BABY CLOSET ORGANIZATION | EASY DIY

Hello hello! Today I’m sharing the closet make-over we did in the nursery recently. While I love the idea of making it Pinterest worthy, I also can’t be bothered to go that hard–but I did want (and need, for my mental health, TBH) it to be functional, organized and calming to look at.

That said, you won’t find matching wicker bins and fluff in this post but you will see a really easy way you can transform any kid’s closet to help organize the influx of clothes that seems to accumulate to get the most use out of them before your little outgrows.

Once you’re done reading, head over to IG Stories where I’m walking you through the closet in real time to see more.

Let’s jump in!

When we first set up Hendrix’s nursery, I had the dresser organized with all the clothes he would fit into, swaddles ready to go rolled up perfectly in a basket and a great diaper caddy station.

The literal elephant of the room though, was the closet–it was a huge, unorganized mess. And it got worse as time went on. Next thing I knew, he was out-growing clothes, we were (fortunate to be) getting lots of hand-me-downs, but I couldn’t find what would fit him at that point, and I just was trying to stay afloat of all the laundry and everything else (plus, ya know, take care of a baby).

I had these bar spacers to mark some of the hanging clothes, but also, half the time I didn’t have time to hang clothing, and when I did, there was no rhyme or reason (aka why am I hanging this sweater, but another similar one is in the dresser?).

Here’s a look at the disaster…

BEFORE

Cringe!

One day, I said to my husband Marco, ‘I need to figure out a way to organize the closet–that makes it easy to find the next stage of clothing, without going overboard. I just need a good system–that’s functional, maybe with nice boxes I can reuse as I pull out clothes and then put the ones that no longer fit (that I want to keep).

Enter these awesome bins he found on his next trip to Costco (three for $20), and I was ready to tackle the project.

Once I had the bins, I got to organizing… and it got worse before it got better, as it usually does with organizing projects.

First, I pulled everything out of the closet–I needed to start with a blank slate. I’m going to be honest, this project took me a couple weeks because between trying to just mom on the reg, get daily house stuff done, take a break for my sanity and then also organize this closet, well, it just took some time (funny how having a baby makes projects take so much longer 😉 ).

That said, once I decided on a system, it got easier. I’ll touch on that below. But first, how it looks now:

AFTER

Like I mentioned, we had a lot of hand-me-downs in various sizes, up to 3T, plus items I’ve purchased for future stages, with the majority being in the 12 – 24 month range. After laying out all the clean clothes on our bed, I decided to break things down into the following categories, by size:

  • Tops | This included accessories such as hats, mitts, scarves
  • Bottoms | This included footwear
  • Pajamas | Having this as a separate bin is especially helpful when you’re almost in that next size, laundry is low & you’re in the middle of bedtime routine 😉

Sizing goes as: 12 months, 18 – 24 months, 2T & 3T

Lastly, I put a bin in the closet & labelled it as, ‘Too Small’ with no lid, to easily throw in anything that no longer fits (but we want to keep).

Speaking of labels, clearly it’s nothing fancy, I just used the blank side of recipe cards and permanent marker. I taped them to the ends of the bins so that I can change the label once we are using the clothes in that stage and they are into the closet/dresser for rotation. Would a label maker have done a nicer job than my printing? Yes. Do we have a label maker? No. Was it worth buying? Meh, your call, but it doesn’t bother me too much.

The next thing I did was organize the rod in the closet, which currently holds 6 – 9 months, 9 – 12 months & 12- 18 months. I wanted to use this space for items that are new, special or hand-me-downs I really liked (versus putting them into the bins). They will be the first things I want Hendrix to wear when he reaches those stages, and already available to grab. Also, I love putting him in an oversized tee with rolled sleeves or a little sweatshirt, so some of these ‘too big’ items, are already getting use.

Once he is really into the next size (12 months), I will open up those bins, distribute the items into the dresser drawers, and use the empty bins to pack up the 6 – 9 month items (as I’ve already done with 0 – 3 months and 3 – 6 months).

For the shelf in the closet, I kept it really simple using two bins–one for swaddles, which technically we don’t use much anymore, but still nice to have/look pretty, and one for receiving blankets & crib sheets. I then stacked all of his books, a frame with his ultrasound pictures and a stuffed animal that’s special but still big for him right now.

Underneath, I used an old Ikea drawer unit Marco has had forever (this one is similar) to stash diapers, wipes, Diaper Genie refills & shoes. The idea was to use as much as we had around the house to make the closet nice but also functional.

Beside that, I hung the baby carriers and have a space for the diaper bag (which usually stays in the car, but, just in case). I put the next age range boxes of clothes on the floor, for easy access, and the boxes on the upper shelf are for when he’s even bigger.

And that’s everything!

Hope you girls enjoyed this post, it’s been such a relief opening this closet now and knowing where everything is, if we need something and so on. If you’d like to see more, I’m sharing a full tour on IG Stories today.

Hope you girls have a great day! xo

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