Tips for Organizing a Baby's Room

With a new baby comes a lot of stuff, and it is all needed. As a baby gets older, she will need less stuff, but the first few months you will need to keep on hand more items. Here are some tips for organizing a baby's room so you can keep those much-needed items close and handy.

Baby will need her own dresser. Chances are she will have too many clothes to fit in it. My child has more clothes than some department stores thanks to older, generous cousins. I find myself rummaging through my baby's clothes once a month to weed out what she either has not worn or has outgrown. This gives me room to add clothes she either can wear or soon will be able to. Clothes that are not in the dresser are kept in clear container bins that easily fit under her crib. The containers that will not fit under her crib fit nicely under our bed. Clothes she has outgrown are placed in colored containers and are kept in the closet- out of sight, out of mind approach. This way I do not spend time trying to get to a container, rummage through it only to realize she no longer wears any of the clothes in the container.

We put a bookshelf in the baby's room. After anchoring it into the wall, we placed her books on one of the lower shelves and toys on the very bottom. Since the bookshelf is located close to the changing table, the top shelf is reserved for diapers, baby wipes, powder, and diaper rash crème. The other shelf contains plastic drawer containers where I keep her socks, hairbrush, nail clippers, and other small items. It is a convenient location and works well. The drawers are stackable and come in various sizes at most discount outlets.

Baskets are everywhere in the baby's room. They hold everything from toys to shoes. They are convenient and easy accessible. Some baskets were specially sold for a baby's room while others I had purchased to use in other areas of the house. Another wicker basket we bought for the baby's room was one to use for laundry.

We placed a second shelf in the baby's room beside the crib. A small shelf originally sold as a baker's rack for the kitchen now resides in the baby's room. It sits beside her crib and houses a lamp, baby monitor, CD player, and a couple of baskets. This will soon have to be replaced since the baby is almost crawling, and the shelf is not anchored. The second shelf is great because it gives much more room instead of something more conventional like a nightstand.

When organizing a baby's room, the most important idea to keep in mind is functionality. If a solution does not work, then it is not the right solution for the problem. Try other storage and organizing ideas by borrowing themes from other rooms in your home. Organizing a baby's room can be a simple, painless project with just a little time and patience.