Organizing all those baby/kids clothes

It doesn’t take much to feel like you’re drowning in clothing when you have kids. Babies change sizes every three months and keeping it all organized and rotated can be exhausting. Here is what I’ve done to make it manageable.

Sort - Whether you received clothes as gifts or hand-me-downs, have hand-me-downs from your own older children, or purchased them yourself, you probably have a number of sizes and seasons of clothes. So let's sort!

Size - First sort by size. We have been very lucky to receive a lot of hand-me-down clothing for our kids. While this saves us a ton of money, it takes up a fair amount of space in our home. As soon as I receive a box the items get sorted by size. I also try to gauge if the item is actually the size the tag says it is, since kids clothing can be kind of arbitrary.

Season - Next, take each size grouping and sort by season or clothing type. Long sleeves, short sleeves, onesies, you get the idea. My kids don’t always size up in each type of clothing at the same time. My daughter has a long torso so she sizes up in onesies and footie pjs long before pants.

Purge - If you have an abundance of clothing to choose from, don’t be afraid to purge. When I run into this wonderful problem, I create outfits. If I can’t make it an outfit it probably won’t get worn and should be donated. Items I really love I usually manage to create an outfit for.

Store - Now that you know what you’re keeping and how much you have in each size and season, we can get into how to store all of these clothes!

Bags/Totes - The clothing that is a few sizes too big gets stored in zipper storage bags. This is the stuff that you won't get to for

a while. I prefer these storage bags because they keep everything together and clean, they fold up small when not in use, and they easily fit under a bed or on a shelf. I keep them in the basement, but they could go on the top shelf of the closet as well. Occasionally I’ll use a tote for larger quantities, and for clothes I’ve received but haven’t sorted through yet. Totes are much bigger though which makes them harder to store and less malleable for later use. If all of one size doesn't fit in one bag I will break it up and store them by size and season. (All of the 18 month clothes, vs 18 month long sleeves/pants and 18 month summer gear.)

This is the fantastic label maker my husband bought for me. <3

Closet - Hanging in the closet are nicer clothes like button-ups or dresses, and jackets. I keep the current size as well as a few sizes up of these items because they are worn less often and might be needed for an occasion even if they don’t fit perfectly. Our house has very small closets, otherwise I’d probably hang more. Underneath the hanging clothes is a 3x3 cube bookcase with cloth baskets that act as drawers. We already had this unit and just got lucky that it fit in the closet. I was able to find dry erase tags that fit over the edge of the baskets so that I could label them. (If you are starting from scratch these cloth drawers have labels built in.) This is where I keep the next size or two of clothes so that they are easy to get to when the baby suddenly has a growth spurt. I have them separated by size and season or clothing type to keep it easy to grab what I need next.

Dresser - The dresser is for stuff used more regularly. I have a six drawer dresser for the baby (toddler) and will explain each drawer. The room is tiny so we opted for a low dresser so it could double as the changing table. I recommend getting some kind of drawer organizers, they've been a huge help to me. The tininess of baby clothes requires more containment.

• One - The main outfit drawer. I sort my daughters clothes by outfit so that getting her dressed is super easy. This changes by season as well as size, but it’s organized so it’s a little easier. Right now our outfits are layered because the weather is unpredictable. This allows for a sweatshirt if it’s colder or the t-shirt underneath. I love that I’m never scrounging around for an extra layer if the morning is cold. You'll notice the clothes are upright in rows vs laying flat in piles, this allows me to see everything and even my own dresser has clothes set up like this.

• Two - Pajamas and socks live here. I have all of the pajamas in varying weights so that no matter the weather we have easily accessible options. Some overflow clothes are squeezed in here as well. This is also a great drawer for sleep sacks!

• Three - The Holiday drawer. Anything within a couple of sizes that is specifically Holiday themed goes in this drawer. Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Valentines, Fourth of July, you get the idea. I was tired of getting to the next size of clothes and realizing we had some cute Holiday items that missed the Holiday. They might have fit a little big or small but would have been close enough had I realized we had them during that Holiday. This way I just check the drawer to see if we have anything on theme that’s close enough in size.

• Four - This is actually our diaper changing drawer. We opted to use a dresser with a changing mattress vs getting a changing table. Diapers, wipes, butt creams, and random things to keep the baby distracted while we change her diaper all live here.

• Five - Burp cloths, clothes that aren't in an outfit, skirts, pretty much any other items you need a home for can go here. This drawer changes over time but is great to have for some of these seemingly random items. Think of this as your flex drawer.

• Six - Sheets are in this drawer because it made the most sense in our space.

Hope this helps you get all those clothes organized!