Let’s Ask Mrs. Twist: Help Me Declutter My Bedside Table!

Every once in a while, we receive emails from readers who are in a quandary. This question came from Mary in Austin:

“How can I hide my ugly cord situation on my bedside table, yet still have easy access?

First, Mrs. Twist does not judge. We all have “catch-all” spaces in our homes. Once we get control of the clutter we can enjoy the space, especially in a bedroom where the whole point is to relax. In looking at this photo, we can gather she likes to read, play her guitar, charge her devices and have a place for supplies. Nothing out of the ordinary.

In her message, she said her table had drawers and even suggested she could drill a hole in the back of the drawer for power cords. I think that is the easiest and most cost-effective remedy if you can discipline yourself to keep everything off the top of the table and inside the drawers.

Here are a few suggestions. Pretty and functional can co-exist together. If the goal is to have a clean, inviting space as well as be functional for charging devices, I would suggest something like this bamboo organizational caddy from Amazon.

You can dock your tablets and phones, have a place for your TV remote and compartments for essential supplies like maybe just a few pens and sharpies. So back to her before photo above, you can eliminate the three pencil cups and the power strip off the top because she can put a power strip inside the organizer to charge the devices from the back.

For the stack of books, I would suggest only having the current book you are reading on the table and store the other books in the drawer. I can’t tell how many drawers your bedside table has, but one side could be for “books in the queue” and the other side of the drawer could house something similar that I do in my bedside table…

You can use drawer dividers from Walmart to categorize your supplies. I use one bin for vitamins and medicine, one for lip balm and hand lotion, one for remotes and so on. She can put all her sharpies in one bin, her toiletries in another and the other side of the drawer can be for books and magazines.

If it’s in her budget, I would suggest a wall mounted bedside lamp — like the ones they have in hotels. Then, all you would need to have on the table would be an organizing caddy, a current book, a candle and maybe a vase of fresh flowers! Like this inspiration from Pinterest.