How to Organize Baby Clothes: 13 Clever Solutions for Those Teeny Tiny Items

Fabric bins may fit in better with your nursey room aesthetic but they can’t hold a candle to clear plastic storage containers when it comes to organizing an abundance of baby clothes. Case in point: This practical and attractive storage idea from A Beautiful Mess. Yep, these containers can be used to organize everything from tiny hair bows to receiving blankets—and the contents will be easy to identify no matter what you fill them with. (Hint: The new babysitter will thank you.)

While a sock drawer might make sense for you, no such exclusive space is needed to keep your tot’s tiny foot warmers together. Indeed, devoting an entire drawer to any single baby item is almost always a waste of precious dresser real estate. Instead, maximize storage space by combining all manner of items in one drawer—just be sure to use drawer dividers to maintain a functional hodgepodge. There are different options here, but adjustable dividers are a particularly straight-forward choice and can easily be customized to suit your storage needs.

There are multiple ways to put clothespins to use in a closet, but we’re particularly impressed with this hack from Reality Daydream, which involves mounting them to the closet wall with double-sided adhesive. Once your row of clothespins is in place, you can use these handy clips to hang pants, shoes, cloth diapers, hair accessories...and just about everything else you can think of. Bottom line: This oh-so clever storage solution is versatile and budget-friendly to boot.

Baby clothes, just like babies themselves, are short, which means that you’re left with a lot of vertical space once that hanging bar is filled. Of course, you can always stick a dresser there and call it a day, but that means more folding for you. The solution, courtesy of Strawberry Swing and Other Things, is an additional bar that will double your hanging space and provide easily-accessible clothes storage. Best of all, baby clothes are so lightweight that you don’t even need to pull out the power tools for this one—a basic tension rod will do the trick.

Much like the interior wall of a closet, the door is a secret storage weapon you might not have realized you had at your disposal. Here, the mom-of-four behind Snapshots and My Thoughts has outfitted a closet door with baskets galore, and the effect is swoon-worthy. Try out this simple DIY and you’ll be rewarded with a convenient spot to stash baby shoes, socks and more. Bonus: This idea has the potential to replace a dresser entirely if you’re short on space.

Depending on the age of your baby, it’s entirely possible that those cute little baby shoes are just for show; but even with slightly older tots, a full-size shoe organizer is definitely not needed to house their tiny slippers. Enter this genius hack from Our Handcrafted Life, which takes an inexpensive over-the-door shoe organizer and repurposes it as a home for onesies. Roll ‘em up and stuff them into each clear pouch for a storage solution that will win your heart whenever you have a pile of clean laundry to tackle.

Baby hangers are helpful, but they aren’t without their flaws. For starters, they do nothing for pants—and when it comes to sleeveless numbers, hangers are liable to become a tangled mess. Good news: A few well-placed hooks—either mounted to the wall or slung over the hanging bar—will solve both these closet problems with ease. Again, you have options here, but sturdy S-hooks are particularly versatile, while wall-mounted ones are excellent at hanging bulky items that take up too much space on the hanging bar (think: baby bunting).

If the majority of your tot’s clothes are hanging, rack dividers—like the kind you sometimes encounter in retail stores—are a useful way to both prevent the hangers from getting tangled as well as keep clothing categories separate. Trust us on this one—whether you’re organizing the hanging bar by color, season or size, these puppies will help keep your baby’s clothing rack (and your organizational system) in order.

The organizational potential of baskets is well-established, but these handy storage containers needn’t take up precious floor or shelving space. Instead, stick ‘em on a wall or, better yet, beneath a shelf—as seen in this closet makeover from Reality Daydream. The takeaway? Baskets are a solid choice for storing stacks of pants, shoes and more, but floating baskets are even better.

This folding technique from Marie Kondo involves folding clothing in thirds for tidy horizontal stacking—and, friends, it’s a real game-changer. For starters, this method allows you to stuff many more tiny clothing items into a drawer. The real selling point, however, is that you can see everything and pluck what you wish without agitating the rest of the pieces. In other words, gone are the days of messy dresser drawers.

No dresser? No problem. An inexpensive utility cart is an attractive and space-saving alternative to a bulky dresser that can hold plenty of stuff. We especially recommend this product for storing diapers and wipes, so you can have them nearby at all times. That said, a rolling trolley can also be permanently stationed inside a closet as a spot to store shoes, socks, pajamas and the like.