I spent last week with my best friend (since 2nd grade) at her home in Bentonville, AR. We worked hard getting her nursery organized for the impending arrival of her first child – a boy! She already had all of the furniture in place. I wanted to help her get the closet and changing table supplies in order. She sent me pictures of the space before I went out there so that I could start researching ideas. I put together a Pinterest board for her and she chose her favorite ideas. I moved the rest of the ideas and products I came across to another general nursery board.
Here are a few shots of the space before I arrived:
It turned out that there were no drawers in the space, so all of my ideas for drawer organization were scraped. We worked on a shoestring budget to get our ideas implemented. I had given her a closet organization kit and extra hangers at her baby shower because I knew I was going out to help with that aspect of the room. It included a hanging organizer with 3 ‘drawer’ bins and two lidded totes as well as hangers and size separaters for the clothing rod.
Surprisingly, she didn’t have that many clothes yet – I know people love to give clothes at baby showers. We hung what she had on the right side of the top bar. In the lidded totes, she put blankets. In the hanging organizer, she put onesies, socks, hats and infant shoes. The black totes in the top of the closet were clearance finds at Target and hold extra diapers. The other boxes on the top shelf are plain cardboard boxes wrapped in burlap and held extra wipes and toys to grow into. We cut circular tags out of marigold-colored card stock and tied them to the totes using jute string.
The large toys/items in the bottom of the closet were just sitting out in the room when I arrived. Now there is plenty of space in the closet to keep them until she needs them.
The shoe organizer hanging on the inside of the closet door was a recommendation I read about over and over. We chose one with mesh pockets so that it is easy to see the contents at a glance. She stored swaddling blankets, pacifiers, extra bath products and burp cloths here.
For the changing table, she picked up plain cardboard shipping boxes and attached some burlap and navy ribbon around the top to store things inside the doors. We stored extra diapers, wipes, bath towels/washcloths, and sheets in the boxes. I love that the changing table and crib were items her sister used for her first baby while she was living in Holland and they have made their way to Georgia and all the way to Arkansas now!
Above the changing table, we hung a peg board that we decorated and attached baskets for easy-to-reach storage. The surface of the table is not much bigger than the changing pad – not much else will fit there, so having a place for items up off the surface should be nice.
The only thing we didn’t find during the week was a reasonably-priced wine/towel wall rack on which to store the rolled up baby blankets. She is still on the lookout for that. I was so happy that I got to be a small part of Baby Zion’s room and I can’t wait to meet him. Thanks to the best friend in the world for playing host for a week and including me in this special time!
Cost Breakdown for the week:
Over-the-Door Shoe Organizer > $9 (Walmart)
Black Flexible Totes > $9 (Target)
Burlap-Covered Boxes > FREE (burlap was from a baby shower thrown by her MIL)
Boxes inside Changing Table > $3 (Walmart)
Burlap and Navy Ribbon > FREE (also from baby shower decor)
Tags for Bins and Totes > FREE (already owned card stock and jute string was from baby shower decor)
Pegboard > $10 (Lowes)
Pegboard hooks > $5 (Walmart – I had her go ahead and buy the variety pack so she can change the layout as baby’s needs change)
2 Fabric lidded totes (not pictured) > $2 (Consignment/Antique Store)
Total: $36 (how’s that for shoe-string?)
Cute! Great job! I espcially like the pag board over the changing table!
Thanks Mer! I can’t wait to see all the cute things you come up with 🙂