Spring has sprung, and it’s time to break out the trash bag and crank up the tunes.
Whether it be a frantic desire for organization at 2 a.m. or a thoroughly planned out day devoted to cleaning, at one point or another, spring cleaning is essential. It’ll leave you feeling refreshed and ready to take on the warm months to come.
As students, we won’t be needing to dust and tidy our entire homes. So, instead, these tips are designed for spring cleaning, bedroom style.

1. Break out the trash bag

This task is, unfortunately, the most difficult part of spring cleaning.
You will need extreme determination and willpower to withstand “The Trash Bag” phase.
Under all circumstances, don’t—and I mean don’t—pick up one item, spend an hour reminiscing, and call it a night. Stay focused and keep your eye on the prize.
Reevaluating the importance of each item in your room will directly challenge your ability to remain rational and on task.
As a general rule of thumb: if you haven’t touched the item in weeks, it shouldn’t be there. It’s time to sever your deep emotional ties with the magazine you flipped through that one time and left collecting dust on your desk.

2. Clear your counters

The next step is to declutter your counters.
Sure, the contents of your drawers are important to sort out, but the creation of open space is key in expanding your room and giving off the illusion of cleanliness and order.
So, it’s time to clear your counters of items that aren’t in regular use or aesthetically pleasing.
Do keep that candle on your dresser, the pencil cup on your desk, the alarm clock on your bed-side table. Don’t keep the array of miscellaneous makeup products scattered on your dresser, the stack of papers you’ve left sitting on your desk for weeks, the mug you’ve left idle on your bed-side table.

3. Retire “The Chair”

We all have “The Chair”—you know, the chair that you toss every clothing item under the sun onto.
Some of us have even taken it to another level, where the chair no longer functions as a chair but instead as a mountain of clothing. Now, it’s sole purpose is to balance the T-shirts that “you’re going to wear” and sweatshirts “you’ve been meaning to put into the hamper.”
Pro tip: Next time you come home and walk into your room, don’t toss your jacket onto your chair. Hang it up in your closet, pop a squat, and bask in the glory of comfortable seating.

4. Switch it up

The flowers are blooming, the grass is more vibrant, and it’s about time your room matched the freshness of the outdoors.
Rearrange the furniture in your room—maybe that chair or bean bag will look better on the other side of the room—or play it safe with small adjustments.
With the creation of all that open space, thanks to steps one through three, it also can’t hurt to spruce up your room with minor decorations, whether it be a change in bedding, new curtains, fairy lights, or a wall decal.

5. Clear out your closet

If you haven’t worn it in months, years even, that T-shirt or dress has no business hanging around in your closet.
I mean, let’s face it, you only wear a finite amount of outfits—we all tend to lean towards the same favorite tees and shorts. You might as well clear out your closet space to not only create order but to also make evident what you should buy this season.
Consider bagging up the old clothes and sending them to Goodwill—at least, then, someone will get valuable use out of them.

You must accomplish these tasks all in one swoop. Or, you will lose your motivation and be left with a room in more of disarray than when you began.
Remember: It must first get messy to get clean—otherwise you’re just fooling yourself and shoving miscellaneous items into your drawers.

Good luck.