Nursery Organization Tips & Hacks

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For such tiny humans, it can be amazing how many things our babies accumulate in such a short amount of time—clothes, toys, and other nursery items galore! (Not to mention dirty diapers: lots and lots of diapers.) In addition to stocking your nursery with all the right must-haves, proper nursery organization can help save you some of your most precious mommy commodities: time and energy. Sign. Us. Up!

Read on for our best nursery organization tips, such as how to organize baby clothes and accessories, as well as clever nursery organization hacks. They’ll help you create extra space—even in small places. And help to ensure you can find everything you need when you need it, even through the hazy fog of middle-of-the-night feedings or pregnancy brain.

How To Organize Your Nursery

We know how chaotic parenthood can seem at times, especially if you’re in the midst of trying to calm your crying and fussy baby, juggle a million things at once, or a combination of the two. And while parenthood itself doesn’t come with any roadmap, you can help maximize the efficiency of your baby’s room by creating a layout with designated areas for sleeping, nursing, changing, playing, and so on. Below, find some nursery organization ideas to plan your baby’s room with a focus on simplifying both your lives.

Mommy Pro Tip: We’ve all been there: Your little one is visibly—and audibly—upset, but you don’t know why. Check out our guide to the 4 different types of cries to help you decode what they’re trying to tell you.

Safe sleeping zone: Your infant will spend huge chunks of their time sleeping (anywhere from 12 to 18 hours in their first year, then in longer stretches with each new milestone they hit). So, it’s important to make sure their crib is in a safe environment—away from any windows, and with the proper mattress, bedding, and other safety measures in place.

Mommy Pro Tip: If your kid seemed to have had the hang of longer and longer nighttime snoozes, but is suddenly backtracking in their progress, they may be experiencing a common disturbance called sleep regression. Learn more here.

Comfy feeding nook: Another pastime that will take up much of your little one’s waking hours is mealtime, which will likely occur eight to 12 times each day if they’re breastfed and six to 10 times daily if they’re bottle-fed (until you start introducing solid food when they’re about six months old). And ensuring you both have cozy feeding positions is key. Create a relaxing, comfortable space so you can enjoy some peaceful, quality time together. In addition to a cushy glider or rocking chair, consider getting a foot stool to kick your feet up on, nursing pillow to minimize muscle fatigue, a side table, light source, and basket within reach to store swaddles, blankets, burping clothes, and books for this precious “Mommy and me” time.

Mommy Pro Tip: Swallowing too much air while eating (or crying) is one of the most common causes of infant gas. Plus, let’s face it, baby toots are a fact of baby life. To help quickly relieve uncomfortable gas and bloating, try our Infants’ Mylicon Gas Relief Drops in either our dye-free or original formula. They work fast to break gas bubbles down to help your baby naturally release them. And the active ingredient, simethicone, won’t stay in their system—it’s not even absorbed. To help promote healthy digestion overall and support immunity, try Infants’ Mylicon Daily Probiotic Drops. Bonus: If your little one is colicky, they’ll help reduce daily crying and fussiness by 50% or more over time. (Discover more about the benefits of baby probiotics.)

Pumping Place: If you plan on breastfeeding, it may help to also have an area dedicated to pumping breast milk. It could be near the feeding nook, perhaps, where you can relax comfortably. Or, simply be an area where you store all your pumping gear—pump and pump parts, hands-free bra, reading material, and phone charger.

Diaper-changing station: Next to sleeping and eating, another frequent baby activity will be changing your little one’s diaper eight to 12 times a day—amounting to almost 3,000 diapers in their first 12 months! Try choosing a changing table—or changing pad that secures to furniture—that’s about waist-height to help avoid standing in awkward positions or straining your back. You’ll also want to keep all your baby-changing supplies—like diapers, wipes, and diaper rash cream, as well as a diaper bin and hamper—within reach, because you should never leave your infant unattended, even for a moment. For this reason, a changing table or dresser with drawers is ideal, so you can have all your diaper bag essentials at hand.

Play area: Time flies when you’re having fun—and so can toys. Designate a specific open area for playtime, with storage nearby like a toy box, baskets, or totes to help make cleanup a breeze. (And help eliminate the guessing game when it comes to finding said toys next time.)

Mommy mission control: Technically, this one doesn’t have to be in the nursery, nor should it be. But having somewhere in your home to help organize other aspects of your family’s lives, as well as your own, can help ease the stress of all that goes with being a new mom. Whether it's a home office, freestanding desk, or another area to keep your calendar, to-do list, chargers, and whatnot, having a specific space to focus on all the behind-the-scenes mommying tasks can help you be sure you have everything you’ll need in one place.

How To Organize Baby Clothes

Even if your kid’s fashionista days are still far in the future, it’s perfectly normal for your baby to go through multiple wardrobe changes a day—they are, after all, a little eating and pooping machine. Add that to the fact that they grow fast—tripling their birth weight by the time they’re a year old. It’s easy for their clothes to get out of hand. To help keep things under control—and easy to find—try some of the following tips on how to organize baby clothes.

Start with a clean slate: If you can, try to start with as many of their clean clothes as possible. (Otherwise, when you’re done organizing, you may notice that there’s space lacking that didn’t take into account what’s still in the laundry.)

Take inventory: In the same vein, empty out their dresser drawers and/or closet so you can take inventory of what items you have, as well as the amount of space. Decide what you’ll keep at the moment and may need in the coming few months, and what your child has outgrown and can be saved for a future sibling or donation.

Group items by category: Sort clothing like onesies, outfit sets, socks, and so on together (keeping burping cloths, swaddles, and blankets in their own separate categories too). And fold them in horizontal (not vertical) stacks so you can maximize space and your ability to see what’s what. Then, you can either visually tell them apart from each other, or add dividers and/or removable labels for where they’ll be kept for easy access. (Hint: The latter labels will make it easier for family, friends, or other babysitters to find what they need too.)

Mommy Pro Tip: Outfits that are sets are fairly easy to be kept together in drawers, especially if you use drawer dividers. But, if you have a nursery closet, hang the tops on regular baby hangers, then use clothespins to clip the bottoms to them so they don’t get separated or lost.

Keep diapering essentials in a top drawer or cabinet: If your changing table has drawers or cabinets, keep everything you need for diaper changes up top for ease of reach.

Put bulkier items together: Now that you’ve separated out burping cloths, swaddles, blankets, and any other bulkier items, keep them separate from day-to-day and bedtime clothes. If you don’t have enough room in dresser drawers or a closet, a basket or other storage solution works fine for these nursery items.

Nursery Organization Ideas, Hacks & Tips

Beyond the basics, we love ourselves a few good nursery organization hacks and tips. See if you find any that may be useful to store your nursery items.

Rolling utility cart: If you’re a little strapped for furniture space, a small rolling cart can be a portable lifesaver. You can keep your diaper-changing or pumping essentials on it, or even use it as a rolling baby book library.

Chalkboard paint: You can paint almost any surface in your home with a chalkboard finish, which can be useful for labeling (or re-labelling) dresser drawers—or creating a masterpiece on the wall with your little one!

Mesh laundry bags: A journey through the laundry can pose a serious risk to any pair of socks—but especially teeny, weeny baby socks. Help keep those duos together, as well as any other tiny sets or items by using a laundry bag made of mesh.

Extra, removable closet rods: You can double (or even triple) your baby’s closet space with removable closet rods. Your kid’s clothes are just as tiny as they are, so pop one or two extra adjustable rods inside.

Plastic storage bins or crates: Useful for baby clothes, accessories, and toys, plastic bins and crates are an excellent way to organize and store any of your nursery items. (Of course, keep them out of your child’s reach if they contain any diapering products like baby powder, cleansers, or creams, or other potentially harmful items.)

Small baskets: There are likely limitless uses for storage baskets in your baby’s room, but in addition to larger items, you can find small baskets that fit in a drawer or closet to keep small items like hats, headbands, bibs, and socks together in one place.

Shoe organizer: Much like other smaller items, a pair of baby shoes strewn about faces a potentially perilous fate. Keep them together by using a shoe cubby or hanging shoe organizer. (If they have laces, tie them together when they’re not on your baby’s little piggies to keep the set in tact.)

Hanging wire baskets: Decorative, as well as functional, you can use hanging wire baskets to store everything from stuffed animals and toys to extra clothes, accessories, and diapers.

Under-the-crib storage boxes: Maximize your baby room’s space by storing extra nursery items out of the way underneath the crib.

Next: Aside from nestling up to you, your baby’s nursery is their sanctuary. Learn another activity you can do with them and all about the benefits of baby massage.

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