With the help of Adeline Poh, marketing and communications manager of Howards Storage World, we give you tips for cleaning up a messy bedroom.

VANITY/DRESSER

- Invest in a cosmetic caddy so you can easily categorise things such as earrings, necklaces and bottles of lotions for easy access.

- Make sure you can see everything at one glance so you don't have to rummage through your stuff each time you are looking for something. By rummaging, you spread the mess.

CLOSET

- Start by colour-coordinating your closet or sorting them into dresses, tops and bottoms. Keep clothes you rarely wear at the back of the wardrobe and your oft-worn ones in front. If you're starved for space, invest in a space-saving hanger that can hang, for example, four skirts on one frame.

- Donate clothes you no longer wear to charity.

- Use good hangers. Wire hangers damage delicate fabrics such as silk. It's important to get satin-padded hangers or flocked hangers - those with a velvety finish - so straps of clothes don't fall off.

- Take out your shopping as soon as you get home. Then fold down the paper bags and store them out of sight.

- Do not leave worn clothes to pile up in a corner. If the pile has been there for more than a day, throw it into the wash or the mound will just get bigger.

- A space-saving solution is over-the-door storage for handbags. It gives you easy access to them, and you can hang them either on the inside of the door, or outside. If you have nice totes, they could even serve as decorative wall features.

- Use drawer organisers to categorise your things for easy access.

- A modular wardrobe system is preferred over a built-in wardrobe. A modular system is one that can you can build up over time and according to your needs. If you move, you can take the whole system with you and reconfigure it according to your new home's dimensions.

MISCELLANEOUS TIPS

- You collect magazines but they take up space - consider instead cutting out the articles you like. You save a lot of space by not keeping the entire magazine.

- If you find you've run out of storage space, consider investing in a hanging organiser that can be put up easily when you need to use it, or folded down when you don't.

- Get a shoe rack that grows with your needs, like those that allow you to extend shelf lengths or be stacked one on top of another.