2nd, 3rd time moms - need your expertise here!
We bought a new 6 drawer dresser for the nursery. We're also going to add some sort of organization system in the closet (standard size). We have an old Ikea 3-drawer that doesn't match anything and I'd like to get rid of, but DH insists that we should keep it for the nursery just in case. The problem is, if we keep the Ikea dresser it sort of changes all my decorating ideas for the nursery, including some shelving I want to hang on the wall. So I'd prefer to decide whether to keep or get rid of it now since I don't want to be moving shelving once the baby is here.
Do you think a 6-drawer dresser + closet is enough space for all the baby clothes and accessories, or should we keep the 3-drawer too?
Re: Nursery decor - how much storage space do we need?
This. All we have for DD#1 is a 3-drawer dresser and her small closet (with one shelf). We also have a small toy chest for her toys/stuffed animals. For some reason people think that stuffed animals are a perfect gift for a baby and we have a million stuffed animals that take up a lot of room. We also have a ton of books too. I wish I had more shelves than anything for storage, not drawers.
As soon as the baby outgrows all the clothes/accessories that you get from your shower and/or gifts, you probably won't need as much storage room for clothes (after she outgrew them we put them in SpaceBags and put them in storage). This, at least, was the case for us. We had A LOT of clothes until she was about 9-10 months old then space really wasn't an issue.
My Chart
I agree with PP, although we are getting both a 6 drawer and a 3 drawer dress for DS's "big boy room" that he's moving into before the baby comes. We need the space--and he's only 2. So you may want to hang on to it.
Also, I cannot stress the need for other storage- we have 5 bins of clothes (newborn/0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-18), as well as tons of baby gear (swing, pnp, bouncy chair, bumbo, exersaucer) that take up a lot of room. We had to move (okay, HAD TO is a stretch) because we ran out of storage room in our 2-bedroom house.
I am a FTM, but we are using the closet and a long double dresser/changing table that we we purchased with a hutch. The dresser has three little drawers and four big drawers. We bought a bookshelf that matches, as well, and the crib converts to a toddler and fullsize bed so our thought is that our daughter will use it for a good long while (at least until she moves out and maybe she'll do what I did, and take it with her!).. .what I plan to do is keep a few bins of the "older" clothes that I am already buying/receiving as gifts. If I have room in the closet for more "older" stuff, then I'll keep it there. I'm not sure what I'll have room for yet! This brings up another question I have and I'll post it separately!
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With DS we had a 5 drawer upright dresser inside of his standard size closet and there was enough room for everything.
Now with LO, I'm doing major rearranging. With them both having a upright dresser outside of the closet and clothes in the closet. I think I need more room. I guess we'll see once I get LO's dresser in DS's room.
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It totally depends on how much stuff you want to have for lo. With my first I never had more than a plastic three draw dresser. I just didn't have room or the money I was still in college when I had him and it was more than enough room for what I had for him and he was a very happy baby.
With my second I had a six drawer large dresser completely full of stuff not that I used half of the outfits he had. But I had hand me downs from four little boys so I got the stuff out to see what I wanted to use. In my experience the more space the more stuff you will have.