Keeping your home organized with a new baby can be really tough. If your third trimester is almost done, you’ve no doubt already harnessed those nesting instincts and begun preparing for your new baby.
If this is your first, or if it has been a while since the first, it may be time to using these fantastic organizational tips to help to ensure your little begins his or her life safe and well cared for.
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Before we get into the hacks, here are a couple of different core tips that will help keep you sane while you are trying to stay organized.
Don’t get behind
Keep on the menial tasks every day. It won’t become overwhelming if you don’t allow it to become truly dirty.
Have a place for everything
Storage containers are your friend. Make sure you have a permanent place for everything and that it’s in an easily accessible place.
Keep multiples of the same thing in different rooms
If you have to run all the way across the house to get a diaper, there is a good chance you will forget to put the wipes away. If you have a place in each room you can keep daily items, it’s a lot more likely they will end up where they belong.
Remember that it’s okay not to be perfect.
EVERY new mother has a messy house. Sometimes it stays this way for years. As long as your child is happy and healthy and it doesn’t become unsanitary, a little mess is perfectly okay.
If you find that you are feeling really overwhelmed by the mess right now, consider looking into Hilary’s Organized Home course. She has inspired tons of families to take control of their mess.
If you are a person that feels a lot of pressure to have your house looking perfect before company (I know I am), or if you find yourself losing essential documents all over your home, it may be worth looking into.
If you don’t have time to read this now, PIN IT for later!
HOME ORGANIZATION HACKS FOR THE NEW MOM
Use a dresser for clothing instead of a closet
Hear me out. Personally, I hate hanging up clothing because it takes FOREVER to put everything on hangers. I tried to keep all of my baby’s clothing hung nicely in the closet, but after a few weeks I gave up and started keeping everything in a dresser instead.
Trust me; it takes much longer to hang clothes up than it does to put them away in drawers. Try it sometime.
An additional time-saver is only to fold the clothing in half hamburger-style. It doesn’t need to be complicated or time-consuming to put away baby clothes.
Buy drawer organizers
Life is going to be pretty busy, so buy some drawer organizers so you can keep all of your baby’s clothing in separate sections. This way you can quickly grab what you need. I had a separate area for plain onesies, print onesies, outfits, socks, pants, and nightwear.
I even separated the nightwear into nightgowns and footie pajamas! It made grabbing what I needed easy and fast.
Use storage under your crib
Most cribs have some room underneath them. Don’t let this space go unused. Most new parents receive an unnecessary amount of blankets, so consider storing the excess underneath the crib, so they aren’t taking up room in your linen closet.
Additionally, it may help insulate your baby a little since crib mattresses are typically pretty thin.
Buy a mesh-lined bag for baby socks
Washing machines eat baby socks. At least, mine did. After a couple of weeks of missing socks, we realized that it was pretty unlikely they magically disappeared, so we investigated. Many washing machines will suck up tiny baby socks into who-knows-where.
All I know is that it can’t be good for your washing machine, and you will spend a silly amount of money on baby socks. Buy a mesh-lined laundry bag to wash the socks in.
Don’t buy a changing table
You don’t need a changing table for your little one. The only thing your baby requires for a proper diaper change is a flat surface, which most homes are not lacking in. Buy your baby a longer dresser instead so you can use something that you will get usage of well past the baby stage.
Related: Baby Essentials
Buy closet organizer bins
Bins are going to be your very best friend for the upcoming years. You are going to accumulate lots of stuff, and you WILL lose a lot of things if you don’t keep it separated.
Here you have a couple of options.
If you want something flexible, consider buying some foldable fabric storage cubes. If you prefer a cleaner look, you can purchase bins with lids. Personally, we have loved this children’s bin organizer set. It’s sturdy, has a lot of fun colors, and the height is perfect for our toddler to clean up her own toys.
Organizers will only become more critical as your child grows. It will be overwhelming if your small child has to shovel through mounds of toys to find the toy car they want.
Use one set of items at a time
If your new baby has a lot of toys already, you should consider organizing them into different bins for different parts of the house. You will keep the mess pretty minimal if you only remove the contents from one container at a time.
Related: Newborn Hacks
Closet dividers
Although we used the dresser for the clothing our baby was currently wearing; we hung up everything that was still too big. Keep this organized by using closet dividers for each of the different clothing sizes. You can download some cute printable closet dividers for free.
Bottle organization
If you are bottle-feeding your baby, consider purchasing a small Tupperware or storage container with drawers to keep all of the spare bottle parts in. We loved our Dr. Brown bottles, but they use a ton of parts.
To keep track of all of them, we kept the bottles in the cupboard and the smaller pieces in a Tupperware container, as we didn’t have the counter space for storage containers. Also, we have a cat who enjoys eating bottle nipples, so we really needed a place we could hide them from the naughty cat.
Donate or return items you won’t use
It may be hard to part with a present your baby received when you know someone spent time and money picking out what THEY think is the perfect gift for your newborn. However, your baby does not need twenty receiving blankets and thirty white onesies.
Have a plan for what you will do with all of the extra stuff and make it a priority to deal with it as soon as possible. This pile of stuff will only grow, and with it your stress levels will too. Consider donating to a shelter, a friend, or returning the item.
It’s the thought that counts and your loved one didn’t give it to you so that you would become more stressed out.
Breastfeeding station
Have a couple of areas in your house where you plan to do most of your breastfeeding, and this is where you should set up a breastfeeding station. Keep some extra snacks nearby in a drawer, as well as a book or two you enjoy. This is about streamlining your process and making things you need readily available so you can avoid having them spread through the house.
Related: Breastfeeding Hacks
Use a filing system
With a new baby, the amount of paperwork you are expected to keep will double. Between the many doctor appointments and your baby’s birth paperwork, it’s a lot to keep track of. If you don’t have a filing cabinet, pick one up. Start a file for your baby, and store any pertinent information in there.
When you return home after an appointment, put the paperwork straight into the cabinet. This is also an excellent place for insurance, banking, and housing information.
Convert a kitchen cupboard to a toy cupboard
Once your child is crawling around, they are going to try and get into everything. Convert a small kitchen cupboard to a toy cupboard, and encourage your little one to explore it.
This will hopefully give you some time to get some housework done, which we all know can be pretty tricky with a baby. Consider switching out the toys once a week, so your littles won’t get bored with this trick.
Closet door organizers
The beautiful thing about closet organizers is that they can be kept anywhere there is a door in your house. This door organizer is a rack instead of the typical plastic sheeting that you usually see in organizers. I LOVED it for keeping bottles, diapers, and other miscellaneous baby things in!
Make use of walls
If you don’t hang any organizers on the walls in your house, you are seriously missing out on some good real estate for baby supplies. Here are a couple of ideas for making use of walls.
- Keep a hanging basket or shower caddy in the kitchen for bottles
- Keep a hanging basket in the bathroom and baby’s room for diapers
- Use a hanging shelf in the bathroom for towels
- Decorate your child’s room with hanging shelves filled with cutesy stuff
- Use command hooks to hang things such as bibs or extra onesies
Keep your travel things in a closet
Have a designated area for your stroller, diaper bag, and other travel items. This can be the garage or a closet by the front door.
Get your kitchen organized
Although your littles won’t be crawling for a little while, it’s still important to slowly get ready for that exciting moment. Consider re-organizing your kitchen pantry.
Put all of the cleaners on the very top shelf, and organize your food as well. Put the items you will use most at chest-level, and snacks on the shelf above that. The thinking here is you don’t want to find your toddling child chowing down on a bag of Doritos, so keep them out of reach.
It’s a good idea to put lighter objects on the lowest shelf, with canned foods either being on the ground or high up. This will help avoid any squished toes if your littles manages to get it off the shelf.
Formula to-go containers
Instead of only buying one formula to-go container, buy a set of stackable formula containers so you can prefill two or three at a time. This way you can always have some formula ready when you are trying to get out the door quickly.
Have multiple diaper changing stations
Put diaper changing stations in each of the rooms that you anticipate you will be giving your baby diaper changes. If you keep diapers in only one place, they will end up getting spread all over all over the house when you are rushing back and forth.
Car organizer
Buy a back seat car organizer for your baby necessities in case you either forget or don’t want to take along the diaper bag. If you have multiple kids, it gets harder and harder to get everyone and everything out the door–trust me. We don’t even bring the diaper bag half the time we leave the house. Keep some diapers, wipes, and formula (if applicable) so that you always have the bare necessities with you.
If you have cats, baby proof the litter box area
Babies put everything in their mouths. That’s why it’s imperative to make sure your little one won’t have access to the litter box when they become mobile. If you keep your litter box in a specific room, install a cat door and keep the main door shut.
This way your kitty can go in and out without a problem (privacy is an added bonus), and it’ll keep your baby out of the area. Keep a window in the room open to help it stay nicely ventilated.
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