Baby Clothes Organization

MrsG1019

Hey ladies.. What are you guys planning on doing to organize your baby clothes?

We have both a dresser and a closet... But I'm not quite sure where to start and how to sort little mans stuff. What are you hanging up vs putting in the drawers? Are you separating the outfits (onesies from the pants) or keeping the outfits all together?

Not sure why this is so hard for me? Lol. Help FTMs.. What are you doin? Also, any STM tips as to what worked best would be appreciated!

abbyful

I don't hang up anything for DS. (I probably will have to hang dresses for this baby.)

When DS was a newborn, I had each size in a drawer; pants on the left, shirts on the right. As he outgrew stuff, I rotated the contents of the drawers, so the same drawer was always currently wearing, the one underneath was the next size up, etc.
I'm probably making that sound complicated, it's not. We had a drawer for size 3-month, a drawer for size 6-month, etc.

Now that he's a toddler, his main drawers are
shirts & pajamas
pants
too-big clothes


A warning about baby clothes, don't trust the sizes. There was stuff DS only got to wear for a short time or not at all because it ran small and by the time I thought it would fit (by the size on the tag), he had already outgrown it. What's a size 3-month in one brand may be the same as size 6-month in another brand.

PandaCon

I used a system similar to @abbyful.  In a six drawer dresser the top left was socks, hats, onsies and sleep sacks. Middle left was pants shirts and sleepers. Bottom left was the next size up. Top right was extra diapers/wipes the other two on the right were misc blankets, extra changing pad covers, the valance that hadn't been hung yet and too small clothes sometimes. 

Now my system is much more like @KUinCBUS. One basket for clean, on for dirty. He goes threw them so fast that I don't get them back in the drawers!

Edit: I can't spell

PandaCon

ClrkKntismyAE said:

abbyful said:

A warning about baby clothes, don't trust the sizes. There was stuff DS only got to wear for a short time or not at all because it ran small and by the time I thought it would fit (by the size on the tag), he had already outgrown it. What's a size 3-month in one brand may be the same as size 6-month in another brand.

We had this issue with DD also. This chart was helpful.

Love this!  I also often have to go by height for DS and ignore the weight (except shorts, he's one size small in these since he has no butt!).  He is tall and skinny so the pants may have been baggy but at least they were long enough. 

mb314

I didn't start hanging stuff in the closet for DS until he was over a year, and then I just hung overalls and hoodies/coats.  Most of his stuff gets folded into the drawers. 

Our dresser is tall and narrow, so here is how I divided clothes:

Top drawer - onesies and shirt

2nd drawer - shorts/pants and PJs

3rd drawer - towels and wash cloths

4th drawer - bibs, socks, hats, and random things like that

5th drawer - clothes that are too big (and sometimes clothes that he's outgrown or are out of season.  Kind of a catch all).

If I had another drawer, I would put blankets/swaddles in it. 

I stored most clothes that were a size up away in bins, and would periodically sort clothes.  If the dresser were larger, I would keep more clothes in a size up out. 

PennyLane26

I totally recommend the Skubb (sp?) Ike.a drawer organizers!

I hang: tops, outerwear, dresses.

3 Small top dresser drawers: one drawer of white onesies/Ts, one drawer of socks and newborn hats, one drawer of diaper essentials

2 large middle drawers: Left - NB/3M clothes - rolled/folded in drawer organizers, Right - 6M clothes also folded in drawer organizers

2 large bottom drawers: Left - next size up clothes with tags (I wash and organize when putting away smallest size), Right - crib sheets, blankets, swaddles

We also have three canvas bins in the closet, one for shoes, one for bibs, one for hair accessories.

silverwings72

Hmmmmm. So what I hear you saying is that basically I need a dresser and a couple bins?? I can totally do this! I was just taking to DH about how to use the nursery closet in the most effective way, while also understanding that we like to keep it simple and easy.

We are thinking of moving an older (ugly) dresser in the closet since we have it laying around. Then buying a cute dresser or changing table to math the crib.

Did anyone else skip the changing table and use a dresser as part changing table?? Or will I regret that later?

abbyful

silverwings72 said:

Did anyone else skip the changing table and use a dresser as part changing table?? Or will I regret that later?

IMO, changing tables are a waste of money. If you want a place to change baby, just put a changing pad on top of the dresser.

Or you don't even need to do that, I don't have any set place where we change DS, he gets changed on the couch, floor, bed, pack-n-play (when newborn and it was at highest setting), etc. When he was an infant, we'd just put a towel or receiving blanket under him.

MrsG1019

Thank you so much for sharing how you do it! I bought 50 baby hangers so I have those for the nicer outfits but like the idea of more casual stuff going the dresser. I'm sure we will end up doing the laundry basket system soon but I can at least start off with a neatly organized dresser/Closet!

Oh & that chart is AWESOME!!!! I wish all baby clothes sizing was the same!

You guys are the best!

MrsG1019

abbyful said:

silverwings72 said:

Did anyone else skip the changing table and use a dresser as part changing table?? Or will I regret that later?

IMO, changing tables are a waste of money. If you want a place to change baby, just put a changing pad on top of the dresser.

Or you don't even need to do that, I don't have any set place where we change DS, he gets changed on the couch, floor, bed, pack-n-play (when newborn and it was at highest setting), etc. When he was an infant, we'd just put a towel or receiving blanket under him.

This what we did! We got the Ikea Hemnes dresser & have the changing pad on top of that!

kfo22

silverwings72 said:

Hmmmmm. So what I hear you saying is that basically I need a dresser and a couple bins?? I can totally do this! I was just taking to DH about how to use the nursery closet in the most effective way, while also understanding that we like to keep it simple and easy. We are thinking of moving an older (ugly) dresser in the closet since we have it laying around. Then buying a cute dresser or changing table to math the crib. Did anyone else skip the changing table and use a dresser as part changing table?? Or will I regret that later?

I don't see the point in a changing table, either. DH built a 3-drawer dresser that's hip height with a changing pad holder on top. It's nifty! 

MrsG1019

KimmieS1756 said:

I am not a first time mom (this is number 4 & 5 for me). But here is our kids clothes closet. I stopped keeping kids clothes in their rooms for a couple of reasons.

1. Our house is 4 bedrooms with the master being on the main floor and 3 kids bedrooms on the second floor. The washer and dryer are by the kids rooms but when clothes would come out of the dryer I still had to bring them all downstairs to organize and sort them into piles of who's they were. Getting them back upstairs was hard because I would get busy and when I would finally think about it the kids were sleeping and I definitely wasn't going to take them upstairs then and risk waking kids. So we constantly had baskets of clean folded clothes laying everywhere.

2. Getting kids dressed each morning was kind of annoying because I had to go room by room and dig stuff out. Just like putting them away.

So we turned our mudroom into the kids closet. So its one room we herd the kids too to change them and everything is right at my fingertips...I'm not lugging clothes back upstairs...and if kids are sleeping when I remember to put clothes away it's no problem.

-Inside the closet I hang ONLY the girls dresses and skirts and the boys collared shirt and polos and that's it. There is a drawer system on the floor of the closet that has out of season pants and shirts and such as well. So right now in those drawers are long sleeve shirts and jeans.

-The cubby system has clothes for my 3 oldest kids. The baskets on top are the socks for each child and it sits above their corresponding column in the cubby system. The top cubby hold contains the shirts and tanks for that child, the middle cubby is shorts/pants for that child, and bottom cubby is already paired/complete outfits.

-The dresser is clothes for the twins. Top drawer is all newborn, middle drawer is 0-3, and bottom drawer is 3-6. The tower part of the dresser has 3 shelves and contains pajamas for each of the older kids on their own shelf.

-Turquoise bin on the floor is laundry. When they change in the morning and night the dirty clothes go directly in there.

-Wire cubbies on file cabinet: Green basket is all swimsuits and cover ups for all the kids, the teal bin is winter gear: hats, scarves, etc. And pink bin is my daughters dance gear (leotards, tights and skirts and dance shoes).

-Memo boards are picture frames I took glass out of and turned into memo boards that holds all the hair bows for both of my girls.

Since this picture was taken I also moved my changing table(which used to be in the main bathroom that is pretty big) against the wall on the far right. We cloth diaper so the shelves on the changing table hold all the cloth diapers and such and we keep the cloth diaper pail next to it. So all changing is easy and done in 1 room.

**In the kids closets we have laid down pillows and they use it as hideouts and such. The dressers in the room instead of clothes contain extra blankets and bedding to make "bedding laundry day" easy. And the shelves on the top of their closets contain the next size clothes that they will grow into.

Hope all of that makes sense.

OMG you are a rockstar! I love your organization and how you have all their clothes on one level in one room! Genius! Thank You!

lincoln79

This is an AWESOME thread! I am organizationally challenged!

missnacholover

I'm thinking I'll do drawers for things like sleepers, onesies, cotton pants, etc.  I'll hang up the fancier stuff.  Right now I have asked to keep hangers for all the stuff I buy and hang them in the closet based size.

Nfranco973

In the babies closet I just hung up the fancy stuff .. Dresses, cute outfits , and her outerwear.
In bins, I seperated: pants, onesies and sleepers.
I'm still looking for a dresser for her and a bookcase thingy where I can keep diapers, hair stuff, lotions, creams, wipes.. I'm going to purchase little bins to slide in there.

JPerona0205

FTM. My sister (she has five kids) hangs up EVERYTHING except pajamas (sleep and plays) which go in a drawer in the dresser. Seems to be easier for her. I thought that was nuts

I am having a little girl, so I'm hanging up dresses, coats, sweatshirts, and the skirt/onesie things (for summer). I bought the youth hangers which are SLIGHTLY larger than the nursery hangers, but I figured I could use them for years. For her dresser, each drawer is a different item (pajamas on top, then onesies, then shirts and pants (because I have fewer of those right now). In each drawer, they are divided by size -- right now, NB and 0-3M, 3M, 3-6M. I am 5'7" and my husband is 6'8", so I have no idea how tall this kid is going to be and thus how big of a size she'll need. I plan to keep about 3 sizes of each thing in the drawer so that I can go up to the next size if a) I run out of clothes or b) I can start seeing what will fit her.

We'll see how long that lasts, but this works for now in imaginary baby land. Who knows if this method will still work in March