The Best Nightstand Organization Tips for a Restful Night’s Sleep

Your bedroom is the place you go to crawl into bed at night after a long day.

Did you know that we spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping in bed? Our bedroom should be a place of peace and tranquility that can allow us to relax so we can get a good night’s rest and feel refreshed in the morning.

So having an organized bedside table is an essential part of that! Here are my very best tips on nightstand organization so you can keep it clutter-free and keep your master bedroom tidy and relaxing!

Need more ideas? Check out these other posts: 40 Ways to Easily Organize Charging Cords and The Ultimate Bathroom Cleaning Checklist + a Free Printable

Why is Nightstand Organization Important?

The first thing you see when you wake up and before you go to bed is your bedside table!

Nightstand organization can help you get a restful night’s sleep and feel peace. So start your day (or night) off on the right foot by having a beautiful, well-organized nightstand.

What Type of Nightstand Will Help You Stay Organized?

Our nightstands can serve a great purpose in how we relax before sleep. An organized nightstand allows us to know exactly where the things are that we need so we aren’t searching through drawers right before bed or before we rush out of the house in the morning.

When your nightstand is organized, maybe you’ll even have time to read a book before bed!

If you already have a bedside table, there are a few ways you can organize the drawer (or drawers) to make it work for you. If you don’t have one or need a new one, I recommend that you get a nightstand with a drawer.

I know many people who have just table-top nightstands without any drawers. While this can be a great aesthetic look, it also creates a cluttered nightstand because you’re just cramming all of your accessories on top of your bedside table.

Sure, it means your things are accessible, but it also means you have a messy heap of items on top of the nightstand! That’s why it’s important to have a nightstand with at least one drawer.

Declutter your Nightstand

The first step to keeping an organized nightstand is to declutter.

Pull everything out of your nightstand. That means taking out anything inside the drawers and clearing off the top.

Make two piles of things:

• items that you want to keep in the drawer
• things that belong somewhere else

This is a really important step because it’s really hard to stay organized when you have unnecessary items in the space that you are trying to organize. 

Your system won’t last if you have too much stuff!

After you have gotten rid of all the things that don’t belong in or on your nightstand, you’ll need to find a home for each type of item.

If you have a few different favorite lip balms, then put all of those together. If you have a bunch of earplugs, put those together. Group similar objects so that it’s easier to organize it all in your drawer.

After you have grouped each type of item together, the fun really begins!

How to Organize and Beautify Your Nightstand Drawer

I don’t keep much in my nightstand, but I know exactly where everything is!

For my drawer, I simply used scrapbook paper to cover the bottom of it to bring in a slight gold polka dot pattern.

Taking that extra 5-10 minutes will really help your nightstand organization game go from just organized to organized and beautiful.

This is a super easy trick to help personalize your nightstand drawers!

Add Storage Solutions to Keep Things in Place

The best way to keep things organized is to find some type of small organizer that will help you keep things compartmentalized in their “home.”

If you look in my nightstand, I have one section of my drawer dedicated to chapstick, another section dedicated to hair ties, and another section dedicated to earplugs.

This really leaves no room for any excuses for not keeping things organized!

Here is the link to my large 3-compartment organizer and the small 3-compartment organizer can be found in stores at Dollar Tree! 

So you could easily organize your own nightstand for about $3!

I have a tendency to get strokes of inspiration or remember things that I need to do for the next day right before bed. For this reason, I keep a pad of sticky notes and pens in my nightstand. I also write personal notes or ideas that I have when I am reading a book.

My ceramic round dish with the “M” on it was at Hobby Lobby for a few dollars. I use this little dish for my earrings because it bothers me to sleep with them in. I also occasionally need earplugs, so I store those in my nightstand as well.

These drawer dividers or organizers are a great way to store smaller items and keep them from getting lost or jumbled in your drawers.

Once you figure out what you need in your nightstand and how many categories of items you need, look for dividers that fit your space. The products I linked above should fit almost any drawer, but you can always look around for other options as well!

Charge your Phone in Your Drawer

One of my favorite features is how I charge my phone. I really dislike charging cords showing all around my house so I

One of my favorite features is how I charge my phone. I really dislike charging cords showing all around my house so I go to great lengths to hide them as much as I can.

In my nightstand, I have drilled a hole into the back of the drawer as well as the back of the nightstand. That way, I can pull my charging cord through the hole and charge my phone inside my nightstand.

That turns a small space in my top drawer into a little charging station and I love it! It keeps the cords hidden but keeps my device in a location that is easy to access.

Remove Books From your Nightstand you Aren’t Reading

Reading before bed is a habit of many people as a way to wind down before they fall asleep. There are so many book lovers out there that just can’t seem to choose one book to read at a time. If that’s you, then this tip is for you!

Cluttering up your nightstand with 20 different books is not going to be helpful for keeping a clean and organized nightstand. I recommend keeping no more than three books that you are currently reading on your nightstand. 

If you have a shelf below your drawer, this is the perfect place to put them. Or if you have a nightstand that has two or three drawers, you can always place your books or magazines in the bottom drawer.

Try at all costs to not store things on the top of your nightstand beside a lamp or other essentials that you can’t part with.

Stick to Your Favorite Items

Nightstands can get cluttered very quickly because we rarely have the energy to put things away before we go to bed. We just want to go to sleep!

So I really recommend that you stick to your very favorite items in your nightstand and this will really help you to keep it uncluttered.

Ideas of things to keep in your Nightstand

• Chapstick
• Pens
• Sticky Notes
• Hair Elastics
• Ear Plugs
• Books
• Change
• Hand Lotion
• Reading Light
• Flashlight
• Eyemask
• Tissues
• Coaster (to protect the nightstand if you store a glass of water there at night)

Don’t keep things on top of or in the drawer of your nightstand if you do not need it there.

It’s so easy to just drop things on the nightstand after a long day! The cleaner your nightstand looks and feels the better you will start off your night and hopefully get a good night’s rest!

Reassess Your Nightstand

Over time, your nightstand may naturally get a bit cluttered. But if you implement a system it will be much easier to clean and keep clean!

If your bedside table has multiple drawers, make sure you’re putting things back in the right drawer. Try to keep your nightstand drawers from filling up with random items. Remember, your nightstand is not a junk drawer!

I hope my nightstand organization post has been inspirational and helpful with some practical tricks and tips to help you keep your nightstand drawers neat and functional.

If you are looking for a practical way to keep your reading books off of your nightstand check out my post about my bedside caddy. I’ve got some more information there on how to keep your nightstands free of clutter.