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Corral the Chaos

6 Easy Ways to Organize Your Nursery Before Baby Arrives

By Melody Warnick

As a daily commitment, organizing is a bit like brushing your teeth, says Ecker. "If you didn't brush your teeth for a year, you'd be in that dentist's chair for a long time." So plan on five minutes a day for maintenance: giving new stuff a home, picking up dirty clothes. It'll pay off, says Stander. "For every minute you spend planning and organizing and maintaining, you save or earn six more minutes later that week or month, she says." Translation: Five minutes spent hanging your baby's laundry now will save you 30 minutes of aggravation down the road.

To keep all systems go, take a hard look at your baby's space every month and make sure that the setup is still working for you. Though Adair spent way too much time analyzing whether to put her daughter's laundry hamper inside the closet, once Brooklyn was born she realized that pulling the hamper into the room meant dirty clothes were more likely to end up where they belonged.

Let's get real: Your baby won't know or care what her bedroom looks like, and chances are she won't sleep there at first anyway. But knowing where to find a bib or another container of baby wipes in a pinch will make your first few weeks with your newborn that much calmer. "New moms are suffering sleep deprivation and they're hormonal," says Ecker. "So if they can take the time before the baby comes to get organized, the flow of using the nursery is effortless. They're not fumbling around."

Want to see more?

• Clear the Clutter Before Baby Arrives
• From Mobiles to Monitors: Creating a Well-Stocked Nursery
• A Prepared Pregnancy: 5 Steps Toward Sanity-Saving Storage
• Talk about it!

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