Organizing Your Nursery
Whether you’re excitedly anticipating a little one’s arrival or are postpartum and feeling a little overwhelmed adjusting to your new life, organizing your nursery can be one of the most important, and dare we say, life-changing, choices you can make. Late night feedings, diaper changes in the dark, and early morning “before you’re fully awake” childcare can wreak havoc on even the most organized parents.
When it comes to parenting, we all want to be able to care for our children’s physical and emotional needs well, without all the stuff getting in the way. We want feedings to be bonding and magical memories, not times where we are looking around at the chaos that resulted from searching for bottles or that missing diaper rash cream. Maybe you’ve got a crawler now, who tears things apart as fast as you can clean them up, pulling every bin off of the shelf, and dumping every container out.
Every stage of parenting has its challenges, but why make it harder on yourself than really necessary? Why not create a system that will help embrace those learning moments of knocking things over? Why not set yourself up for success by anticipating the inevitable and organizing in a way that can withstand all of your baby’s joy?
Identify Hazardous Items
First things first, there are some items that you simply cannot let your child get into. Identify these risks: choking hazards, nail clippers, lotions, baby powders, medicine etc. Every child is unique and has different needs that require things, that for practical reasons should be stored in their nursery, but impractically can offer some risk. Collect these items and locate the most out of reach location for them to be stored. Be careful not to just put them up high – especially if still in sight as this can just encourage your climbers to climb dressers or shelves that could be dangerous in themselves. Instead, utilize that top closet shelf or inside of a high dresser drawe
If possible, storing potentially hazardous items in a cabinet with a safety lock is your best option. It can be tempting to get lax with this, but the “inconvenience” is worth it in the end. If you’re not up for any of these solutions, and want to be able to quickly grab these items, think about installing a floating shelf in your nursery. This solves the climbing problem, but still allows you easy access and the chance to display all of your baby’s cute personal care accessories. On the other hand, if you need to store something within sight of your little one, use opaque storage containers.
Crib Storage
Whether you’re into plastic under the bed bins, rolling drawers, or simple smaller storage baskets, don’t neglect this important organizing space! Under the crib is the perfect place to keep things out of the way. If using long shallow plastic bins with lids, this can be a great location for items that you just don’t use that much – off season clothing, spare linens, bulk diapers and wipes. Or if you want it to be a more accessible place to encourage your child to be able to learn to dress themselves, you can keep rolling drawers here for their current clothing.
Multiple small baskets are another quality option under the crib that can be a successful solution for storing stuffed animals, shoes, or really whatever you need it for. Let’s not neglect the rest of the crib surface for organizing, though. Hanging crib baskets to store your child’s most important sleep items like that special blanket, stuffies, or sleepsack, utilize the vertical space of your room unlike anything else!
A caddy should include a changing pad for laying your baby on, diapers, wipes, diaper creams, hand sanitizer, an extra outfit for those unexpected blowouts, diaper trash bags, and lotions. Going back to safety in the bedroom, this is also a great solution as a caddy can be placed out of reach without a child being tempted to climb the changing table to reach those exciting diapering items!
Dresser Organizing
Drawer organizers simply cannot be beat. When working with tiny baby clothes, it is far too easy for everything to slide, become unfolded, and end up in a tangled mess. Not something any busy parent wants to deal with. On a budget? Even little baby shoe boxes can be repurposed as drawer organizers. Adding dividers keeps the categories more specific too, so you always know where everything is and where it’s going.
File folding the clothes or rolling them up will also help you to get a better view of them while maintaining maximum drawer space. Is your baby growing faster than you ever thought possible? Keep an “outgrown basket” by the dresser so that items that no longer fit don’t make their way back into the drawers, taking up valuable storage space.
Having a hard time deciding what should be stored in the dresser vs. what should get hung up? Rule of thumb: if it matters if it gets wrinkled, hang it up, if it doesn’t, put it in the drawer. Most of us barely have time to iron our own clothes, so ironing baby’s clothes is just not going to happen. Save yourself the hassle and hang as much as possible! Things like socks, onesies, every day t-shirts, most pants and shorts, pajamas, hats and turbans, bloomers, tights, swaddles and burp cloths—these are your drawer items.
File folding clothes or rolling them up will also help you to get a better view of them while maintaining maximum drawer space. Is your baby growing faster than you ever thought possible? Keep an “outgrown basket” by the dresser so that items that no longer fit don’t make their way back into the drawers, taking up valuable storage space.
Toy Storage
Undoubtedly when you found out you were expecting, friends and family members began gifting stuffies, rattles, books, etc., and as your baby grew, so somehow did their toy collection. This can become very overwhelming very fast! Whether you go the route of bins, baskets, or shelves, it is so important to make sure that every toy has a place and that there is a place for every toy!
If you want to teach your young child to develop good clean-up habits, keeping toy storage at an age appropriate height with age appropriate labels is key! Kids are much more likely to put things away if there is a place for them, especially if that place is not overflowing and challenging to fit something into, like an overstuffed toy chest. Try using picture labels for each bin – block bins should have a picture of blocks on it, doll bins should have a picture of dolls, and so on.
You also don’t have to keep all of your child’s toys. In fact, you shouldn’t. If the item never gets played with, donate it. If you have too many toys, it’s more than likely that your child is as overstimulated and overwhelmed as you are! More toys does not equal more happiness! If you have a lot of quality toys that you don’t want to part with, consider a toy rotation. Keep out just a few puzzles at a time, a few dolls, books, you name it, and then put the rest in storage for a few months until it’s time to rotate them out again. If your child doesn’t miss the toys after a few months, this is also a great time to donate, donate, donate!
Also, remember to go through your child’s toys regularly (clean-up can be a good time for this!) to assess if there are missing pieces or broken parts and get rid of those items. Learning “less is more” in childhood will help your kid establish healthy relationships with material things as they grow!
Diaper Changing Station
Last but not least, less talk about diaper changing stations! While having a changing table is a wonderful thing, not everyone has space for one. Think about investing in a dual dresser/changing table to save on space. Or maybe more practically, you should set up a diaper changing caddy and ditch the classic changing table all together. Practically speaking, being prepared to change your baby anywhere in the house is probably your best bet at staying organized on the go.
A caddy should include a changing pad for laying your baby on, diapers, wipes, diaper creams, hand sanitizer, an extra outfit for those unexpected blowouts, diaper trash bags, and lotions. Going back to safety in the bedroom, this is also a great solution as a caddy can be placed out of reach without a child being tempted to climb the changing table to reach those exciting diapering items!
Being organized is going to make your days with a growing little one so much more pleasant! Babies can make life unpredictable, but having a system in place will help you roll with the punches and be prepared for the unexpected so that you can enjoy these early days of parenthood to the fullest! Trust us, it’s worth it!
Article by Meghan Griffo, Sunny Spaces, Pittsburgh Home Organizers
