A new baby usually means more space for toys, items in the nursery, and of course, baby clothes. When it comes to organizing baby clothes, parents have a lot of options, with shelves, drawers and dressers in the nursery being the most common.
You can choose to work with what you have or you can overhaul it and set up an entirely new system of organizing baby clothes. The question is, how much time do you have, and how organized do you want to be?
It's easy to get overwhelmed especially when confronted with a new addition to your family. Fortunately for the new mom there are tried and true tips on how to organize baby clothes in the nursery.
The Simplest Way to Organize Baby Clothes - By Size
It makes total sense to organize your baby's clothes by size. However, a baby's clothing has several variations and sometimes you'll be stuck with a certain item and whether to put it on the big or small pile.
Aside from size, you'll want to separate the clothes and baby stuff by age as well. You can go with age-started sizes, such as 6 to 12 months, then 9 to 12 months and so on until you have most of the clothes sorted out.
Then you'd probably be left with a few oddities, such as clothes that look a lot smaller or bigger than the assigned size and age. The best way is to step up or down in the size department and put them there.
What will your baby wear?
A newborn baby will only have so much clothes to wear. They will be largely limited to diapers, pins, booties or socks and a sleeve onesie, among others.
Since the size won't be that big yet, it's a good idea to set up a drawer system so you won't have to fold and re-fold ever so often. That pile can be broken down easily and only takes a few minutes.
A quick trip to the dollar store should net you the things you need for a cheap yet effective baby clothing organization. You can rummage around the house and find a suitable drawer or clothing storage for your nursery.
Setup Drawers by Type of Clothing
A well-organized drawer is intuitive and allows anyone in your house to get in and find what they need in only a few seconds. You should assign a drawer for blanket sleepers, and another for bodysuits. Continue to move down until all types of baby clothing has been addressed.
You'll want to put the items you know you'll use the most at the top for efficiency. Also, here's a little-known tip: assign only a single drawer for miscellaneous accessories.
Closet Dividers for Better Organization
There are closet dividers in many different sizes, and they are great at helping you keep your baby clothes organized down the line.
Few ways you can use them are to separate your baby's clothing by size, month, type or even color. For instance, if you're organizing your baby's clothing by size, baby clothing come in sizes of 0-3m, 3-6m, 6-9m, etc. You can pack the clothing from each size into 1 or 2 closet dividers. If you have the time you can create labels to put on each compartment so you know what you're looking at a single glance.
Separating the clothing by type is another great way or keeping your baby's clothes organized. For instance, all the short sleeve t-shirts go into one divider, all the sleeve onesies go into another, pajamas goes into another etc. This will make it easy to pull out outfits.
As a word of advice, don't try to put too much stuff in a single drawer or divider as it could work against you. More often than not, trying to pull out a particular item will cause the other clothes to spill and ruin your hard work.
An Example of an Organized Dresser
Perhaps the best way to organize drawer dividers is by following a certain ruleset:
The top right drawer should be for diapers
The top middle should hold hats and socks in dividers
The top left drawer can be for burp rags
The middle drawer should be for miscellaneous items such as nail clippers, pacifiers and similar things
The middle left drawer should be for onesies both short and long-sleeved.
The middle right drawer can be used for diaper covers, shorts and baby pants, all separated by dividers
The bottom drawer can be for swaddles, pajamas and sleep sacks, as well as bedding such as changing pad covers, mattress protectors and crib sheets.
Setting up your Baby's Closet
A baby closet in your nursery can be the furthest thing in your mind, but it works to a degree. You can make the wardrobe as simple as you'd like or as complex and contain a lot of stuff your newborn needs.
You could be wondering, how do you hang baby clothes in the closet? The key is to maximize the space and apply the same divide-and-conquer strategy as with drawers.
You'll want to use small velvet hangers on large and seasonal items like winter gear and jackets to further reduce bulk. Baby shoes can be organized by hanging them with a shower curtain clip or by incorporating drawers and dividers into the mix.
Sometimes everything you need to accomplish this online or at a dollar store. Gather everything together and you can put up an organized baby closet in just hours.
A large closet is typically more difficult to organize than a smaller one, but it's doable. You can apply size dividers the way you did drawers - by months, e.g., 0 to 3 months, 6 to 9, and beyond for the most-used clothes and items. A good organizing hack is to install color-coded hangers or rack rings then label them using a permanent marker.
Adult hangers are probably too big for your baby's clothes, so it's best to shop for baby hangers whenever you have the time. You can do it during pregnancy and when you're planning to buy baby supplies and essentials.
Organize Baby Shoes and Accessories
Lastly, you can't go wrong with a shoe organizer. Regardless if it's a baby girl or a newborn son, it will come in handy more than you'd think. One of the best ways to assemble this is with a caddy - it can also fit baby hats, socks, hair ribbons and others, and you can divide by color. Accessorizing becomes much easier, there's less fuss as well.
If you're without a cupboard, try closet shelves for baby shoes and folded items. They're good for a lot of things, including burp cloths and bath towel storage.
Do You Have a Storage Strategy?
Every household with a bay will have excess baby clothes that may not belong in a specific category. You may not need it now but that doesn't mean you won't need it later.
Small Items and Accessories
It's easy to throw away small things and buy them when you need them later on, but that isn't always the best strategy.
Keepsakes should be kept separately, but those that your baby has and will outgrow, don't hang onto it. Hats, sweaters and similar items can be re-gifted or donated. If you have the time you can sell them online and get back some of your money along the way.
Large Clothes
Unless you're really pressed for space, there's no reason to throw out larger clothes. Your 3-month old will definitely be able to use 9- or 12-month size clothes. You can have them vacuum-sealed to save space and stashed away in the attic or closet. As with all your other baby stuff, you should always label them so you can tell what it is at a glance.
What About Old or Damaged Clothes?
Baby clothes are more expendable than, say, adult ones. If for some reason your baby's clothes have developed a stain or has become a bit old, take it out of circulation so you can have more space for newer ones.
Babies grow so fast that their clothes will become too small a month or so later. With this in mind, you can expect to change your strategy every month or two. With each step, the process of organization becomes much easier, and you can apply this even when they become little children or even teenagers.
Moving up a size is cause for celebration. Afterward, you can do a minor clothing purge for donating or giving away to those who need them. Believe it or not, there's a systematic way to dispose of clothes and it shouldn't take more than a day or two.
Take the clothes in the small size out of the drawer or closet and prepare for disposal. It's true that there might be one or two clothes that can still fit, but at this point, you should keep the size system intact. Then, account for the things that are in the laundry or those that are in the hamper.
You can keep them if you plan to have another baby or give them away to charity. Then, open up the next size clothing and accessories the organization strategy all over again.
Keeping Organized One Closet and Drawer at a Time
Over time, you will develop a habit of organizing baby's clothes, and the good thing is that you can use the same strategy when they're older kids. Don't be overwhelmed and work on one drawer or part of a closet at a time.
| Meet Our KeaMommy Contributor:Lindsay Hudson Lindsay is a freelance writer who is mom to a lovely daughter. She loves dressing in matching outfits with her daughter and bringing their 2 dogs out for their daily walk. |
