7 Creative Ways to Store Baby Clothes

Written by Ilona Bannister

Updated on May 16, 2023

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• Storing your baby’s mountain of baby clothes doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. 
• While there are lots of organizers and tools you can buy, there are also a lot of uses for things you may already have that will help keep your nursery organized. 
• Organizing baby clothes makes life simpler day to day because you’ll be able to find things more easily and with less stress.

Your baby will likely have, or already does have, way more clothes than you do. Babies are tiny, but their stuff takes up a lot of space. Organizing baby clothes is tricky too because there are so many small things to keep track of – socks, hair accessories, onesies, booties, bibs, hats. If you don’t figure out a place for all of these little things, they end up all over your house and of course, you’ll never be able to find what you need when you need it. 

The key to baby clothes storage is to organize things in ways that are easy to find, easy to put away, and easy for the entire family to understand. We’ve put together some of the best baby clothes storage ideas out there to simplify your life and take back your space from that huge pile of baby clothes. 

Put Away What You Don’t Need Right Now 

Parenting experts suggest that keeping a child’s space uncluttered and organized helps children feel less overwhelmed and frustrated. Organization is an important skill to teach, and it can start very early with your baby’s room. 

One of the first things to do when organizing baby clothes is to put away those things you don’t need right now or for the next few months. Organize baby clothes by season and by age. Decide what clothes you need to have at hand and put everything else into air-tight, clear storage boxes or bags.  

Organizing by season and age will save you space and time in your everyday life. It will be much easier to find the things you need when your space isn’t cluttered with four seasons’ worth of baby clothes.  

For example, you may love that super cute wool sweater your baby wore in December. However, if it’s now June, there’s no reason for it to take up room when you need space for the shorts and onesies your baby is wearing daily.  

When you’ve come to the end of a season, put those clothes into a clean container, label it, and keep it out of the way in a dry place. That way, you’ll know where to find it for baby number two or to pass it on to friends and family for their kids. 

You may have seen those cute clothes dividers for clothes rails labelled 0-3 months, 3-6 months and so on. While they may make your nursery look like a baby boutique, they aren’t the most practical way to store baby clothes if you’re short on storage space. If you have a newborn, put those two-year-old clothes in a marked plastic bin or storage bag in a closet or under the bed and pull them out when the time is right.

Repurpose Adult Storage Solutions for Baby Gear 

Need a quick way to grab onesies and baby socks? Try a hanging shoe organizer. Can’t keep all those baby shoes together? Use a holiday ornament box in the closet. Too many headbands and hair bows? Buy a hanging jewellery organizer for the closet rail. 

Baby clothes and accessories are tiny, making it hard to see them in a pile or thrown into a bin. However, there are some ingenious ways to repurpose organizers you may already have to make all those tiny items easy to see and access.  

Take a look at these brilliant baby clothes organization hacks for your baby’s room: 

Shoe Hanger 

A shoe organizer with pockets that hangs on a door or a closet rail is a great way to keep your nursery organized. Use it for diapers, bibs, socks, burp cloths, and other essentials. The pockets are perfect for awkward items like swaddles and sleep sacks. These are widely available, relatively inexpensive, and can be folded up and put away when you’re done with them. 

If you buy one in neutral, plain colors, it’s also an item that can be reused again and again by your family in other rooms as your child grows.  

Ornament Box 

A clear storage box meant for storing holiday ornaments is ideal for organizing small items that need to stay together, like baby shoes, booties, tights, socks, gloves, mittens, and hats. Every item gets its own space, making everything easy to see, easy to put away, and, most importantly, easy to find when you need it. 

Hangers with Clips 

It may be tempting for a new mom to fill the nursery closet with those incredibly cute little baby hangers made just for baby clothing. While they are precious, they are not the most sustainable, cost-effective, or practical thing to buy in the long run if you’re trying to store baby clothes. 

Instead, try clip hangers that are usually used for skirts or pants. Most baby clothes don’t need the structure of a hanger. It’s easier and less time-consuming to just clip a few items onto a regular clip hanger.  

Look for clip hangers with a hook, allowing you to hang them off one another. It’s a great hanging space saver for the nursery closet too.    

Hanging Jewelry Organizer

A hanging jewelry organizer with clear pockets takes up hardly any space in your baby closet. It’s an especially good way to store hair clips and other tiny accessories that are so easily lost. 

Organize Those Drawers 

It’s essential to make the most of your space when it comes to baby clothes organization. If you have a nursery dresser then baskets, boxes, and drawer dividers will be essential to help you use your storage space efficiently. 

Drawers can be difficult to use if you can’t see what you have in them. Drawer dividers help you give each pile of tiny clothes a specific space to live in. You can buy drawer dividers to help you map out the best use of your dresser drawers. However, these don’t always fit. Not to worry. Use shoe boxes, low baskets, or cardboard to make your own drawer dividers.   

Perfect Your Folding Technique 

One of the best ways to keep those dresser drawers neat and tidy is to file fold those baby clothes. Rolling up or file folding baby clothing items saves space in a drawer, but it also makes everything very easy to see and access. When you’re in a rush looking for that particular top or pair of pants, you’ll be able to open your nursery dresser and find it right away. 

The KonMari method by Mari Kondo is one of the most famous methods for file folding baby clothes, but rolling also works with baby clothes. Do whatever works for you that will make it easier to find what you need in your baby’s room.  

Maximize Your Closet Space 

Closet dividers are a great way of creating storage space in your baby’s closet. However, when organizing and storing baby clothes, the biggest problem is finding a place for so many items so that you know where they are and can find them. 

If a bin is too big, you’ll never find the exact onesie you’re looking for. Likewise, if you don’t have a specific place for socks, you’ll never be able to keep pairs together. Closet dividers create spaces to store folded items, like towels and baby blankets. They also make a clear division for hanging clothes. 

Installing open shelves above the floor space makes use of unused space and helps you store things like shoes and boots. Closet dividers can create shelves where you didn’t have them and can even act like dresser drawers. They come in lots of different materials, shapes, and sizes to help you find the configuration that works for you.  

Buy Furniture with a Purpose 

When you’re working with a small room or limited storage space in a family home, every space you can find or create for your baby’s clothes matters. If you’re looking for furniture for a nursery room, try to find pieces that will last beyond the baby years and provide some storage solutions. 

Look for changing tables that are also dressers. Some great cribs come with one large rectangular drawer in the base, like the GONATT crib from Ikea, a place that is generally unused in a baby’s room. That crib storage will be handy for baby blankets, swaddles, sheets and towels. 

If your nursery furniture doesn’t come with extra storage space, there are lots of bins and baskets on the market that can be attached to the outside of your baby’s crib to help you stay organized.

Label Everything 

Labelling is an essential part of baby clothes organization to ensure that it’s not just mom who knows where everything belongs or how to find it. Keeping outgrown clothes in clear storage containers or bags labelled for age and season will help you find those hand-me-downs you want to give your best friend. Or, they’ll help Dad find that snowsuit that baby number two or three is ready to wear. 

Label the baskets, bins, and drawers in your baby’s room so that the entire family can help find clothing and help put it away. As your child grows, labels will also help teach them the skill of staying organized and putting things back in their place.

However, labels don’t have to be boring or unattractive. You can make labelling a fun part of your nursery decor. One really cute trend is painting dresser drawers with chalkboard paint and then writing the contents of the drawers directly on the furniture.