Wondering how to store outgrown baby clothes? If you plan to save them for future use, it’s so worth it to set up a great storage system. I’ll show you my system for decluttering, sorting, packing, and labeling baby clothes in this video and blog post. I’m also sharing a set of free printable labels for outgrown kids’ clothes!
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- Nursery Dresser Organization Ideas
- Organizing A Nursery Closet & Using A Dresser As A Changing Table
- Preparing For Baby: Home Organization, Habits and Routines
- Our Evening Routine With A Baby In The House
- Organizing Diapers With A DIY Diaper Caddy
VIDEO: HOW WE ORGANIZE AND STORE BABY CLOTHES
I spent a couple hours in our colorful nursery recently and sorted through all of Chloe’s outgrown baby clothes. It was so fun to look through everything as I decluttered, organized, labeled, and packed them away in storage totes.
Check out this video which details how I store outgrown baby clothes:
I’m so happy with how I organized the nursery closet in Chloe’s room. We have a dresser drawer devoted to clothes that are a size or two too big, and one of the bins on the upper shelf is the perfect place to toss too-small items so they don’t clutter up the dresser.
Once the bin of outgrown clothes is full, I’m organizing each size of baby clothing into one of these vacuum storage bags and tucking one of my printable labels in the bag (download your copy of the labels at the end of this post).
The bags of baby clothes get stacked inside storage totes and stored away in the basement. I used my Cricut Maker and label maker to create simple DIY labels for the outside of the storage totes. See the DIY vinyl label tutorial here.
Related Article: DIY Labels Made With Vinyl And The Cricut Maker
Tips For Storing baby clothes
So now that you have a sense of how I’m organizing and storing outgrown baby clothes, I have some tips for you to follow in your own house!
1 | LAUNDER EVERYTHING
Before you start sorting all of those baby clothes, make sure everything has been laundered. This is important whether you keep or donate the item, so go ahead and do this step first.
I launder everything before tossing it in the bin on the shelf in the nursery closet so it’s all clean and ready to be packed away.
2 | SORT BY SIZE
The first step to organizing outgrown baby clothes is to sort them into piles by size. Sort through every item and add it to the correct pile.
3 | DECIDE IF ITEMS ARE WORTH KEEPING
Now it’s time to purge! Starting with the smallest size, go through each pile and pull out anything you don’t love. Place these items in a box or bag right away so they are out of your way and can easily be loaded up into your car to be dropped off at a local donation center.
4 | FOLD ALL THE BABY CLOTHES
Turn on music or a great podcast and fold everything into neat piles. Be sure to keep the piles organized by size!
5 | pack in VACUUM Storage bags
Tuck your neat piles of clothes into vacuum storage bags. These plastic bags are so nice because they will keep out the dust and the air can be squeezed out for a vacuum seal that saves a lot of space. I love these vacuum storage bags and they are only $1 each!
Only put one size in a storage bag so things stay organized and will be easy to find when you go to pull them back out in the future.
You don’t have to use vacuum storage bags but I highly recommend! The ones I linked are super cheap and work great. They condense your clothes down so much that you will fit twice as much in each storage tote, and I’m all about saving space!
6 | label with the size
Don’t forget to label each vacuum storage bag with the size of clothing it contains! You can label the outside of the bag with a Sharpie or sticker label. Or you can tuck a paper label inside the bag before you seal it up.
I designed a set of colorful printable kids’ clothing labels that you can use to label your storage bags! Scroll down to the next section to grab that download!
7 | PACK inSIDE storage totes
Once all of the outgrown baby clothes are sorted by size and sealed inside the vacuum storage bags, you are ready to pack them away inside large plastic storage totes. Start with the smallest size and fill up a full storage tote before starting on the next.
I picked up some of these pretty blue totes to store all of our baby clothes and toys so they all match and will be easy to find in the basement when I go looking for them down the road.
8 | LABEL your STORAGE TOTES
Now that your plastic storage totes are all packed up, it’s time to add simple labels! You can do this in a variety of ways.
- Write directly on the tote using a Sharpie
- Tape a paper label on the tote using packing tape
- Add a sticker label
- Use a label maker (Here’s the label maker I LOVE!
- Add DIY vinyl labels (I shared a detailed tutorial for creating DIY vinyl labels with a Cricut cutting machine)
I created large DIY vinyl labels using my Cricut Maker to label the outside of the storage totes with KIDS CLOTHES, BABY TOYS, and BABY SUPPLIES. Then I used my label maker to create smaller labels with the specific sizes stored in each tote.
Related Article: DIY Labels Made With Vinyl And The Cricut Maker
9 | store your outgrown baby clothes in the basement, attic, etc.
Find a spot to store your outgrown baby clothes. I’m keeping ours in a corner of our unfinished basement. Basements, attics, storage rooms, and garages are all popular storage spaces.
FREE PRINTABLE LABELS FOR BABY CLOTHES
I created a set of free printable kids’ clothing labels you can use to label your storage bags by size. Fill in the form below and I’ll send these labels straight to your inbox!
FREE Kids' Clothing Labels
Time to get organized! This printable label set includes: preemie-24 month, 2T-5T, 4-18, XS-XXL, and a few blank labels as well!
What I love about this baby clothes storage system is that I don’t need to keep a huge plastic tote in the nursery all the time! I have a few extra totes in the basement ready to fill with more clothes, and I keep extra vacuum storage bags in the nursery to fill up every time the bin on our closet shelf starts overflowing
The key to an uncluttered and organized space is a system that you can maintain for the long run, and I definitely think ours fits the bill! Your system may not look exactly like mine but I hope you got some ideas from this blog post that you can use to set up your own system so you’re no longer buried in mounds of outgrown kids’ clothes!
I’m joining the DIY Mommy’s 2019 Organization Challenge today! Go check out the playlist for tons of great organizing ideas: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdgMcYYc0hOt4OfelLxIY-dq6Sv92Lnf8&jct=jLEEkJV44JNhmdEA7MZqa_51WYKMwQ&disable_polymer=1
- Nursery Dresser Organization Ideas
- Organizing A Nursery Closet & Using A Dresser As A Changing Table
- Preparing For Baby: Home Organization, Habits and Routines
- Our Evening Routine With A Baby In The House
- Organizing Diapers With A DIY Diaper Caddy
Have a great day!
