When a new baby arrives in your home, a lot of things change, including how you organize your home. There are a lot of things that having a new baby adds to your home. Diapers, wipes, bottles, blankets, burp clothes, creams, ointments. The list goes on and on. And all of these things need to find a place to live in your home. That is where home organization comes in. A little organization can go a long way to helping you cope, especially those first few weeks. I highly recommend having all of this setup well in advance of your due date so that everything is prepared.

Diapering Supplies

Setup a diapering station on each floor of your home where you will spend a lot of time with the baby. Changing tables, of course, work great for this and so do the pack-and-plays that come with a changing table piece. With the pack-and-plays you will need a small table with drawers next to it to store all of your diapering supplies. An inexpensive 3-drawer plastic cart works well for this. You’ll need all of the obvious supplies: diaper rash cream, wipes, diapers and some not-so obvious supplies: some clothes for accidents, alcohol wipes or alcohol and cotton swabs for those first few days home from the hospital (you’ll need to clean the umbilical cord stump with these), toys to keep your baby occupied while you change his/her diaper (especially if you have a baby who hates having his/her diaper changed). If you have a changing table, putting all of your diapering supplies in containers can help keep things where they belong once your little one starts crawling and pulling everything off of those shelves.

We also kept extra blankets and burp clothes with the diapering supplies on each floor. Keeping these things organized in our home made it easier to find anything we needed for the baby because we just had to go to one place to get it.

Bottles, Bowls, and Baby Food

Even if you are going to breastfeed, it is a good idea to have some bottles and formula around just in case. If you are going to be formula feeding, having the bottles and the formula in the same place can make it easier to make bottles, especially in the middle of the night when you’re half awake. Having a few bottles pre-made (put the formula in the bottle so all you have to do is add water) before you go to bed is also helpful.

Once your baby is able to start baby food, it is helpful to have the food, bowls, and spoons for it in the same place. Plastic bowls that your baby can pound on and play with are great for those first years. Organizing these supplies in your home can help make those first years easier on you and your baby.