Many things are running through new parents minds, and they often worry that they dont know everything they need to about raising a newborn child. While youre burying your head in research about nap schedules and feedings, the concept of clothing may slip your mind.
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Were here to offer a crash course on Baby Clothes 101 and tell you everything you need to know about what they should wear, how many outfits they should have, and how to dress the new addition to your growing family.
Shopping for a newborn is more involved than shopping for yourself. You can get away with wearing a T-shirt and shorts for an entire day. However, a new bundle of joy requires specific attire based on the seasons and the time of day.
The most effective and convenient strategy for dressing your baby at home is to stick onesies or sleep and plays. Onesies are easy to remove for frequent diaper changes throughout the morning and afternoon, making them a valued outfit choice.
Sticking with long-sleeved onesies is an ideal strategy despite what it feels like outside. Babies prefer to wear layers even when its a scorcher because their body is still figuring out the whole internal temperature thing.
Sleep and plays are footie pajamas that cover your little one head to toe. For chillier days, footie pajamas add a layer to their legs and feet. These are also helpful for an active baby who is rolling over because they protect your little one from rugburn.
You should wait to put your little one in cute outfits until youre out and about. Babies are prone to accidents, so theres no reason to stain an adorable fit when youre lounging at home.
A day on the town with you and your loved one requires a few additional considerations. Soaking up the sun may give you the serotonin you need, but too much sun exposure isnt good for your baby. If your baby is under 6 months old, you must protect them from direct sun exposure. In this instance, layeringsuch as infant swimsuitsis your ally. A hat to protect their face is also a must-have item.
Once they exceed the 6-month mark, their delicate skin should be able to take on childrens sunscreen, buying you some extra time in the sun.
The key to winter and nighttime garb is comfortable layering. When autumn approaches, youll want to ensure you have enough items to keep your baby warm and cozy. You should always have one reliable light jacket and a heavier one if you live in a snowy part of the world. Also, dont forget the blanketsyou can never have too many.
Regardless of the season, footie pajamas are the easiest option for bedtime. Fiddling with the snaps of onesies when theres a middle-of-the-night change can be a mess. Footie pajamas equipped with a zipper are a piece of cake.
The most confusing part of baby clothing is, without question, the sizes. Typically, there are four sizes youll find: newborn, 03 months, 36 months, and 612 months. Depending on the retailer and clothing brand, you might see a 69-month size to bridge the gap between 612.
The pickle with settling on a size is that all things fit differently. Something labeled 36 months may fit just fine when they are 8 months old. However, a 912 months item may feel snug around a 7-month-old. Its all relative to the clothes manufacturer and your babys growth.
So if you feel like you cant find something in the right size, youre not alone because it can be confusing and frustrating. For this reason, you should always have the receipts to exchange items that dont fit.
Unlike adults who can wear jeans for several days before washing them, you dont want to keep your child in dirty clothing. You should have at least a few pairs of each clothing item to fill out their closet.
Youll want more onesies when you are a newborn because of spit-ups and blowouts. Ten should suffice in the newborn stage, but one per wash cycle (57 days) is fine afterward.
This will be your second most abundant attire. One per wash cycle is adequate for a newborn. After that, a trio of footie pajamas should work. These numbers may vary based on where you live and the month.
One jacket is the minimum, but you can have two if you want one for mild and freezing conditions.
You should have at least one outfit that makes your baby look dapper. Attending family functions in pajamas may not fly.
Since footie pajamas are prevalent in their earlier years, socks and shoes are optional. But once they hit 6 months old and begin to move around, youll need to protect their feet.
A hat isnt an essential item, but having one when they are a newborn to keep them warm is nice. Similarly, a hat for outdoor activities when they get older is wise.
Now that you have a checklist of things to grab, you can focus on the materials used to make them. The simplest piece of advice is to go for eco-friendly options.
The trend toward using organic materials in infant apparel is growing. Babies sensitive skin responds better to natural fibers than synthetic ones. This implies that natural fibers like cotton and wool are safer for your babys delicate skin.
Besides their material, you want your baby to feel like they can move around. Anything that restricts their movements can bring out a tantrum because theyre uncomfortable. Even when young infants arent mobile, they still make plenty of movements.
Another thing worth considering is if the material is comfortable enough to nap in, especially in the newborn phase. During the first month, you likely wont know what day it is, and the time on the clock has no meaning anymore, so your little one must sleep every second that they can. The more they snooze, the more you can, too.
We hope that this Baby Clothes 101 taught you everything you need to know about dressing your cutie patootie. Bunnies by the Bay knows how important it is to offer safe baby clothing, which is why our clothes use GOTS-certified organic cotton. You can see everything we offer with our clothing and other custom baby shower gifts that will make any parent-to-be even more excited about their new arrival!
If there is one request I get more than ANY other, its this one: Please share tips for storing baby clothes! For years, you all have asked and asked and asked; and truth be told, I never provided an answer because I just didnt have a solution I loved. Sure, I had my three sons clothes sorted into pretty little boxes with cute labels. But this system wasnt really working when it actually came time to swap out clothes. So for monthsseriously (months!), I have analyzed our kid clothes storage issue to come up with a system that didnt just look good, but worked in real life. And by George, I think Ive got it! Friends, its time to ditch the bins by size approach and organize kids clothes in a whole new way. Let me show you!
What If I Told YouStoring kids clothes in bins, sorted out by size, doesnt work.
Now, I am sure there are households where it does indeed work, so dont send me any hate mail. But Ive been at this Mom thing for over 10 years now. And for most of those years, storing baby clothes by size has not only proved bulky and inconvenient, but downright frustrating. And based on how many requests I get for ideas on how to store kids clothes, I have a hunch your by size bins arent working for you either.
Once upon a time, storing baby clothes looked like this, until our collection grew and grew and grew
Before I dive into why size bins dont work, let me quickly share our unique clothing situation. Because based on how many kids you have, how far apart they are, and their gender, your clothing situation may look a little different.
I now have three boys. But heres the kicker: they range in age from 11 to 2. That means, at any given time, I am storing 5+ different sizes of little boy clothes, spanning from my oldest (whos currently in Kids Large) to my youngest (whos currently in 2T). Add in different seasons and different styles (e.g., casual, fancy, etc), and thats a lot of clothes to sort and store.
When I had one child and was slowly accumulating new sizes of clothes, storing in sized bins worked fine. But as we added more kids (and more clothes) and they all started moving in and out of sizes differently, the bin-by-bin system quickly spiraled out of control.
So whats my beef with storing kids clothes by size? It sure is easy and (seemingly) logical, after all. When Child B outgrows 3T and is ready for new clothes, common sense suggests that you just grab the 4T box, swap the clothes, and life is good. But it doesnt really work that way, does it?
Here are just a few (real life!) examples to consider:
My point isstoring clothes into individual bins by size creates categories that dont really work with how kids wear and grow out of clothes. Ive spent the past 5+ years (since my second was born) dreading the whole swapping clothes exercise because:
The struggle is real, friends! So I said to myself: What If I ditched the size bins entirely, and stored clothes by TYPE instead.
Storing Baby & Kid Clothes By TypeThink about this for a minute:
Mind blown yet?!? Mine too!
If you really really want to store clothes by size, large plastic bins with lids are indeed your best bet. They hold a lot, stack nicely on shelves, and can be easily labeled.
But when you shift to storing clothes by type instead, big open bins no longer work. Because while putting all of one clothing type together is helpful, you still need a way to group items by size (or else youll spend forever fishing out the right size long-sleeve shirts from the Long Sleeve Shirt Bin.)
After exploring countless options and ideas, I finally landed on these shoe organizers and these clothing organizers:
NOTE: While these products look the same, they are indeed different brands. They are nearly identical and look like a matching set, except that the shoe organizers have white zippers and the skinny ones have grey.
I like these two products for kid clothes for 3 specific reasons:
How to REALLY Organize & Store Outgrown Kids Clothes
Im not sure you can fully appreciate how huge a shift this concept can be for storing baby clothes, so let me show you how this looks and works in real life!
My hunch is youre currently storing baby clothes in big plastic tubs. Go grab themall of them. Also grab shoes, sweaters, jackets, etc. Leave all currently-fitting clothes in your kids dresser drawers and closets, but do a quick scan to grab anything and everything that no longer fits.
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These cardboard boxes of clothes have been sitting down on our basement shelves, looking exactly like this, since first moving in 3 years ago.
TIP! I highly recommend working on a bed or dining room table because its going to take a while to sort and fold up all those clothes!
Okay, here we go! Its time to ditch the size bins and re-sort all your kids clothes into categories instead. These categories may change based on your childs specific wardrobe, but here are the categories I used for our boys:
I no longer have babies and dont have girls, but additional categories might also include:
My number one tip here is to keep your categories simple AND think about how you typically go looking for clothes for your kids (e.g., we need shorts right now). Dont get too bogged down in categorization. At first I was tempted to sort pants by Gym, Jeans, and Other. But the reality is, when my son needs pants that fit him, Ill need them all at once.
TIP! As you sort clothing into categories, take the time to purge out anything really worn, faded, stained, crunchy, or you just dont love. If you didnt put something on your child the first time around, you likely arent going to put it on your next child either.
With all the clothes sorted and purged, youll next need to settle in with a good movie, podcast, or audio book while you fold, fold, fold. Your goals are to:
With everything folded, its time to file everything inside the storage totes BOTH by category AND size. Yes, you read that right! While organizing by type is truly a functional game changer, its still really valuable to have like sizes together. I recommend loading each category (e.g., Short Sleeve Shirts) in from smallest (in the front) to biggest (in the back).
For example:
I dont recommend stacking clothes vertically. Filing clothes on their edge instead will allow you to not only store a lot of clothes really compactly, but also help you see everything at a glance (like when you suddenly need the Cat In the Hat shirt for Dr. Seuss birthday.) Use the dividers to create custom channels to fit each size/set of clothes.
TIP! As you file clothes, use scraps of paper or Post-It Notes to mark when one size transitions to another. Once everything is loaded in, its a total pain to pull items back out just to find the size breaks.
At first, I really didnt think labels were necessary. If the goal is just to find a set of shirts that fit Child B, it doesnt really matter what the actual size is, right?
However, it quickly became apparent that having a size reference would be very helpful. Not only do sizes give you a place within the larger tote to start looking when its time to swap clothes, but it also helps you re-file newly out-grown clothes in a logical spot.
Labels can be made of anything you wantcardboard, scrapbook paper, anything! They dont necessarily need to be pretty or even super sturdy, since their main goal is simply to separate each category of clothes. I chose to make mine out of thin plastic sheets for one very specific reason: I wanted them to be erasable.
One of the biggest things Ive learned over the years is that the labels need to be easily changeable. Kids clothes are a fluid itemyou wont always have 3T clothes in your boxes. Case in point, when the 3T clothes go out, I wont need those labels, but I will eventually need labels for the 5T clothes currently in my middle sons drawer. By making my labels easily changeable, Ill be able to keep a better handle on what is really where at all times.
TIP! I recommend using a Wet Erase marker to avoid smudges getting on clothes!
With all of your kid clothes now easily visible (both by category and size), you might consider creating a quick Clothing Inventory. All-too-often, Ill stock up on something I think the boys need, only to come home and find three with tags still on them. Keeping an inventory in your purse (or a digital copy on your ) can help you quickly and easily see what all you have so you can stock up and/or fill gaps appropriately. (My printable inventory is from The Family HUB.)
There are a lot of reasons I am super giddy about this clothing storage system, but one of the main ones is that it gets our outgrown kids clothes OUT of our basement/storage area and INTO the bedrooms where the kids are.
This might seem counterintuitive, but having boxes down in the basement made an already-hard task even harder. Having the boxes under the beds means that at any time, we can pull out the storage totes and grab whatever we need. Maybe we just need jammies, or maybe we just need pants, or maybe we need to swap all the shirts. No matter what it is, I can pull everything out and see everything we haveall at once.
This is aalllll our little boy clothes with the exception of shoes!
TIP! I highly recommend considering how much under bed space you have when deciding how many and what size organizers to purchase. My two little boys are about to be in twin beds in the same room. One large tote and two skinny ones will fit nicely under each bed!
A Closer Look Inside Our Kids Clothing TotesI ended up using 2 shoe under-bed organizers (1 set of 2) and 4 large long, skinny organizers (2 packs of 2) for our entire little boy clothing collection. This not only allowed me to categorize tote by tote, but also have some room for growth.
Inside one large shoe organizer, I have 100% of the boys shirts:
Short Sleeve Shirts | Short Sleeve Shirts with Collar | Long Sleeve Shirts | Long Sleeve Shirts with Collar
In two long skinny totes, I have all pants and shorts organized by size:
In one long skinny tote, I have all sweaters and sweatshirts organized by size:
In the other large shoe organizer, I have a variety of things!
Pajamas | Bathing Suits | Sports Socks | Underpants | Suits/Jackets | Ties
In one final skinny tote, I have all our keepable shoes:
Using & Maintaining This SystemAlthough I just implemented this system for storing baby clothes in our own household, Ive spent a lot of time thinking about how this all works from a practical perspective. After all, it was how our size-by-size bins didnt work that had me so frustrated (rather than how they looked, stacked, or stored).
Ive mentioned this a bit already, but here is how the dreaded clothing swap will now look with this new storage solution:
There is no longer the need to pull out a certain size bin, empty half of it, and re-store what doesnt fit or isnt in season. Instead, you can pull out your entire clothing stash at one time and only swap what isnt currently fitting your child. You can pick short-sleeve shirts if its warm or the long-sleeve shirts if its cool. You also can easily fold up and re-store what is no longer fitting, no matter what child, size, or season it is!
When assembling your clothing storage systems, make sure you only keep the sizes you need for the kids you have (or might have). More kids (or a wide age gap) will mean youre storing a lot more clothes. However, once youre done having kids, youll be able to maintain a steady state in terms of overall footprint.
Notice how we have nothing under 3T. When my youngest is ready for this next size, these clothes will never come back into these totes. However, the space the 3T clothes vacate will then be back-filled by the clothes my oldest is out-growing that we want to save for the younger two.
That said, as kids get older, their clothes get bigger, so its important that you build some growing room into your kids clothing storage system. While the movable dividers help accommodate larger folds, its also worth not cramming everything in too tight (or else you wont have any space for incoming clothes). Keep some cubbies open or consider having an extra tote on hand to grow into.
Guys Ive seriously been on Cloud 9 since tackling this project. Our baby clothes storage situation has been a pain in my side for years. I cant tell you how much time I have spent dreading, procrastinating, and loathing swapping them out a they grow.
After thinking critically about what all wasnt working in our previous system, I was finally able to move away from the standard size-by-size bins approach and find a solution that will really, truly work. If you too have struggled with how best to store out-grown clothes so future kids can actually use them, I hope what Ive shared here proves as life changing for you as it has for me!
See You Soon!
Megan
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