Hey mama!
Soooo you’re super pregnant… After months of discomfort, heartburn, aches and pains, you randomly get a burst of energy and motivation to organize your spaces. Welcome to the nesting phase of pregnancy my friends! Let’s direct all of that beautiful energy into something that will have lasting effects on you & your family’s happiness! In this post you’ll learn how to organize and declutter your home before your new baby arrives, and create lasting habits for success.
Here are the steps:
- Visualize your dream home
- Identify the problem areas & categorize clutter
- Establish a place for everything
- Baby Organization
- Clothing Organization
- Kitchen, Living room & Laundry Organization
- Establish Rules to Keep Yourself Organized for the Long Term
Before you begin: To make the process easier, you’ll have the opportunity to download my 7-Step Nesting Worksheet & Checklist. I highly recommend you download this FREE guide to walk you, step by step, through this process for complete success!
But first let me give you a bit of a backstory…
Backstory: why & how I’m qualified to help you to organize your home before your new baby arrives
Oh, you’re naturally not an organized person? Same same my friend!
Coming from someone who had an insanely chaotic situation on her hands when baby #1 was born, I am probably the best person to give you this advice.
By the time my son was born in July of 2016, I had no organizational systems in place and no structure to my time. I wasn’t ready to accept the reality of the change that was about to take place in my life. I wanted the best of both worlds. To keep up my old ways, spontaneity AND be the best momma ever.
Because we work in a 24 hour industry, my husband & I have never had a regular hourly (9-5) schedule. AND we both are very spontaneous. The perfect storm resulting in absolutely no structure to our time or routine. Unfortunately for us, when welcoming another life into your home, structure becomes ab-so-lute-ly mandatory.
Why take my advice?
Now I know what you’re thinking. This backstory makes it sounds like I’m actually NOT the right person to give you this advice. But after years of agonizing over my disorganization, trying everything from reading books, watching tutorials, to buying expensive containers. Doing the same things over and over again without any real strategy. I finally found a method that stuck.
You can learn from my mistakes!
Since my son was born in July of 2016 I have moved homes and launched 2 businesses. All while trying to devote myself fully to being a stay at home mom. My son was colicky, had trouble nursing, and was an insomniac. To say the least he wasn’t a super easy baby.
If I had a system to organize my home before the baby came, and thus “set up for success”, I would have handled these surprise issues with much more poise and patience.
What could have been the best time of my life was tainted by the ever-present stress caused by disorganization. It resulted in my inability to just sit and enjoy the small moments with my little boy.
Four years later I am gearing up for baby #2 and have, by some small miracle, found my organizational groove.
I feel that being on both sides of the equation gives me the insight to advise you on how to organize your home before your new baby arrives. Below you will learn from my many mistakes. It is my hope that you can avoid the years of catch up I endured.
Understanding the long term benefits of organization on your growing family:
You’re about to experience a massive lifestyle change. In my opinion it will be the best thing that will ever happen to you!!! And yes, also probably the hardest. So let’s make things a little easier, shall we?
No joke, when you have a newborn to care for 24/7 the positive power of having a clean and organized environment cannot be overstated. With little sleep, aches and pains, figuring out why bebe is crying, the last thing you want to think about is keeping your house.
You don’t need to take my word for it… many sources say that clean surfaces and clear spaces can directly improve mental health. According to this article in SHAPE, a system of organization can:
- Reduce stress, depression & anxiety
- Improve your sleep
- Help you make better food choices and stick to a workout regime (or any type of regime)
- Help make you more productive
- Improve relationships
From experience, I can attest that all of these things are essential if you do not want to be overwhelmed as a new mother. The collateral damage of a stressed out new mom can have lasting effects. As the saying goes “I wish I knew what I know now” rings very true with this one.
Planning Hack!
Oh, one more thing mama! Before you start be sure to download my “NESTING 101” Master Organizational Guide & Worksheet to assist you through this process. Each step will require a little note taking or planning and this guide is so so so helpful!!
Before you go any further! Subscribe now and receive my
“NESTING 101” Master Organizational Guide & Worksheet
[convertkit form=1726226]
Ok, let’s dive in!
Here are the essential steps for how to organize your home before baby arrives:
Step 1: Visualize your Dream Home
If you had a full time live in housekeeper, what would your home look like? I’m talking about the current home you live in. Whether it’s a 1 bedroom apartment or a 5,000 square foot home, the goal is the same. What would each room look and feel like? Most likely, you have clean and clear surfaces , your bed is made, and there is little to distract you.
Get a mental picture of your goal home, put it on paper, and keep that in your mind as a visual guide for what to aim for. Include your baby in this visual too! To organize your home before the baby arrives is probably the least glamorous and fun pre-baby to-do, so having a goal in mind will help keep you motivated.
Step 2: Identify the problem areas & Categorize clutter
- Identify the locations that clutter always piles up. For these areas you will need to develop organizational solutions. For me, a main problem area was a side table where our mail, keys, sunglasses and receipts would endlessly pile up. I added hooks for keys, a sunglass holder, mail is opened and either trashed or filed as soon as it enters the door. You will need to find similar solutions for whatever your stubborn clutter is.
- Collect all clutter into a box, and sort. For instance: Paperclips in one pile, coins in another and phone chargers in another. Have a garbage bin in the room for anything that is spent or you don’t need/want anymore.
- SIDE NOTE: If there is a LOT to sort through, don’t stress yourself by trying to get it all done in one day. I suggest finding somewhere to sort the clutter that is outside of your main living areas. Maybe your underutilized dining room table or the guest room bed, and tackle it over the course of a couple of days.
- Now determine what categories the clutter lives under and sort into categories. For instance: office supplies, electronics, misc paperwork, magazines, medicine, etc. In the downloadable NESTING 101 Master Organizational Guide & Worksheet there is a page of labels where you can write down each category to help sort the piles. This is super helpful if you are going to walk away from the project and come back to it another day. Mom brain is a real thing, so it’s super easy to forget what your original intentions were.
Step 3: Establish a home for everything
There should be designated areas in your house where you keep your organized nicknacks and random things. To determine this, assign a “HOME” to each of the categories you listed in step 3 above. To do this:
- Find the organizational storage space that already exists in your house: Go around your house. See if there are underutilized cabinets, shelves, drawers that can accommodate some of these categories.
- Decide what organizational containers or solutions will work best for each category and each space. With the clutter and existing storage spaces in mind, determine what types of containers or spaces you’ll need to store or display it:
- For open shelving and places the storage containers will be seen, find containers that match your decor and color schemes. For a natural look These woven baskets are lovely , for an upscale look check out these mirrored boxes
- Can some of the things just live in a desk drawer or is too bulky to be in a visible space? If you have small desk items that can live in little trays in a drawer check out something like this. Bulky and large quantities of items can be stored in clear plastic containers like this.
It is likely you have some storage solutions already lying around the house! Grab as many as you can find and bring them to your sorting station. For everything else, make a shopping list of what you need.
Once you have your containers…
- Once you have all of the containers and storage solutions you need for each category of clutter, fill them with their intended contents.
- Label the containers by noting what’s inside. Also Label the shelves so that everyone in the household both knows where everything goes, and where to put things back. This is going to be a group effort!
- Now that everything is sorted and labeled, place these containers in their new home.
Step 4: Clothing Organization
One of the best ways to set yourself up for success is to organize your own closet before the baby is born. Truth be told, you’ll hardly have the energy to shower let alone rummage through all of your clothing to find something that is comfortable.
1. Narrow the closet down to give yourself only a few winning choices that you know you’ll be comfy and happy in. You will probably only be wearing a small selection of very comfortable clothing and maternity wear. This will continue on through the postpartum phase. Grab a storage container and store any tight fitting or restrictive clothing away in a nearby closet.
2. When you have less clothing on your shelves and in your closets, it’s much easier to keep everything looking nice and tidy. RULE #1 for clothing organization: When you take something off, deal with it right in that moment. Do not let clothes pile on the floor on a chair. If it needs to be washed put it directly in the laundry bin. If it’s still fresh and clean, hang it up or fold and put it away. Any laundry done during the day should be folded (see tip below about the KonMari folding method) and put away as soon as you’re done folding.
Essential KonMari folding technique: For the master of all clothing organization, refer to Marie Kondo, her folding methods will change your life. My closet hasn’t been cluttered or disorganized since I first implemented it about 6 months ago. Here’s a great article from Abby at justagirlandherblog, she does an amazing job explaining & illustrating the method.
If you decide to implement a new method of folding/ organizing your closet, you may want to look into closet/drawer organizers. I love these underwear organizers , and these for storing shirts/ pjs if utilizing the KonMari folding method.
Step 5: Daily Kitchen, Living room & Laundry Organization
Finding time to organize specific, high traffic rooms in your home before baby arrives is essential. If you haven’t been able to set up a routine for keeping things clean around the house, you will need to find more time in your schedule. I now wake up at least an hour, ideally 2 hours earlier than I used to to make sure the following occurs first thing in the morning:
- The dishwasher is emptied & anything in the sink has been put into the dishwasher OR hand-cleaned, dried and put away.
- I have started a load of laundry, and anything left in the dryer has been folded.
- Spend 10 -15 minutes picking up the living room and any other common spaces that aren’t in order.
Starting your day with clean surfaces, an empty dishwasher & laundry rolling sets you up for complete success. You will never let dishes pile in the sink again- as soon as a dish gets dirty it gets rinsed and put directly into the dishwasher! You’ll have fresh laundry each day, and living spaces will look tidy. Legit lifeeeee changing, people!
The key is to take the small bit of extra time to finish the job, put the laundry away after folding, hang up clothes at the end of the day, put dishes in the dishwasher.
Step 6: Get ready for baby
A super helpful way to make life easier when you bring baby home is to create homes for baby’s stuff as well. If you live in a big house, establish several little changing stations within an arms reach of where you spend most of your time: your own bedroom, your living room, the kitchen, anywhere you will spend your time during your babies first few months. Stock up on multiples for the changing essentials, diapers, wipes, diaper creams and extra sets of clothing, and put them in each station.
Do not worry about spending the extra $$ up front- either register for multiples or buy in bulk, or if money is tight buy little by little a few months before you’re due. Believe me– These things will not go to waste, and the preparedness at each spot will be a huge relief, especially if your changing supplies would typically live upstairs in the nursery and you spend most of your time downstairs in the living room.
- Swaddles
- Burp cloths
- Wipes
- Diapers (check out this super helpful blog post that explains how many boxes of diapers per size you’ll need)
- Baby lotion / oil if you If you”re investing in expensive baby products I highly recommend purchasing small reusable squeeze tubes like these to avoid purchasing multiples
- Diaper cream/balm
- Diaper brush These are totally worth the $- you can easily clean them off with a wipe to avoid getting any diaper cream on your hands
- Pacifiers
- Extra change of clothes (in case of diaper leaks)
At the end of each day before bed replenish anything that is running low in your changing station. In doing this you will start fresh each day.
Step 7: Establish rules to keep yourself organized for the long term
The following rules outline a basic formula to organize your home, both in preparation for baby, and once & for all!
- Wake up earlier– This was the #1 change factor for my ability to keep the house clean and organized. If you listen to any podcast or youtube video about habits of highly successful people, the number one most common trait is that they wake up early every day. My advice for you is to wake up 1-2 hours earlier than you normally do, and devote this time to a schedule of getting your least favorite chores done first thing. I expand more on this in the 7 step organizational checklist download below.
- The One touch principle– This principle means that you only handle things once. Rinse your dish and put it directly in the dishwasher. Open your mail and trash or file it. The one touch principle ensures that things don’t pile up and you finish the job you started without creating more jobs.
- A place for everything, everything in its place– In step 3 you established a home for everything. This is the resting place for all clutter, so as soon as you are done using something put it back in its home. This will ensure that spaces look tidy and organized but more importantly you will know where everything is at all times.
- Just do it– Yes, I stole this from Nike. This is an essential mindset for keeping on top of your organization. Deal with things as they occur. Do not put it down thinking you will deal with it later because “later” will become “too late” once you’re overwhelmed. Don’t let emotion or laziness take over, focus on the task at hand without letting your thoughts get the best of you.
- Never leave a room empty handed– Heading from the kitchen to your bedroom? Look around and see what items in the kitchen can be dropped off on your trip. This way you’re organizing and decluttering without any extra exerted energy.
- Clean while you cook– proactively cleaning while you cook will prevent you from being overwhelmed after dinner. Once you get in the habit, you may even have the kitchen fully cleaned before sitting down to eat! This leaves the rest of the night open for family time or relaxation. You can also recruit a family member to help out with this to make it go even faster.
The 3 easy steps I follow are:- Put ingredients back in the pantry or fridge straight after using them
- Clean dishes pots and pans right after use or fill up the dishwasher
- Clean countertops as you go
- Form the Habit– You must commit long enough for a habit to form. None of this will work if you do not commit to this new method of organization! It may take a few days of intense labor to declutter and get your baseline organization down. But after that, I promise by following these simple steps you will maintain organization and sustain these systems into the distant future!
The Main Takeaways:
When you’re expecting a baby, many things take priority on your to-do list. The baby registry, decorating the nursery, researching labor and delivery options, to name a few. Having to organize the home before baby arrives was probably at the bottom of my list.
The fact is, life after baby is much more challenging than we are ever prepared for. If you can, take the time (while you have it) to set some healthy home-organizing habits. I highly suggest taking the steps above to take control of your living spaces, before a tiny human takes control of your life!
If you do, you will have:
- cleared spaces and found homes for all of you clutter
- learned to avoid laundry and dish pile-up
- simplified the process of dressing yourself
- simplified the process of dressing & changing baby
- established life changing rules for success that will result in higher productivity, improved relationships, lower stress and better sleep.
- manifested the ideal version of your beautiful home
I would love to hear what you think about these tips, or if anyone has any advice of their own for expectant mommas! Have any of you suffered through new parenthood living in a mess?
Tell me about your experience and would love to know if you were able to organize your home before baby with the help of my guide!
