If you’re like me, you bought or were gifted all the cute baby clothes for your little one. You oohed and aahed over the tiny little jammies and itty bitty onesies. And as time went on you accumulated more and more items for your baby that you then realized all needed to be put away. Organizing baby clothes can be overwhelming! Sure, their tiny size is adorable but it can also make for a challenge in terms of folding and because babies seem to grow at the speed of light chances are you’ll be trying to organize multiple sizes in one space. This can leave you feeling like you have no idea what you have or where it is when you need it. We’ve got a few tips for how to keep things organized.
1. Closet Dividers
If you’re keeping most of your baby’s clothes in the closet, you’re definitely going to want some of these closet dividers! Having 6 different sizes all in one space means you’re trying to check tags before grabbing an outfit to be sure it’s the right size. And let’s be honest we just don’t have the time or patience to be sifting through a closet full of outfits looking for one that fits.
The dividers make it easy for you (or any other helpful person doing a load of laundry for you) to know where to put different things AND they also help you see what you have in each size. That way as you get close to being ready for that next size up, you know if you have what you need or if you need to hit the sales racks again.
2. Baby sized clothing hangers
You’ll also definitely want to invest in some baby/child size hangers. No one wants to be trying to maneuver a newborn sized onesie onto an adult sized hanger. Because baby clothes are typically quite small, when you hang them in a closet you’re often left with plenty of unused space underneath the hanging clothes.
This can be a great place to add extra racks for more hanging clothes OR you could pick up some multi-drawer organizers to put in that space. These can hold clothing items you don’t use often like snow pants or bathing suits, items that can’t be hung like accessories or socks, and even things like bedding!
3. Drawer dividers
If you have a dresser to store baby clothes in, either in addition to your closet or perhaps as your sole storage option, you’ll still want some way to divide or separate the clothing within the large drawers. These cloth bins are a great way to split up the drawer space into more useful sections. You could organize the clothes in the bins by size or by type of clothing or both depending on the amount of drawers you have available. If you have a label maker or a vinyl machine at home you could even add labels to the drawers so you and your partner (or the babysitter) can find what you need quickly without opening all the drawers.
With drawer organization you may not want to store all of your onesies size 0-12 months in one spot so it can be helpful to have a drawer or two that are used for organizing the clothes that are currently too big and leave the other drawers for the clothes that are currently being worn or are almost the right size. For example, I kept all of my little one’s newborn and 0-3 sized onesies in a bin in one of my dresser drawers. The onesies in sizes 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12 are stored in the very bottom drawer. When he outgrows the newborn sizes, I’ll pull them out of the bin and replace them with the next size up.
A lot of dressers have a few larger drawers, great for the bins, and also have one or two smaller or narrower drawers as well. These smaller drawers are great for small items like socks and hats/bows.
Wondering how to fold those clothes to make them fit nicely into the drawers or cloth bins? I remember discovering that folding baby clothes was harder than I thought- it turns out their small size actually can make it a bit more challenging. We recommend using the Marie Kondo method for folding those onesies and jammies. She recommends folding lengthwise, tucking the sleeves and then folding in thirds or fourths. Then place them in the bin front to back rather than stacked on top of one another. This not only allows you to be more economical with the space you have available, but it also makes it easier to see the different outfits and grab what you’re looking for.
Do you have other tips for organizing baby clothes? Share them with the other mamas below!