UPDATE: Jenny’s success story is up! Go here to see her after photos!
Today’s messy situation was submitted by Jenny!
“Hello! I am excited to get some help with organizing this area of my house.
“The large baby toys (keeping for future babies) is one of the biggest dilemma in the spare room. The baby’s room is a closet sized room and very small so the baby toys cannot go there. My husband wants the shed to be used only for outside items. Therefore; we don’t know where to put the large baby toy items. Especially since they don’t fold down.
“The closets in this room are already completely full with our snowboarding, travel, husband’s work uniform gear, and photo boxes. We are so thankful to even have this much storage – I just feel like we aren’t using wisely!
“We also have a huge pantry that’s full of all grocery and cleaning items, a small hallway linen closet (also full), and a small bathroom closet (full). Plus the baby’s room and our room both have closets for clothes, shoes, etc.
“We also have a walk in laundry room with 4 kitchen sized cabinets with counter space (all full). As another bonus we have a coat closet, mud room with shoe racks, and a hall way storage room with built-in shelving (full of my former teaching supplies, books and vacuums). We also have a shed out back and a garage. Now with ALLL of this storage I just can’t figure out how we still have SO MUCH. ” – Jenny
Five Solutions for Storing Baby Gear
Jenny, it sounds like you have great storage and excellent questions!
Let’s focus on a few baby gear storage solution ideas for now and I’ll address the rest of the space later.
1) Shed
I suggest finding out why your husband only wants outdoor things in the shed. Is he concerned that the baby items may get ruined? If so, then maybe you could discuss options for safely storing the baby things outside.
2) Consignment Store
Another option may be to consign your current baby items, or to only keep the things that you absolutely use all of the time.
We got rid of so much baby gear after my second child was born because as she started growing into it, we realized that she wasn’t even using it – she was much more interested in copying what her Big Sister was doing!
Plus, a bonus to this is that even if you do need the items later, you can often use your consignment credit to put towards the purchase of another gently used item so you’ll hardly be paying anything extra out of pocket!
3) Existing Closet
If you really just want to keep all of the baby things but can’t put them in the shed, then look at all of your other existing storage with fresh eyes. You mentioned that you have a mud room. Do you use it often or could you build or purchase shelves for the mudroom that you can keep baby gear on? Or could you possibly move some baby gear to your current pantry and move your cleaning items to another closet instead?
4) Move Something Else Out
The option may even be as simple as moving your snowboarding gear out to the shed so you can put baby items in that closet instead.
5) Attic or Basement
Do you have any attic or basement space? If so, then try putting the baby gear in one of those places and see how it fits!
I hope this helps get your wheels spinning for how to store your baby gear, Jenny! Thanks for joining the challenge and I can’t wait to see your organized space!
P.S. If you want your own FREE personalized organization advice, then go here for details!
UPDATE: Jenny’s success story is up! Go here to see her after photos!
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