For those who know me, you know that I am an extremely organized person. My mother loves to tell people about when I was little, I was obsessed with little storage boxes. While most kids begged their parents to take them to the toy section, I used to plead for them to take me to the home organization section. I am not kidding. 🙂 It is funny to think about now, and is a little bit of a running family joke, but I have seriously always had a passion for organizing. I did go through a spell when I was a teenager where I was messy (I am sure that I am not the only one here), but I could still tell you where anything in my room was – LOL! Luckily, that phase has come and gone, and I am now back to being neat. Once we knew that Baby Madeline was going to make her debut in May of 2016, I knew that I needed to get things organized asap! We had just moved into our house that December, so it made it a little more interesting with all of the boxes to unpack.
One of things I highly recommend doing is talking to other parents and see if they have any advice. I asked a lot of parents at work, who are all engineers, and I received some outstanding ideas that I would have never thought of. Between what they told me and what we have determined on our own, Bradley and I have compiled a list of things we think you will find helpful. I cannot stress enough to do a lot of this BEFORE your sweet little bundle arrives!!!!! The first several weeks are CRAZY, and you aren’t going to feel great (sorry mommas, but it is the honest truth). You want to make sure that everything is easy to find to make your life a little less stressful.
Here is what we came up with:
- If you are financially able, buy multiples of things! It is much more convenient to have necessities strategically placed in various areas (but stored neatly) across your house, versus having to carrying these items all over your home. This is especially true if you live in a multi-level home.
- For example, we have a diaper changing station on every level of our home. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. You just need an area where you aren’t constantly carrying baby up and down stairs every time they need their diaper changed (which is much more frequently than you think). Madeline has a changing table in her room, a pack & play in our family room and another pack & play in the finished basement playroom. No, I do not live in a huge home. We just happen to have a house where the previous owners finished the basement, so we technically have three levels. 🙂 Now, before you go and spend a ton of money to replicate this idea, STOP! We didn’t spend a ton of money, and you don’t have to either! The changing table in her room actually came from Craig’s List (Pottery Barn at a steal – hooray!!!), the first pack & play was a baby shower gift and the one in basement we purchased used from a friend at work for super cheap. If you can’t afford multiple pack & plays, no worries! Just make sure to have a changing mat, diapers and wipes staged in different areas so you aren’t carrying stuff across your house all of the time.
- ***Designate a day/time of the week to restock each area with diapers and wipes. I am totally speaking from experience! It is super annoying to get your little one ready for a change, only to find that there are no more diapers – LOL!
- Within our changing areas, we also keep a small stock of bibs and burp cloths. This will especially be important if your little one has reflux and spits up all of the time. You never know when your little one will decide to spit up everywhere, and you don’t want to have to run upstairs to their room to grab a burp cloth. If you can’t afford a lot of burp cloths, just use soft towels. They actually work great for severe spit ups. 🙂 Soft dish towels also make a great substitute for burp cloths, and they actually work better because they cover more of your clothes. Again, you don’t have to be fancy here. Not everything you use (particularly at home) has to be pretty. It is more important that it is functional! 🙂
- For example, we have a diaper changing station on every level of our home. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. You just need an area where you aren’t constantly carrying baby up and down stairs every time they need their diaper changed (which is much more frequently than you think). Madeline has a changing table in her room, a pack & play in our family room and another pack & play in the finished basement playroom. No, I do not live in a huge home. We just happen to have a house where the previous owners finished the basement, so we technically have three levels. 🙂 Now, before you go and spend a ton of money to replicate this idea, STOP! We didn’t spend a ton of money, and you don’t have to either! The changing table in her room actually came from Craig’s List (Pottery Barn at a steal – hooray!!!), the first pack & play was a baby shower gift and the one in basement we purchased used from a friend at work for super cheap. If you can’t afford multiple pack & plays, no worries! Just make sure to have a changing mat, diapers and wipes staged in different areas so you aren’t carrying stuff across your house all of the time.
- We have found it useful to keep teething rings and toys in all areas of the house where Madeline spends a lot of time. I can’t stand having a bunch of stuff sitting out everywhere, so I suggest having some bins or baskets. I know a lot of people do it, but I personally do not like my house looking like a toy store (no judgement, it just isn’t my thing). I also have a large dog to worry about, and she would eat all of those toys in a second if we left them out – LOL!!! We didn’t do this at first, so we were constantly running upstairs to Madeline’s room when she got bored and wanted something to play with. A good thing about babies is that their toys are tiny, so they are pretty easy to store. It will get more interesting when she gets older and her toys get bigger, but for now, we keep them in baskets.
- Don’t forget that you will need an area in your kitchen dedicated to baby’s feeding supplies (especially if you are bottle feeding). I will do a separate post on this, but this is something you need to think about ahead of the game. If you are formula feeding, have an area in your pantry dedicated for their food. If you are bottle feeding, you will also need a drying rack for your counter. Where are you going to put it? Remember, these things take up space, so you need to be prepared. I personally do not like a ton of stuff on my counter, so I wanted as small of a drying rack as possible that would get the job done.
We went with the Boon Drying Rackbecause it had a small footprint, but was large enough to dry all of our stuff. Even if you are breastfeeding, your baby will most likely start eatings solid foods at around six months. Where are you going to store everything? Those tiny jars of food are very easy to spill if they are loosely thrown into your pantry, so I highly recommend some sort of bin. We like the Interlock brands that are clear, so we can quickly see if we need to pick up additional baby food.
As I am writing this, we are about to start sweet Madeline on a sippy cup. Again, these little items will eat up space in your kitchen, so this is the perfect time to organize your space and be prepared. Babies have A LOT of stuff, so you need to be ready! 🙂 - I strongly suggest getting a container for the dishwasher to put all of your feeding supplies in. I found ours for super cheap at TJ Maxx (I believe I paid about $3.50). Bargain stores (TJ Maxx, Ross, etc) have stuff like this all of the time, so please do not go and spend a ton of money on this. There is no need! When Madeline was first born, we put the container in the dishwasher and then would store it in the pantry after the dish load was done. This became a super pain, so it now stays in my dishwasher since we are washing her bottles all of the time. I do not have a huge pantry, so my storage space in there is precious. Babies are not super coordinated and love to throw things on the ground, so it also serves as a great place to wash pacifiers and teething rings. 🙂 Here is a picture of ours:
- *****Here is my favorite one that will save you sanity. Find one type of bottle and STICK WITH IT!!! My brother-in-law gave me this advice years ago, and it is so true. If you have different types of bottles, then you will have to keep track of which lid goes with which bottle. etc. NO THANK YOU!!!! Madeline never developed a preference, because we didn’t give her the option. We have used the same type of bottle from the beginning, so she doesn’t know that different types exist. All of the parts go together, which makes my life so much easier. I have so many different types of water bottles, and I can’t tell you what a pain it is to constantly try and match the bottles with the correct lids. This is the last thing you want to do in the middle of the night when your little one is hungry. Make sure you have a bin or a dedicated space in your pantry for where you are going to store everything. Make it very easily accessible since you will constantly be getting stuff out of there. Also, as babies grow older, the size of the bottle nipple (and sometimes the bottle size itself) will change. As soon as they grow out of one size, take it out of your pantry!!!! We put ours in ziplock bags, labeled them (Premie nipples, Level 1 nipples, etc), and have them stored for “Baby #2.” This stuff is expensive, so you don’t want to have to repurchase a lot of these items when another little munchkin comes along. A little organization will save you money in the long run!
because it had a small footprint, but was large enough to dry all of our stuff. Even if you are breastfeeding, your baby will most likely start eatings solid foods at around six months. Where are you going to store everything? Those tiny jars of food are very easy to spill if they are loosely thrown into your pantry, so I highly recommend some sort of bin. We like the Interlock brands that are clear, so we can quickly see if we need to pick up additional baby food.
What organizational ideas and advice do you have for first time expecting parents? Leave a comment below and share your knowledge with others!!!! 🙂
Tiffany
