One of the challenges when you have a baby is figuring out how to organize all the clothes. Some clothes are marked 6-9 months and some are marked 6-12 months – what’s a parent to do? Moreover, they grow so quickly so you need to be able to access them quickly and efficiently. When it comes to knowing how to organize baby clothes, you’ll need the right supplies and the know-how.
In this blog post about how to organize baby clothes, we will share some of our favorite ideas – the ones that have worked best for us as I raised my daughter and now as she raises her three little ones.
How to Get Started
Start by sorting out what you have available for storage space – do you have a lot of extra room in closets or drawers? Are you looking for something portable that can be moved around? Will the baby need to share some storage space with others?
Once these questions are answered, get creative! We have used bins on shelves, bins under the crib, drawers in a dresser, baskets on shelves under the changing table, hanging caddies with “shelves” in the closet, and hanging over-the-door shoe bags. Those rolling carts with three sections in them provide really easy portable storage too.
Neither of us ever found it useful to hang the clothing on hangers in the closet. Oh sure, maybe a few special outfits (like their baptismal clothing or other special occasion/holiday clothes), but for the most part, it took longer to put them away and longer to grab another outfit when needed. So, how to make use of the closet space? Add stacking bins or a shelving unit with bins or baskets on it.
Organize by Size
If you’re like us, you probably have a variety of clothing in different sizes for your baby. The thing is, organizing the clothing by size can sometimes be easier said than done. If you have some that are marked 3-6 months, some marked 6 months, some marked 6-9 months, and some marked 6-12 months, how do you sort those? All of them say they’re for 6 month olds, right?
We do it by sorting them into general size categories:
- Sizes NB, 0-3 months, 3 months
- Sizes 3-6 months, 6 months
- Sizes 6-9 months, 9 months
- Sizes 9-12 months, 12 months
- Sizes 12-18 months, 18 months
- Sizes 18-24 months, 24 months, 2T
Organize by Type of Clothing
Once you have the clothing sorted out by size, it’s a great idea to then sort out the current size of clothing your baby is wearing by the type of clothing. We like to organize according to the following categories: onesies, hats, socks, pants/shorts, shirts, sleepers, and sweaters/jackets. You can change the categories to suit your needs.
Organize by Frequency of Use
Now, think about the clothing that you use the most. You might not know this when the baby is first born but over a bit of time, you’ll see which clothing items you reach for the most. You might find that your baby gets chilly easily and you like to layer onesies under everything. Or perhaps, it’s the opposite and you find that they run hot, so they pretty much live in onesies.
We make sure to keep the items we use most often closer at hand and even have a basket filled with a selection of frequently used outfits and from that we can just grab and go.
Organize by Season
For the most part, organizing by size takes care of organizing by season for us. For example, William was born in the summer so his 6-month sized clothing was all winter stuff. However, we did have some separate boxes/bins for specific holidays so we could find their cute little Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day (and so on) outfits quickly and easily. We didn’t keep these with the baby’s other clothing in their room, but rather, in the basement since we only needed them once in a while.
Important Tips When Sorting and Organizing Your Baby’s Clothing
You don’t have to keep all the baby clothes – even if they were gifts. Read that again. Listen, when my daughter was born I received more newborn sized clothes than she could ever possibly wear before she outgrew them. And she received some that were scratchy or not really my style and I knew I’d never put her in them. I just made sure to put her in each outfit that was a gift and take a photo of her in it. I’d send that to the person who gave her the gift and thank them for it – and then, I’d pass that outfit along to someone else (or to a charity that would give them to someone in need).
Sometimes people would generously pass along hand-me-downs and I would go through those and go right ahead and donate anything that I knew we’d never use. There is no point in keeping something you won’t use and I felt much better about passing it along to someone who would.
Labelling the bins/drawers/baskets makes it much easier for babysitters, grandparents, and other visitors to help out with changing baby. It can also help you keep things straight when putting loads of laundry away or looking for something for baby to wear quickly too.