The word “bedroom” when referring to that of a teenagers, is often of a negative connotation. Images of clothes, CD’s, and other clutter strewn about it likely visioned. To many, a city street dumpster is cleaner than that of their young adult offspring.

Unfortunately, this stereotype is not far from being fact, and I’m regrettably apart of it.

The carpet can be seen, however the avalanche that occurs nine out of ten times I open my closet and the busted canvas bags filled with clothes under my bed are enough to assign me to the category of “messy teenager”.

This long weekend I took the dreaded tackle of cleaning my room, and the results were beyond satisfying.

I began by completely turning my room upside down. All the clothes in my drawers were dumped on my bed–ensuring that I couldn’t sleep until the task was finished.I recommend this method for any reluctant rearranger for this purpose.

As I went through the piles, I found that I had in my possessions tops that I’ve never even worn. I was dumbfounded at the amount of price tags that were still attached to new shirts.

If you’re a fashion-lover (clothing hoarder) like myself, your dresser drawers can become very difficult to close. To combat against this terrible road block between me and more shopping, I began military packing my clothes. Yes. Military packing. It really works, and it sort of files your clothes which makes it easier to access larger portions of your wardrobe at once.

I’m very attached to my clothing. I will always find somewhere to where whatever I haven’t worn. However, there comes a time to pass things along. My golden rule is if you’ve asked yourself do I need this in two previous occasions, then the answer is no.

On this excursion, I didn’t find much that I wanted to rid my collection of. If you do find yourself with a good amount of clothing to give away, try places like Plato’s closet who pay you for gently worn clothing.

After the clothes were neatly packed, I started on the shoes.

Oh shoes. Unfortunately, I fit into another stereotype: crazy shoe lady.

I have red plaid creeper boots, I have glitter stilettos, I have Converse, Vans, Osiris, Top Siders–if it’s a shoe, I have it.

To lesson the impossible pile on the bottom of my very small closet, I invested in a closet hanging shoe rack. It’s really, really nifty, and it holds about 20 pairs. I recommend hanging flats and high heels on the racks, and keep your solid shoes on the floor of your closet.

The last hurdle was the most Herculean task of the day. The task that almost broke my spirit: organizing my makeup.

If you’re like me, you’ve accumulated enough makeup to fill a whole dresser drawer.

This is a good method of storage and beats keeping your makeup stored away like acorns in various bags and boxes. The only problem with this method is that you makeup runs together and soon you have a pile of glitter and mascara. To solve this, I measured out my drawer (length and width) and had my father make a 4-way divider in the drawer.

This could easily be done with cardboard or even easily done in the board method. When using boards use very thin boards. By creating a cut in the middle of both pieces, they can be fitted together to make a cross. Place it in the drawer and enjoy supreme organization.

I chose to make one section lip stains/lipstick/lip gloss/ lip balm, the other blushes/powders/foundations (liquid, solid, whipped)/ moisturizers/eye creams, the next eyeliners/mascara, and the last eyeshadows galore.

I’m am supremely happy with my new organized lifestyle. The benefits of the all day strife were great as now I can fully utilize my whole wardrobe and makeup collection.

Follow these tips the next time you take the tackle. You just might be pleased.