128. Your Nightstand is Keeping You Awake

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Be honest, how organized is your nightstand? Does it support your bedtime routine, or do you feel like you're always looking for something you need - right before you're supposed to unwind? In this episode, I'll give you three EASY steps to get your nightstand customized to what YOU need, so you can relax - or at least free your mind to worry about other things. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

I have seen a lot of nightstands over the years. I have had to organize them, I've had to clean the tops of them, I've had to move them for people, I've had to wrap them. And it's interesting what people keep in their nightstands because a lot of times it's not what you think. A lot of times the nightstand becomes extra storage. And this is probably what is keeping you up at night. As much as people talk about the blue screen protectors and the certain lights, the different types of lights that can get into your eyes before bed, I'm not saying that that's not true. I'm not saying that certain lights can keep you up at night, screens, TVs, all of that. I just think mentally, where some people say your bedroom needs to be an oasis, that needs to be set up to where you feel like you can relax. I think the nightstand is such a crucial part in helping you relax before you go to sleep. And right now, if I had to estimate, I would say that probably 70% of you have an overly cluttered nightstand. So do me a favor, if you're home and if you're listening to this at home, go to your nightstand, open the drawer. If it's a little table and you don't have much on it, then obviously this isn't going to be for you. But that also is going to be something that we'll talk about later in the episode is if you are a minimalist, as far as your nightstand goes, maybe you do just have a little side table. Maybe you just have a place where you can put your phone, you can charge your phone, maybe there's a lamp and a little flower, and that's it. You are already ahead of the game. But I would also argue that having a little bit more space to store some important things that you need beside your bed is probably going to be a little bit better than just having some kind of plant stand that doesn't have any kind of storage. But let's back up to what your nightstand looks like. Let me explain what I have seen over the years. I have seen a full-blown bookshelf in terms of every single book the person owns is either in the nightstand, which means the opening. So let's say your nightstand has a top, let's say it has an opening in the middle, and then it has a drawer. Okay, because that's what a lot of nightstands are, or it's a double drawer, or it's just a top and a drawer, and then a plain front. If you have any kind of opening that's like a shelf or a drawer, I have seen people completely fill both of those spaces with books. I'm not saying you can't read before bedtime. I actually think it's good. I actually think that for the people who struggle with trying to look at screens at night and that keeps them awake, if you switch to a book like I do, I fall asleep immediately. If I want to read a book, I have actually learned that I cannot read it at night. I cannot read it before I go to bed. So I used to have a couple of books either on my nightstand or on that little shelf that's kind of in between the top and the drawer. What I have learned is that what helps me is to actually get in bed, get on my phone for a little bit, put the phone down, and then I actually turn on the TV to something that's pretty neutral. So maybe I just turn on a show that I'm not really invested in, but it's not necessarily like weird or eerie. It's something that can just kind of play in the background. And then I put the sleep timer on, and then when that goes off, the TV goes off and I'm probably already asleep. Now that works for me because if I don't have the TV on and I have the lamp on beside me, I will most likely pass out sitting straight up against my headboard, and then the lamp's on. And then I wake up at like five in the morning and my lamp is still on, and I'm still kind of like slouched down straight up, and my neck hurts and my eyes hurt because I never turned off the lamp. And then something's usually in my hand, like my phone or a remote control. So what I have learned is that at night I will prop myself up. I've talked about this before. I love my heating pad. I will prop myself up against the heating pad. I will get on my phone, and that way I can kind of, I guess, power down some of the things that are part of my day. Like I can check my emails really quick. And this isn't about sitting down and trying to work at the very end of the day. It's basically just a wrap-up. It's like, okay, I put my child to bed, I'm in bed, I'm gonna check and make sure that no other emails came through. If I need to upload something to Dropbox, I do that really quick. If I want to check social media for a few minutes, I may do that. But then once I start to like doze off, that is when I reach over to my nightstand, I plug in my phone to charge it. If I need to set an alarm for something, I do that. I flip it upside down so I don't have any kind of light that pops up when I get a message. I turn it on silent, put it face down on my nightstand, and then I take the heating pad out from behind me and I turn it off and I throw that on the ground beside me. And then I turn on the TV, set the sleep timer, I rearrange my pillow so that I'm actually lying down. And then I actually try to go to sleep. That's what works for me at this phase of life because I have tried everything else. If I sit up and try reading in bed, even with like a book light, then it never fails. I don't get very far and then I fall asleep, and then that book light is on the rest of the night, or it's gonna wear out the battery. So I'm kind of telling you what I do when I go to bed, because that is actually supposed to correlate with what is on your nightstand. So this easily could be a 10-minute task. I could have said, hey, we're gonna do a 10-minute task today, let's organize your nightstand. But that doesn't actually solve your problem. If you have a problem, if you're someone that's like, you know, my nightstand is so cluttered, I have to look through a bunch of stuff to try to find my hand lotion. I have to take out five or six books off my shelf or from the drawer in order to find my charging cord. If you're sitting there saying, okay, right before bed, I am trying to find the things that I need so that I can go to sleep and set up my nightstand, then that is where we actually need to address what the problem is. Like I said before, I used to read before I went to bed. So I had a couple of books on my nightstand. I would at the old house, I actually did all of my like end-of-day things. Like I would put in eye drops, I would use nasal spray, I would put on chapstick. I actually had a spot in my kitchen that was really convenient for all of that. And so by the time I got to bed, I didn't need that stuff there. But at the new place, I actually do it at my nightstand. I use my nasal spray, my eyedrops, all that fun stuff that us older people do right before bed. And then there have been times where if I'm using a humidifier, I have kept the water for the humidifier, like the distilled water. I have kept it near my nightstand. If it's like a gallon of water, you know, maybe I kind of tuck it under my bed or I put it in the nightstand drawer if there's not much else there. Um, sometimes I've used bottled waters. And so there have been different times that I have had different setups based on how the rest of the house is organized. But here I'm really trying to be aware of what do I actually need on my nightstand? What makes sense? What am I going to keep in here that's actually going to enhance my bedtime experience and make me fall asleep easier? Now, I'm not a big candle person anymore. I used to love candles. So some people may light a candle and maybe they do a little meditation before bed, or maybe they read to candlelight. For me, I just feel like that's too dangerous. I am definitely somebody that will fall asleep, and that's what I used to do years ago. I would light a candle, I would end up falling asleep, and then like at two in the morning, I would wake up, and of course, the candle was still burning, and I'd, you know, blow it out and put the cover on it. But then I'm like, okay, I really don't like that. And so then I would read and I would have my book lamp. So there was a time where I would have a candle beside the bed, I would have a lighter, I would have books, I would have my phone charger, and a handful of other things in the drawer. And I'll explain that in just a second. And then I'm like, okay, I absolutely cannot read at night. I can't read in bed. I fall asleep every single time. I don't really have a designated bookshelf, but for those of you who do, I would suggest if you fit into this category, that you take your books from the nightstand and you go put them on your bookshelf. Or you go put them on a reading table. Like if you actually have a reading chair and midday you sit down and you read there, that's where I would keep them. I think a lot of people feel like a nightstand just needs to have a couple of books on them. And maybe you like that for decorative reasons, but for me, once I realized that it made no sense for me to have books on my nightstand when I kept falling asleep, I actually move them to a different place. And where I tend to read is out on the balcony. I'll go out there, I'll, you know, and this is what a bird nerd I am. I'll turn on my bird call app, I'll put that beside me so I'm not on my phone, but then I'm reading, and every time I look over, I'll see if the app has picked up a different bird. And so to me, that's kind of a quiet time where I'm sitting outside, I'm on the balcony, I'm listening to birds, but I'm also reading. And it's usually like midday, like mid to late afternoon. And so that is what works for me. So when I come in, I actually have a little table that I have a couple of books on where I can grab them before I go out to the balcony. And then when I come back in, they go right back there. I know exactly where they are. Now, as far as the nightstand goes, in the drawer, this is what I have. I actually have a fire blanket. And I've talked about having an emergency bag in another episode. I've talked about having emergency supplies, I know I have in another episode. But this is another chance for me to remind all of you that you need to have some kind of emergency, I guess, stash in your nightstand, especially of a drawer. If you have a drawer and you can just put this stuff in there, if you wake up one night and there's a fire, I want you to be able to open up your nightstand drawer and you have a fire blanket that you can pop open really quick and you can drape it over you because you may not have very much time. The fire could be in the next room. And if you're like, okay, I can't open these windows or I don't have time, or that's where my front door is, and that will be the quickest way for me to get out, then you at least have a fire blanket that you can put over you to protect you when you run out. Now, I'm not saying that's the best way to do it, but I just keep thinking to myself, I would hate to think that a fire broke out and all I had to do was wrap myself up in something fireproof and I can get to the door I need to get to. Or maybe the fire is already in your room and you can at least drape that over you while you're trying to open the window. Okay, so I recommend in your nightstand you need to have something for emergencies. This could also be an emergency little kit. Say you have to have an epi pen, glasses, something to wear if you're like, okay, if I wake up and there's an emergency, this is something that I'm going to need to take with me, like medications. That's another thing. So you want some kind of emergency kit based off of your own customized situation. The other thing is protection. And I know some of you are going in one direction, and this is a clean family podcast, but I'm talking about safety. I'm talking about something to defend yourself if somebody breaks in. Some people have a gun in their nightstand. I have pepper spray and I have something a little bit more lethal in my nightstand. Women, I know that some of you don't want to have anything serious. Pepper spray is a good option. Even if you want to keep something sharp in your nightstand, even a screwdriver, okay, something to where if you wake up and someone has gotten in your house and you just need something to where if somebody grabs you, you can at least stab them with something. It doesn't have to be a knife. That actually creeps me out too. And I've talked to clients over the years that are like, I feel nervous about having some kind of blade or knife. I'm the same way. I would say if you want to keep some kind of screwdriver, the pepper spray really is a good option because if you spray somebody and it actually gets on you, yes, it may hurt your eyes a little bit, but I think that if you have something, I just think it's gonna help you. The other thing is if you have something that you do right before bed, like a ritual, like I said, I do the chapstick, eye drops, nasal spray, tissues. So I do all of that right before I go to bed. Sometimes I'll be laying in bed and my eyes will water. Like I'll yawn and yawn and my eyes will water. And so I'll grab a tissue and they're right beside my bed. I keep the remote control on the nightstand right beside my bed. But I also have an empty spot beside me. There are things that I keep on the pillow. Sometimes the remote's on the pillow, sometimes my phone's on the pillow. I have read memes before where people talk about, you know, the only thing that should be beside you in bed are snacks, you know? So everybody does something different. And for me being a parent, I purposely leave that side of the bed open because my child before has had nightmares. And I'll wake up in the middle of the night and he's standing in the doorway and he's like, I had a nightmare. Can I come sleep with you? And I'm like, yeah. So he'll climb in bed. So I try not to keep anything on the pillow beside me. And I have just always slept on one side of the bed, whether it's empty or not, because I want for him to feel comfortable if he's scared that he can come in and climb in bed with me. And we're coming to the end of that. He's 12. So I can't imagine that when he's 15 or 16, he's gonna feel comfortable doing that. And I'm gonna be like, no, you're too big. You're gonna, you know, kick me in the ribs, which is what kids do. But for now, that has been my routine. I'm keeping that routine for a little while. As far as decorative stuff, I'm not a big plant person. Even like fake plants, I just over the years, they just get so dusty. And it's really hard to clean them. And I may have like a wreath, like a little decorative wreath in my kitchen, and there could be like some kind of fake plant in the living room. Whatever you put on your nightstand decoratively, I mean, that's totally up to you. I do have a picture frame. I have a picture of me and my child. I have a lamp, I have the tissue box. And then other than that, I will put my phone on the nightstand, I'll put the remote control on the nightstand. Sometimes I'll have a drink, but it's usually like half of a bottled water. I don't really think it's a good idea to bring food to your nightstand. If you're sick, of course, that's a completely different scenario. In that case, you may have like a tray that you can put on the bed. You know, maybe you've got your medicine on the nightstand. That's where, you know, you customize it and you're like, okay, for this situation, I need this beside me. For the people that don't have any kind of drawer, I think a lot of times the reason that people do that is because maybe they just have a really small space between the wall and the bed. And a little plant stand is the most that they can fit there. Some plant stands have a little bitty drawer, and I used to do that. I used to have a cute little plant stand that had a tiny little drawer, and when I opened it, that's where I would put my remote control. But then it didn't leave a lot of room to put other stuff. And really, the plant stand itself didn't have room to put a lamp, but I also had a floor lamp, so I didn't really think about it too much. Customizing your nightstand, obviously, your nightstand is very personal to you. It's almost like your right-hand man, like right before you go to bed. But what I will tell you is if it's too cluttered, it is not going to allow you to relax. I have had people over the years that will organize every single room in their house, but they really struggle with two things. They struggle organizing their bedroom closet and their nightstand because they know that these are places that they can store a lot of stuff, they can shove a lot of stuff into, and there's a lot of things that they can hide and a lot of things that are easy access if they're stuck in their room. Now, if you've just run out of space and you're like, I have filled every space in my house, and my nightstand had a drawer, and that gave me a chance to put all of my books, or some people actually store a lot of their sleepware and their intimates in their nightstand drawer. If you really are living in a small space, like if you're in an RV or a tiny house or a studio apartment, and that's all the space you have to store some clothes or shoes or jewelry, accessories, whatever, I understand that that may be your only option. If you are in a five-bedroom home, I guarantee you that a lot of that stuff that's in your nightstand can be stored other places. So I think in organizing your nightstand, there's three steps. Step one, you need to pay attention tonight before you go to bed and say, what is my actual routine? Number two, what items in my nightstand currently support my bedtime routine? And then step three is you're gonna remove all of the items from your nightstand that don't currently support your nighttime routine. Where you put them is up to you. I would encourage you, again, if you have a lot of books, you go put them on a bookshelf or on a reading table. If you do read at night and you want to have a book, I would have two books max. I would have two books and a reading lamp, if that's something that you use, the little reading light that clips on. If you have kind of like a kit where you're like, okay, this stuff always gets lost in my drawer, like my reading lamp, my phone charger. You know, if you're somebody that doesn't have a charger plugged in every night, like I do, I actually have a little extension cord that comes in through the back of the nightstand and I have a charger that sticks out of it. And so that's what I plug into every night. If you don't have a setup like that and you literally just grab your charging cord every night, if there are things that you do every evening that are small that kind of holds you up from getting ready for bed, like if you tend to spend five or 10 minutes looking for the things you need to get ready for bed, maybe you've got like a little wired headphone, you know, maybe you've got chapstick, maybe you just have like five or six things that you're like, I need these things right before bed. Consider getting some kind of storage bag or like tiny tote or something to where you can just pull out the whole bag and put it on top of your nightstand, pull out everything that you need, put the bag to the side. And then when you wake up in the morning and you're done with all of those things, they go back into the bag and the bag goes back into your drawer. That way, in the middle of the night, if you need to reach for a gun or a screwdriver. Then you can reach for those things and you're not fumbling around. That would be horrible. Could you imagine if you actually had some kind of personal protection in your nightstand and someone broke in and you're fiddling around trying to find it, which again, I'm just gonna say, as far as gun safety, I know a lot of people keep guns in safes, but there are people that do keep them, and a lot of police officers do this. A lot of people who are very comfortable with guns keep their protection where they can get to it quickly. Because if somebody breaks in, that's an emergency. They have to be able to protect themselves. If there's a fire, I want to be able to get to my fire blanket. And then I do have like one of those smoke masks, and I have two of them. So if I wake up and there's a fire and I actually see visible smoke, I will grab my two fire blankets, my two face masks, and I'll run in to my son and put the mask on him and a fire blanket on him, and we're gonna figure it out together. Do we run out into the hallway? Do we head out to the balcony? We also have a fire ladder. This is kind of like next level. If you're like, hey, what else do we need? I do have a fire ladder because we do live high up in an apartment building. And I didn't get the longest ladder because I didn't want us tripping over it, but I do have a ladder that will take us down, I believe, one or two balconies. So as long as we get down lower, if the fire is on our floor, now this is something I keep not in his nightstand, but in one of his organizers that's in his bookshelf, because that is what's actually closer to the balcony door. I can grab the things that we need, run into his bedroom, grab the fire ladder, hang it over the railing. And then if the fire literally is right outside of our door, then we have already prepped everything in a matter of probably two or three minutes. Once you actually wake up and realize what's going on, I have everything set up to where all I have to do is reach down and grab the stuff out of the drawer and head for his room. So between protecting yourself, having an emergency bag, if you have to leave in the middle of the night for some reason, if there's a medication, if there's an epipin, if there's something crucial that if you have to leave, other than grabbing your child or your car keys or your purse, you may need that little bag because that's something that you need if you're going to be gone for a couple of days or something happens to your home and you can't come back. So I encourage you to take the time tonight to really pay attention to what all do I have in my nightstand? Did I just throw random stuff in here for no reason? Do I have stuff stored in here that really could be stored somewhere else? And with the nightstand, I feel like people look at it like every other part of their home. They're like, this is a big drawer. I can put a lot of stuff in here. But really with your nightstand, you want to set it up to where you feel like you have everything you need to be able to get into bed right away. You know, like I said, I've got my heating pad. When I'm not using it, I roll it up and I put it in that drawer. My drawer is never completely filled. When I put the heating pad in there, it's a little more filled, but I could still fit other stuff in there if I had to. And you just want to have the space to where right before you go to bed, you feel like you have everything you need so that that way you can go right into bed and feel like you can relax. And then if in the middle of the night there's an emergency or something that you absolutely have to grab, like your passport, maybe you keep your passport in your nightstand so that you can grab it if there's an emergency and you also know where it is if you're gonna take a trip. Because that's the other thing. We're gonna have a future episode talking about being prepared for travel. We've done travel ones before, but some of you keep losing your passports, you keep losing all of your important things in order to take a trip. And so we're gonna get back to that later. But it's just something to think about. Pay attention to your habits tonight, wake up tomorrow, consider going through and moving stuff to other rooms that doesn't have to be there, and then really organizing the things that are still there so that you can have a good night's sleep. And maybe there are other things keeping you up, but you want to be able to say that your nightstand isn't one of them. All right, I hope this episode was helpful. Please make sure to subscribe to the bonus content. The minimum contribution is only $3 a month, and you have access to all prior bonus episodes that I have posted in the last two and a half years. Make sure to follow us on YouTube and Instagram at labeled organizing. Thank you so much, and I will see you in the next episode.