Willow and Hearth

Your nightstand should help you wind down, not work overtime as a storage unit. When it is crowded with cords, bottles, and random hotel freebies, it quietly raises your stress level and makes the whole bedroom feel messy. Clearing out a few common culprits can instantly make the space calmer, safer, and more functional.

1) Exposed Cords and Chargers

Exposed cords and chargers are one of the first things professional organizers flag as visual clutter, especially when they snake across your nightstand and floor. According to guidance on things that always make your bedroom look cluttered, visible wires instantly break up clean lines and draw the eye away from calming elements like soft lighting or neatly made bedding. When your phone, smartwatch, tablet, and e-reader all compete for outlets, the tangle can make even a minimal room feel chaotic.

On a practical level, exposed cords also collect dust, get kicked loose, and are easy to trip over during late-night bathroom runs. Consolidating charging to a single drawer, a wall-mounted station, or a hidden cable box keeps the function without the mess. That small shift supports better sleep hygiene, since you are less tempted to fiddle with devices when they are not front and center on the nightstand.

2) Piles of Books

Piles of books may look cozy at first, but professional organizers consistently point to stacked reading material as a major source of bedroom clutter. In the same expert advice on bedroom clutter triggers, tall towers of novels, magazines, and half-finished paperbacks are singled out for making surfaces feel crowded and unfinished. When your nightstand becomes a mini library, it stops functioning as a calm landing zone and starts feeling like a to-do list.

There are also subtle psychological stakes. A leaning stack of unread books can quietly signal “you are behind,” which is the last message you need before sleep. Limiting yourself to one current read and relocating the rest to a shelf or basket keeps the visual field clean. You still support a nightly reading habit, but you remove the pressure and clutter that come with overloading your bedside table.

3) Loose Jewelry

Loose jewelry scattered across your nightstand is another clutter cue that professional organizers highlight. The same reporting on clutter-prone bedroom habits notes that small accessories, when left out, quickly create a messy, “dumping ground” effect. Earrings, watches, and bracelets may be tiny, but when they are spread over a small surface, they visually compete with everything else and make the area look disorganized.

Beyond aesthetics, loose jewelry is easy to knock to the floor or lose behind furniture, which can be costly and frustrating. A simple tray, lidded box, or drawer insert keeps pieces contained and protected while preserving a streamlined look. By removing the habit of dropping jewelry directly on the nightstand, you reduce both visual noise and the risk of misplacing items you rely on daily.

4) Remote Controls

Remote controls are classic “miscellaneous small objects” that organizers say add to visible bedroom clutter. In the same expert breakdown of items that always make a bedroom look messy, remotes are grouped with other small gadgets that tend to migrate onto nightstands and stay there. When you have separate remotes for a TV, streaming device, soundbar, or even a ceiling fan, the pile quickly dominates the surface.

There is also a behavioral cost. A cluster of remotes within arm’s reach encourages late-night channel surfing and doomscrolling, which can undermine sleep quality. Consolidating controls into a single app on your phone, storing remotes in a drawer, or mounting them in a small wall caddy keeps them accessible without letting them sprawl across your bedside table. The result is a calmer, more intentional nighttime routine.

5) Leftover Lotion Bottles

Leftover lotion bottles and other personal care products are another category that professional organizers identify as unnecessary bedroom clutter. In guidance on what makes a bedroom look cluttered, extra lotions, creams, and half-used skincare are cited as items that tend to accumulate on nightstands without serving a daily purpose. Multiple bottles in different stages of emptiness create a busy, mismatched look that undermines a serene atmosphere.

From a practical standpoint, open bottles also attract dust and can leak or leave rings on wood surfaces. Editing down to one or two products you truly use at night, and storing backups in the bathroom or a closed drawer, keeps the area tidy and easier to clean. That small boundary helps separate grooming from rest, reinforcing the idea that your nightstand is for winding down, not for housing an entire vanity.

6) High-Wattage Lamps

High-wattage lamps may seem like a harmless nightstand staple, but safety guidance on 15 things you should never plug into a power strip makes clear they should not be connected to one. The reporting explains that high-wattage lighting can overload a power strip’s capacity, increasing the risk of overheating and electrical fire. On a crowded nightstand, where strips are often hidden behind furniture or under piles of cords, that risk is even harder to spot.

Keeping a lamp that demands a lot of power right next to your bed also encourages you to plug in other devices nearby, compounding the load on a single outlet. A safer approach is to use a lower-wattage bedside lamp plugged directly into the wall, or to install a wall sconce that frees up surface space entirely. That way, you maintain good lighting without turning your nightstand into a potential hazard zone.

7) Small Space Heaters

Small space heaters are explicitly listed among the items that should never be plugged into a power strip, according to the same power strip safety guidance. The reporting warns that heaters draw significant current and can quickly overheat a strip, dramatically raising fire risk. When you park a heater on or beside your nightstand, you are placing that risk inches from your bed, bedding, and any flammable clutter on the surface.

There are broader safety implications as well. A heater near a nightstand is more likely to be blocked by books, tissues, or fabric, which can interfere with airflow and cause the unit to run hotter than intended. Positioning any heater away from furniture, plugging it directly into a wall outlet, and using built-in safety features like automatic shutoff are far safer choices. Removing it from the nightstand entirely protects both your sleep space and your electrical system.

8) Hair Dryers

Hair dryers are another device singled out in the list of 15 things you should never plug into a power strip, due to their high power draw and potential to overload circuits. Keeping a dryer on or under your nightstand, where it is likely to be plugged into a nearby strip for convenience, directly conflicts with that safety advice. The combination of heat, concentrated airflow, and fabric-heavy surroundings like bedding and curtains is particularly risky.

Beyond fire concerns, storing a hair dryer at your bedside blurs the line between grooming and rest, encouraging you to treat the bedroom like a dressing room. Relocating it to the bathroom, where outlets are designed for such appliances and surfaces are easier to clean, keeps your nightstand focused on sleep-friendly essentials. That shift supports both electrical safety and a more restful environment.

9) Daisy-Chained Chargers

Daisy-chained chargers, where multiple devices are plugged into a single power strip or into each other, are another hazard highlighted in the same power strip safety reporting. Overloading a strip with phone, tablet, laptop, and smartwatch chargers can exceed its rated capacity, especially in compact spaces like a nightstand nook with limited ventilation. The more adapters you stack, the harder it is to see warning signs such as warmth, discoloration, or frayed insulation.

There is also a clutter cost. A cluster of bricks and cables spilling off the side of your nightstand makes the area look chaotic and invites accidental unplugging when you reach for something else. Using a single, appropriately rated multi-port charger plugged directly into the wall, or charging some devices in another room, reduces both visual mess and electrical load. That keeps your bedside setup safer and easier to manage.

10) Extra Remotes

Extra remotes that never leave your nightstand are another category you can comfortably cut. Reporting on what you can and cannot take from a hotel room notes that remote controls are among the six items you are not allowed to bring home, underscoring how interchangeable and non-essential they are as personal possessions. If hotels treat remotes as standardized tools rather than keepsakes, you can treat duplicates at home the same way.

Keeping backup or rarely used remotes on your nightstand only adds to the pile of small objects that make the surface look busy. Consolidating to one primary remote, using universal control apps, or storing spares in a media drawer keeps your bedside area focused on sleep, not entertainment hardware. That shift also reduces the chance of knocking remotes to the floor in the dark or losing them in bedding.

11) Hotel-Style Notepads

Hotel-style notepads, the kind often left by the phone in guest rooms, are another item that tends to migrate to nightstands without serving a real purpose. The same reporting on hotel items you can take explains that notepads are among the six things guests are allowed to bring home, which helps explain why so many end up in drawers and on bedside tables. Once there, they often sit unused, collecting dust and adding to visual clutter.

In a digital era, most quick thoughts or reminders go into apps like Apple Notes, Google Keep, or Todoist, not onto small branded pads. If you genuinely like jotting things down by hand, a single dedicated notebook or a slim journal looks cleaner and is less likely to scatter pages. Clearing out stacks of hotel notepads frees space for items you actually reach for at night, such as a glass of water or a single book.

12) Purchased Phone Stands

Purchased phone stands are easy to accumulate, but they are increasingly unnecessary if you have access to basic fabrication tools. A roundup of 50 next-level cool things to 3D print in December 2025 highlights phone stands as a prime example of a simple, customizable object you can make yourself. That means the generic plastic stand you impulse-bought for your nightstand is not only clutter, it is also a missed opportunity to tailor the design to your space.

By printing a stand that fits your phone, cable, and preferred viewing angle, you can integrate cord management and even a small tray for earbuds or rings. That reduces the number of separate objects on your nightstand and keeps everything in a defined footprint. If you do not own a printer, you can still apply the same principle by choosing one well-designed stand instead of cycling through multiple cheap versions that end up scattered around the room.

13) Messy Cable Setups

Messy cable setups, where cords spill over the edge of your nightstand or knot behind it, are another category you can eliminate with smarter design. The same list of cool things to 3D print calls out cable organizers as especially useful projects, precisely because they tame visual and functional chaos. When every cord has a dedicated channel or clip, the entire bedside area looks more intentional and is easier to clean.

Untamed cables are not just an eyesore, they are also a tripping hazard and a common source of wear, since they get yanked and bent as you reach for devices. Using organizers, whether 3D printed or store-bought, lets you route cords neatly behind furniture or under the tabletop. That keeps your nightstand surface clear for essentials and reduces the risk of damaging chargers or ports over time.

14) Traditional Nightstand Lamps

Traditional nightstand lamps, especially bulky or generic ones, are increasingly optional as lighting design evolves. In the same overview of next-level 3D print ideas, custom lamps are highlighted as a standout project, showing how easily lighting can be tailored to your exact needs. When you can design a lamp that mounts to the wall, clips to a headboard, or integrates storage, a standard base-and-shade model sitting on your nightstand starts to look inefficient.

Freeing your nightstand from a large lamp opens space for water, a book, or a small plant, and it reduces the risk of knocking the lamp over when reaching in the dark. Custom fixtures can also direct light more precisely, supporting better reading without flooding the whole room. Whether you print a lamp or choose a slim wall sconce, shifting lighting off the nightstand helps the surface stay uncluttered and purposeful.

15) Separate Book Supports

Separate book supports, like bulky metal or wooden bookends, are another item that can quietly crowd your nightstand. The same collection of 3D-printable ideas includes bookends and holders as next-level projects, which means you can design supports that fit shelves or walls instead of your bedside table. When bookends live on a proper bookshelf, your nightstand is freed from acting as a mini library.

On a small surface, traditional bookends often require you to keep more books than you actually read, just to justify their presence. Replacing them with a single vertical holder, a wall-mounted ledge, or a custom-printed bracket lets you store current reads efficiently without sacrificing space. That keeps your nightstand aligned with its real job, supporting rest and a simple nighttime routine rather than long-term storage.