Having a neatly organized nursery can help you breathe a sigh of relief in the early days and months of being a new parent. Whether it’s your first baby and all the brand new things for your bundle of joy are exploding across the room, or it’s your second or third and the hand-me-downs are out of control…. Every nursery can benefit from a deep reorganization! The good news is there are so many clever nursery organization ideas you can use without hiring a professional organizer that will make a big difference in keeping things tidy.
Being able to find what you’re looking for when you need it is a wonderful feeling. So how do we get there? I’ve split up this article into areas of the nursery so you can get ideas about how to organize each individual part of the room for your new baby. You can also check out this decluttering checklist to get some inspiration on tidying the rest of your home!
Let’s take a look at some of the best storage solutions and nursery organization ideas for your baby’s room.
Dresser
Drawer Organizers
Having a dresser in your baby’s nursery is a great way to organize their clothes. Sometimes it’s easier to keep track of small items with drawer separators. For instance, using drawer organizers you could keep drool bibs and baby socks in the same drawer but keep them in their own smaller bins, which can save them from getting tangled together when you’re looking to find something in a hurry.
For a full guide on how to organize your entire dresser including photos that show how to roll and fold baby clothes the best way, check out this article on nursery dresser organization!
You can use larger drawer separators for shirts, pants and sleepwear. If your dresser drawers are quite large this can be a handy way to group things together. You can even separate out short sleeves from long sleeves if you’d like to keep those in the same drawer with these kinds of drawer dividers.
The top drawers of your dresser are an excellent place to store extra baby supplies like an extra container of wipes, fresh clean change pads, and extra cream for easy access. Trust me, there is nothing worse than running out of wipes when you need them! The top drawer is also a great place to keep a thermometer, nose frieda, vitamin D drops, or other items you want within reach but out of sight.
Top of Dresser
On top of the dresser, you could add a changing station to keep all your extra diapers, wipes, bum cream and smaller items within arm’s reach when you need them. This add-on is sometimes called a changing topper. You can use the changing topper to keep your baby essentials like nail clippers, burp cloths or nursing pads at the opposite end like I’ve shown in the picture.
Diaper Caddy
If you don’t have a full-blown changing station topper on top of your dresser, it’s still a good idea to use a change pad and diaper caddy to keep your baby’s diapers and associated items together where you need them. A diaper caddy is a smaller portable solution that also works great on top of a dresser to create your change station.
Check out this article from Mama’s Buzz about diaper caddy essentials and get your free diaper caddy checklist.
Change Station Organization
Let’s talk about how to organize a change station. In the last section we looked at using a dresser organizer to create a change station and organize wipes, creams, diapers, nursing pads, burp cloths etc. There are a couple other furniture items you could use instead of a dresser top as your change table.
Separate Change Table
Some nursery rooms may benefit from a separate change table. It’s the same as a dresser top organizer and drawers but it’s built with open bins or a couple drawers for storing diapers in. It’s sturdy and doesn’t have wheels. It’s usually positioned at a good height so you can easily change your baby without hurting your back.
For your change table you can buy smaller bins for loose care items like lotion, clippers, toothbrush and rash cream. If you have a small nursery that can’t quite fit a full dresser in it comfortably, a change station may be a smaller option that fits the space nicely.
Rolling Change Cart
A change station built into a rolling cart is a useful tool to have in your nursery to help keep it organized. If your nursery dresser is too tall to use as a changing table or it’s just not the right size or sturdiness then a separate change cart is the way to go. A rolling car change station is also usually great for a small space as they don’t take up too much room.
A rolling change cart has the added functionality of being able to roll into your master bedroom if your newborn is going to sleep there in a bassinet at first. Then you can wheel it back into the nursery when your baby is ready to sleep in their own room.
These carts usually have a change top and drawers or open bins to keep all your essentials in one spot. Just like the dresser change table, adding a couple smaller bins or containers to your rolling cart is a neat way to keep small care items like soothers, nail clippers, and lotion gathered together so they aren’t lost in a larger bin or shelf of diapers.
Changing Bins
This is the perfect item to prep before baby comes. If you’re recently postpartum you may enjoy being able to change your baby on every level of your house without doing all the stairs to get to the nursery where your baby’s main change station is. Additionally, if you have older children it can be inconvenient to drag them along with you to a different part of the house every time baby brother or sister needs a change. This is where changing bins come in!
Changing bins are small storage bins packed with the essentials: changing pad, diapers, wipes, diaper cream, lotion, nursing pads, an extra burp cloth. You can keep them around the house for easy diaper changes. I have one in my basement playroom and one by the main floor living room to create a change station by my pack n play. I also had one on my nightstand when baby was sleeping in a bassinet in my bedroom for when I didn’t want to go over to the nursery to change baby in the middle of the night.
My favorite storage baskets to use are plastic bins; you can also use wire baskets or wicker to keep these small items together in a convenient way. You could also make a changing bin like this from a diaper caddy that’s specifically designed for baby items. I like the flexibility of using regular bins because you can repurpose them when they are no longer needed to hold kids’ toys or other things around the house.
Closet
Hanging Space
If you have a lot of hanging closet space in your nursery you can arrange your baby’s clothes by size with these hanger tags. I really love this idea if you have a large collection of baby clothes you need to keep sorted. Believe it or not, sometimes these phases go by so quickly and baby will have a sudden growth spurt that leaves you with clothing items your little boy or girl never even got to try on for a photo! Arranging clothes by size can keep them all grouped together for you neatly so they are ready when you are.
High Inside Closet
If you have a high space inside your closet don’t let it go to waste. It’s probably the perfect size for diaper boxes. Store your next boxes full of diapers and wipes up here to reduce clutter in the rest of the room. Or, use the empty diaper boxes and fill them with clothes your baby has outgrown. Make sure you label the box once it’s full so you know what size of clothes are in it without digging around.
Closet Floor
If you have a lot of wasted space in the bottom of your closet because the baby clothes are so short, consider putting in a second dresser with drawers, or a cube shelf with bins inside the closet. This is the perfect non-permanent solution to help you make the most of the inside of that closet. Extra drawers are handy if you find you like baby clothes laying flat instead of hanging or also if your primary dresser in the nursery is just too small for you. You can find really inexpensive small dressers that fit nicely in a closet at ikea like this one I used in my child’s room.
A cube shaped storage solution is another great option instead of a dresser for inside your nursery closet. This is a particularly flexible option for the future space too. Let’s say you currently have a rocking chair in your nursery. When the rocking chair is ready to come out, you can put this cube storage shelf in its place and fill it with toddler toys and books.
Small Bookshelf
Book shelves are another great storage solution for baby’s nursery. Instead of stacking them on a table or dresser you can free up some space and install a little bookshelf for them. You can find bookshelf options like this one that use drywall anchors so you don’t even need to nail it into a wooden stud in the wall. I bought this kind on Amazon for my child’s room and it’s been perfect to store about six books in each one. You could even buy a few of them and make a larger book wall. It looks lovely and it’s super functional.
Larger Wall Shelves
Bigger shelves can hold more than just books! Of course you can use bookends or stack books on larger shelves like this but your book shelves can also hold useful items like: baby monitor, noise machine, or a mobile that has a grippy clip on it could attach to a larger shelf.
You could even put a small light on a wall shelf for when you’re getting ready for bed or feeding your baby a night time bottle but don’t want to turn the ceiling light on. If it’s a really large sturdy shelf you could even put your baby’s humidifier on it. You can also enhance your baby’s room with decor like potted plants, picture frames, and cute toys.
If you’re putting something with wires and cables on a wall shelf like this make sure you get cord covers to keep them out of reach so your baby can’t pull on the wires later when they get crawling!
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