Top 3 Organization Tips for New Moms
If you know me you know that I love functionality. Organization is key! The easier I can make things on myself the better! These three organizational tips for new moms is some of the best new parent advice that saved my life as a new mom! I hope that these first- time mom tips help you out as much as they did for me!
Having a newborn baby is one of the most challenging life changes! All of a sudden you have to adapt to making sure you meet their every need while also trying to maintain your own health and sanity. And there is a lot to this baby thing! It’s a STRUGGLE for every new mommy !
Before my oldest daughter was born I thought about what her primary needs would be and I came up with: eating, burping, diaper changes, rashes, gas, making sure she never had a fever, and sleeping I also HATE clutter, as I am a lazy perfectionist, and babies come along with A LOT of STUFF! So I came up with these three organizational ideas that made her infancy SO much easier on me, my husband and probably her too! Hopefully these tips for new moms can help you too!
#1 on my list of tips for new moms: Buy a Kid Shoe Organizer
You may be thinking that I intend you to use this for their shoes. I don’t! You can use this thing for anything including all of your baby essentials! These hanging shoe organizers are versatile, space-saving, organizational all stars! In fact, I just watched the movie, Moxie, last night (great movie by the way). The teacher in the film had one of these hanging in his classroom. As the students entered the room, they had to deposit their cellphones into it before taking their seats. Brilliant!
However, as a mom, we are able to use these for a variety of different purposes. You can use them for what they were intended for of course. But, you can also use them for several other first time moms organizational purposes! You can use them to organize:
- Crafts/art supplies
- Baby clothes/onesies/swaddles
- Bows/hair products
- Small books/learning cards/toys
- Medication/health supplies
- ETC…
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However, my FAVORITE use for one of these is in the kitchen!
If you are like me then your drawers and cabinets are already pretty full with all of your dishes. Then you have a baby. All of a sudden you have tons of bottles, nipples, tiny silverware, and cartoon plates, etc… and you have nowhere to put them all! I decided to buy a kid shoe organizer and hung it on the inside of my pantry door and let me tell you- it changed my life!
When she was a baby I was able to keep all of her bottles, bottle inserts (we used Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow bottles), nipples, pacifiers (although she never took one), and bottle cleaning supplies in it. As she has gotten older there are now sippy cups, bowls, plates, silverware and single serving snacks in it. Best part of it now is that she can open the pantry and reach some of the pockets so we can put them what we allow her to get on her own and she has the freedom to get what she wants/needs!
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#2 on my list of best new mom survival tips: Set up an All-in-One Organization Center in your Main Living Area
One of the biggest mistakes most first time parents make is only concentrating on the nursery. We get so wrapped up in making that one room perfect for our new bundle of joy that we don’t even realize until the baby is home that they don’t even actually use that room for the first several months! And then we find ourselves hustling back and forth (or up and down) to the nursery to care for our baby and it becomes EXHAUSTING! So my advice is that in whatever room you normally hang out in most often (ours was our living room) set up a complete baby-care station.
The easiest way to do this is to get a pack-n-play with a changing table insert (Graco makes a great one with side storage and a shallow bassinet attachment). In the side storage put your diapers, wipes, HAND SANITIZER, thermometer, Gripe Water, and Desitin. I would set up the changing station area in the nursery the same way and also make sure you have bibs/burp rags in both locations and you are set! PRO TIP: restock stations each night so that you are always prepared (I always restocked my diaper bag with the same supplies at this time too)!
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#3 on my list of tips for new moms is focused on baby sleep solutions: Create a Bedside Basket
Getting sleep is the biggest struggle for new parents. Babies sleep a TON but hardly ever when you want them to! To make nighttime easier on both of you create an all-in-one bedside baby care basket. Your baby is probably going to sleep in your room with you for the first several months and the less you move them to care for them during the night the more likely they will be to sleep through the night. Hence, you get more sleep!
So I created a basket that I put on my nightstand that included: a changing pad, diapers, wipes, Desitin, Gripe Water, hand sanitizer, pacifiers, bottles filled with enough formula for a 2oz serving and a bottle of water (if you are breastfeeding obviously you don’t need these things), burp rags/bibs and a change on clothes/swaddle. This allowed me to care for my baby without having to leave my bed! I was able to meet her needs quickly and easily and we were both able to get back to sleep in a snap!
P.S. If you like these tips for new moms, you should check out more of my Mommy Struggles!
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Carrie Pankratz
These are great and practical ideas. I’m out of the baby phase now, but I had an organization center in our main living area for years. I always knew where to find a diaper or wipes, and my boys got accustomed to sleeping where there was noise. The shoe organizer is also great for storing so many things. I used them as a teacher to store headphones.
sylvia
love the bedside basket suggestion! wish I had known it when my kids were that little. Thanks
megan beaver
The bedside basket is the best thing a new parent can do! It is so helpful.