Designing the Perfect Nursery: How to Organize Baby’s Closet

Jan 30, 2023 | Custom Closets, Design Tips

Nesting 101

The time is almost here and you’re nesting like crazy. You’ve built all the furniture and hung the decorations, and now you’ve laid out all your baby’s cute outfits, toys, books, and blankets, ready to put them in your adorable new nursery. If you’re like most moms, you want your baby to be welcomed home to a clean and soothing environment absent of clutter and disorganization. You want everything to have its designated place to keep the baby’s room a calm little haven. Our goal as custom closet builders and organizational experts is to help you devise a plan to organize all your baby’s clothes and belongings in a cute, tidy, and practical way. Here are five tips to keep in mind while designing your baby’s closet space.

Tip #1: Design a closet system that grows with your child

Our No. 1 tip when building your dream nursery is to plan ahead for your child’s fast-changing future needs. A standard closet with one hanging rod and a shelf above it just won’t do. Imagine all the tiny clothes going straight across and all the wasted space underneath it. Consider a closet system that allows for flexible design changes over time such as adjustable shelving and hang space. But to start, we recommend two to three hanging rods with ideally a combination of both open shelving to display what you wish and concealed drawers to hide the rest.

Tip #2: Create a smart clothing system: hang everything but pants

As you begin organizing all your baby shower gifts, you’ll start to realize that baby clothes—while wildly cute—are very tiny and no matter how you fold them, they look like a colorful, chaotic heap of clothes. Thus, we recommend, everything that you can hang, do. Onesies, t-shirts, jackets, pajamas, the works. The one type of clothes we do not recommend hanging is pants. Instead, we think these fold better and can be placed in bins underneath the tops and onsies they match.

Tip 3: Use size dividers & uniform hangers

All clothes should be added to the closet by size and then color to keep everything organized and visually appealing. For example—from left to right—your hanging rod should begin with 0-3 month clothes, then move to 3-6 months, then 6-9 months, and so on. Clearly mark the size change with size dividers which you can make yourself if you’re crafty or buy premade. Each section should begin with lighter colors and then transition to darker ones. Finally, we absolutely recommend using all the same color and style hanger. This makes all the difference in the world when it comes to aesthetics.

Tip #4: Install a combo of opening shelving and closed storage.

Versatility is key. You never know what will work best for you or your child as he or she gets older, which is why a combination of opening shelving and concealed storage is a great idea. Make sure your open shelving is adjustable so it scales with your child as he or she grows. Open shelves are a great way to display additional toys, books, and store cute or handmade blankets and linens. Drawers, on the other hand, are best for socks, diapers, and other essentials that don’t necessarily need to be out for all to see.

Tip #5: Make space for keepsake storage.

Babies tend bring out our sentimental side, so it’s fine to embrace that. Just make sure you are adequately prepared and designate a drawer, basket, bin, or box exclusively for keepsakes such as birth announcements, outgrown clothes, shoes, handmade toys and blankets. On the flipside, we also think it’s a good idea to designate a “donate” drawer for outgrown items that you are willing to part with so that you’ll never have to deal with clutter.

Enjoy the Experience

Preparing to welcome a baby into your life is priceless. It’s emotional and exciting, and with each item you add to your nursery, the closer you are to bringing your baby home. Make the most of this amazing milestone by keeping healthy, happy, and organized throughout the entire preparation process with our storage tips above. Good luck and congratulations!