 3, Monday, and I didn’t work on his room over the weekend, mostly because it’s just easier to sort and make decisions without my children around questioning everything. But, today, I’m finishing sorting through his stuff to see what can be decluttered in this mess of toys, dirty clothes, and trash.
After everything was sorted, I put things away as neatly as possible and decluttered his desk, mostly off-camera again. I know I’ve done about half of this project off-camera so far, but I was just getting worn out. I had already cleaned and decluttered my youngest daughter’s room earlier in the same week; so, by the time I started on my son’s space, I wasn’t as focused on recording but on getting it done while I was actually motivated to declutter.
Room Plan
But, now that everything’s tidied, I’m making his bed. While I’m doing that, I thought I’d share my basic plan for his space. My son’s favorite color is blue, so we’ll keep that as the theme. I may get him new bedding and at least one nightstand so that his things don’t keep piling on the floor at night. I’ll probably paint his bookshelf, and I plan to swap out desks: his current wooden desk – which my in-laws made – will probably move to the loft for the electric piano, and his desk that’s currently in the loft will come into his room since it has drawers for storage.
I also want to replace his ceiling fan with a simpler light fixture and move his current light fixture into our master bedroom. None of the bedrooms came with light fixtures when we bought the house, and it’s been a slow process getting them in place. After a few years of living here, we still don’t have one in our room or the home office downstairs.
As with my youngest daughter’s room, I’ll be working with a $200 budget, so the refresh will stay simple overall, with organization as the main focus.
Conclusion
For this first phase of my son’s room refresh, I decluttered nearly a full black trash bag of items to donate, along with a bag practically overflowing with trash.
When it’s time for Part 2 – the organizing and decorating phase – I’ll still need to declutter and replace his closet organizer, desk, and ceiling fan. But, I think this is a good start; his room does feel cleaner, lighter, and a bit more manageable now, which was my goal.
Simply Amber Marie 