Whether you are expecting your first child or your third, chances are good you have already accepted that the coming months and even years are going to push your organization skills to the max. When bringing a new bundle of joy home, you want the focus to be 100% on the baby and not on figuring out how to organize or even reorganize their room on a daily basis.
Late nights and early mornings are never the right time to be contemplating where to move the diapers and wipes or how to keep the diaper rash cream from getting mixed in with the hand sanitizer again. To help you organize and better arm yourself for the loving challenges ahead, you might want to consider implementing the following tips for organizing your new baby’s room.
Start With Laying Out The Changing Table
When it comes to taking care of your new baby you are going to end up spending a lot of time around the changing table. This is where the action tends to be in the first months, and a lot of it is the sort of thing that needs to happen quickly and efficiently.
Take some time standing in front of the changing table. Try to visualize yourself changing your baby’s diaper. Even simple things like whether you want your baby with their head to your left, right, or in front of you can influence where you position essential supplies.
When it comes to organizing things you want to keep essentials out where you can reach them. The last thing you want is to be digging around on lower shelves looking for something, while your baby squirms around on the changing table pad.
This includes essential diaper changing and baby care items like:
- Diapers
- Diaper rash cream
- Hand cream
- Hand sanitizer
- Additional clothes like onesies, hats, mittens swaddling cloths
If you are like a lot of new parents, then chances are good you’ve been buying changing supplies in bulk. It helps to keep bulk items stored on a lower shelf or tote bin near the changing table, but not as the primary stock. You can then keep a smaller volume up by the changing table pad where you often need to grab them at a moment’s notice.
Closet Organization Is Essential
Your baby’s closet is also a place that sees a lot of action. Not only is it a place that’s common for bulk storage, but it’s also a place that goes through a lot of rotation.
Your baby will grow remarkably fast in the first few months. Onesies and swaddling wraps will quickly give way to sleepers, rompers, and cute little outfits to match all the pictures you are sure to take. Keeping the closet organized makes it easy to find what you want, when you want it, without having to sort through a dozen outfits that your baby outgrew a month ago.
This starts by picking out a specific strategy for rotating small clothes out of the closet while also making room for new clothes coming in. While this is a nuts and bolts methodology, it’s not the only thing you can do to keep the closet organized. Other baby closet organization solutions include:
- Installing shelf dividers
- Keeping outfits on size-labeled hangers
- Using stackable totes for outgrown clothing
- Setting up a specific day of the week to reorganize
- Rotating bulk storage items
Organize The Baby’s Dresser
The baby’s dresser is another one of the places in your new baby’s room that sees a lot of action. It’s all too easy for the drop drawer or two in your baby’s dresser to descend into a frustrating “Junk Drawer.”
One of the best ways to prevent this from happening is to install drawer dividers. These are essentially small wood, plastic of heavy-duty cardboard partitions that you install into the drawer with pre-planned spacing. Most are easily adjustable. You can then set them up with a spot for common items.
This helps keep hats, from intermingling with mittens, socks, headbands, and other common baby clothing accessories. Any folded outfits or things like spare blankets can then be stored in the lower drawers to keep them from adding to the confusion.
Use Stackable Totes For Bulk Storage & Other Items
A lot of new parents like to stock up on bulk items that they know they will go through frequently. This includes things like diapers and wipes. Though it might also extend to other essential baby and self-care items like diaper rash cream, and hand sanitizer. At the same time, babies also tend to outgrow their clothes very quickly, leaving you with a lot of gently used items that will potentially be resold at some future garage sale.
Stackable heavy-duty totes are a great way to keep things out of the way in a vertical stack that also minimizes their horizontal footprint. Just make sure to put clear labels on them so you can find what you need at a moment’s notice. When it comes to storing outgrown baby clothes, it’s also helpful to keep some sort of inventory sheet inside the tote, so you can find what you want to sell, donate, or reused for the next child a year or two later.
Install Subtle Lighting
Finding what you need in the dark of night while changing a fussing baby’s diaper is a challenge all on its own. Chances are that clever nightlight plugged into the outlet isn’t going to shine the amount of light you want in the drawer or shelf you are searching through.
Installing soft lights in key locations like under the changing table or under the closet shelf will help you find what you need, without waking the baby all the way up by turning on the overhead lights. There are a lot of battery-powered small lights that you can install with Velcro or some type of portable contact adhesive to hold it in place. Most are touch-activated to give you light at a moment’s notice, even if you have to touch it with your elbow.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that becoming a parent is one of life’s greatest and most rewarding challenges. By getting your new baby’s room organized and taking steps to make maintaining a basic level of the organization easier, you will make it easier to stay focused on your baby, rather than hunting through a dresser drawer at midnight just to find a missing booty sock!
