How To Organize Your Baby's Clothes

Even as adults, organizing our clothes - and keeping them that way - can prove to be a challenge. Your baby's clothing is infinitely harder to keep arranged. First, there are far more items as the result of gifts, showers, and accumulation. Second, each item is much smaller. Losing a sock, mitten, or a tiny t-shirt is par for the course. To be sure, if you don't systematize your little one's clothing, you might quickly find yourself scrambling to find things when you need them most. In this article, we'll provide a few organizational tips to help you keep track of your baby's garments. We'll explore how you can organize a closet or a set of dresser drawers in a way that ensures items will be there when you need them. Coordinating The Closet Space Organizing your little one's clothes in a closet is simple if you have hanging dividers. You can buy them at any home design store or make them yourself. At the very least, you should coordinate the garments according to size and age. For example, if your baby is less then twelve months old, you should section off your closet by "zero to three months," "three to six months," and so on. Ideally, you should do this for each type of clothing or use. For example, "for play" items would be separated from "for dress" items. Some parents prefer to have multiple age tiers hanging in their infant's closet rather than just one. They might have "zero to three months" and "three to six months" hanging with other clothes packed away for the future. This will ultimately depend on how much room you have available. Arranging The Drawers You can use the same principles as you might in a closet to arrange your baby's clothes in her dresser drawers. The socks, onesies, shirts, leggings, and outfits should be separated by size and age. The difference is that containers can be used to keep everything from mixing together. You might be surprised by how easily your little one's bibs can become intermingled with her socks and mittens. When you're in a hurry or half-asleep, having her clothing compartmentalized and labeled will be a boon. Ongoing Maintenance Is Critical Just like your dishes, your baby's clothing items can become disorganized quickly if you don't take time to maintain the structure you've established. For example, you might be tempted to throw garments into a drawer when you're in a rush rather than placing them into their appropriate containers. Or, you might be tempted to hang shirts outside their categories. These things can come back to bite you in the future - often, at the worst possible time. Invest a few extra seconds to keep everything in its proper place. If you take the time to organize your baby's clothes, you'll avoid the frustration of frantically searching for items you can't find. It's a simple chore that pays for itself over and over.