What is the best way to organize baby clothes? As odd as it may sound, a shoe organizer with adjustable dividers is the answer you are looking for! You don't need multiple expensive bins that are always either too big or too small and, no mixed sizes and digging into the bottom of the bin to find that one onesie that your friend is asking for.

My original system for organizing outgrown clothes was throwing all of them into the same box and figuring it out later. My baby is currently 6 months old, and is mostly in 18 months old clothes. I simply did not have time for a better system- By this point, I have already put into storage all the newborn clothes, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, and am about to store away the 6-9 months clothes. Fortunately, my daughter finally slowed down her growth a little bit, and I have some time to re-organize that dreaded box of everything. This is when I came across this amazing post from the blog "The Home I have Made", where Megan describes her storage system for clothes that she is passing between her 3 boys. As my situation is different because I only have one baby, all the clothes go into storage indefinitely, and I am dealing with much smaller clothes, I decided to share what works for me.

I started out by purchasing this shoe organizer. To be honest, any container with adjustable dividers would work. The key here is to have adjustable dividers, because otherwise, we would run into the same problem as we have with bins, where the capacity of every single bin does not perfectly match the size of the content. To whet your appetite for reading more, here are some before and after pictures. As you can see in the "before" pictures, everything was in one pile in the cardboard box, with some overflow into the plastic box that mainly holds swaddles. In the "after" photo, everything is organized, easy to access, and aesthetically pleasing.

To start organizing, I make sure to fold all of the clothes into the exact size that fits well in the shoe organizer, without any wasted space. The best method varies by the type of clothing and its size. To fold a newborn onesie, I first lay it flat and close all of the snaps it has. Then, I fold the sleeves and the sides in to make it the width of half of the organizer. Finally, I fold it in half lengthwise, making it the same length as the edge of the organizer.

Here is this onesie fitting perfectly into half of the edge of the organizer.

Here is the process of me folding another newborn onesie, with a stripes pattern. I first fold the sleeves and sides, then the body in half, and put it on the growing pile of folded onesies.

I keep stacking the newborn clothes until I have a nice and even stack. Then, I position the divider and gently press the clothes down while making sure I am not bending it. I use the Velcro on the sides to secure it in place.

I now start to add the 0-3m onesies. Their torso is similar in length to the newborn onesies, so I can use the same folding method for them as well. Here, I show how I fold a long-sleeved onesie and place it on top of the divider.

For folding a 0-3m onesie with long sleeves and pants, I first fold the sleeves to adjust the width. Then, I have to fold it in thirds to exactly fit the length: I first fold the legs up and then fold the entire onesie in half.

Here is this onesie lying on top of the growing pile of clothes.

Folding the 9-month clothes requires an additional fold in the middle, as they have a longer torsocompared to the newborn and the 6-month clothes. Here, I show how I fold the sides, and then fold the onesie in thirds.

I keep going this way until the organizer is full. I make sure to place labels on each category. I added a divider in the middle of the 3m clothes for structural integrity of the organizer. Now, I have all the clothes organized with plenty of room for the next batch of clothes my daughter will outgrow.

In conclusion, using a shoe organizer with adjustable dividers is a great way to organize baby clothes that are outgrown and no longer in use. Not only is it cost-effective, but it also saves time and makes it easy to access the clothes when you need them. If you are currently struggling with organizing outgrown baby clothes, give this method a try, and you will see how much it simplifies the process.

If you want to learn more about boodting your productivity as a parent, you might like my blog about saving money by sewing baby clothes.