How To Organize and Store Outgrown Baby Clothes

During your baby’s first year, it may seem like they are growing out of baby clothes in no time! When you change your baby’s clothes every few months, the old clothes can get overwhelming. That’s why it’s helpful to know how to store outgrown baby clothes.

There are many benefits to storing outgrown baby clothes, especially if you want to have more children in the future. But when you have piles of outgrown baby clothes to organize, it can feel frustrating!

In this article, you’ll learn how to organize and store baby clothes step by step. This guide will help you tackle the piles or bags of outgrown baby clothes and declutter so everything has a place.

Let’s get started!

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How to Organize and Store Outgrown Baby Clothes:

As I mentioned, looking at your outgrown baby clothes can be overwhelming. Organizing all of them for storage might seem daunting, but when you use the following steps, you’ll be surprised by how easy it is! Here’s what to do:

1. Wash All Clothes

The first step when it comes to storing baby clothes is to wash them. Even if you cleaned the baby clothes before you stashed them away, I would rewash them before long-term storage to remove all dust or dirt.

Before you throw the baby clothes in the washing machine, take a minute to check them for stains. Removing all stains before storing outgrown baby clothes will make them ready to use when you need them next! Plus, the longer stains sit on clothes, the harder they are to get off.

Also, as you check the baby clothes for stains, also check for rips, tears, or holes. If you find any damage on the clothing, consider if it’s too bad and needs to be tossed.

Once the baby clothes are all washed, you’ll also want to ensure that they are fully dry before moving on to the next step. If the clothes are even slightly damp, they could smell like mildew after you put them in storage containers.

2. Sort by Size

Once your outgrown baby clothes are clean and thoroughly dry, you can start sorting the clothing by size. Having all the baby clothes separated by each size will help you stay organized in the future.

When I recently went through my son’s baby clothes, I got a large folding table like this one and used it to put all the sorted piles of clothes on. Using a table saved my back from leaning over on the floor, and it prevented toddler hands from destroying the piles.

When sorting outgrown baby clothes, you can organize them however you want. I wanted to be pretty specific when I sorted my son’s clothes, so here’s how I did it:

Newborn – All newborn clothing and preemie if you have them
3 Month – All clothing marked 0-3 and 3 months
6 Month – All clothing marked 3-6 and 6 months
9 Month – All clothing marked 6-9 and 9 months
12 Month – All clothing marked 9-12 and 12 months
18 Month – All clothing marked 12-18 and 18 months
24 Month – All clothing marked 24 months
2T – All clothing marked 2T

If you are sorting sizes even larger than 2T, you keep repeating the above pattern.

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3. Sort by Keep, Sell, Donate, and Trash

After you have your outgrown baby clothes sorted by size, you’ll want to go through them once more and sort them into your final piles; keep, sell, donate, and trash. It’s helpful to have either bags or boxes to label for each category, so you remember which pile is for what.

As I did this step, I focused on one size pile at a time until I finished it, then I moved on to the next size. Just make sure to keep the clothing sizes in the keep and sell piles somewhat organized, so you don’t have to go through them again later.

As you go through this step, really consider if you want to keep certain items. For example, if there was an outfit that was hard to get on or that you only half liked, feel free to sell or donate it. The only clothing items I threw away were torn or holy things I had missed.

4. Fold the Clothes

Now that you have your final piles of outgrown baby clothes, it’s time to fold them all. Folding the little clothes might seem exhausting, but it goes by surprisingly quickly!

As you start folding the baby clothes, you’ll want to keep them all relatively the same size. Making all the clothing around the same size can help you effortlessly pack the clothes in the storage container you choose.

Plus, making the clothes more uniform can allow you to stand the clothes in the container, which helps you quickly see what’s inside the storage container when you open it up next time.

5. Choose the Best Storage Option

Folding the outgrown baby clothes means you are ready to choose your storage options! When selecting your storage containers, you want to avoid grabbing just any old thing. You’ll want something that makes sense for the space you have in your home.

In addition to ensuring your containers will fit in your home’s space, you also want containers that won’t allow bugs, dirt, or dust in. You would hate to open your stored clothing to find little holes from a pest!

So, let’s get into the top three storage options for outgrown baby clothes:

Vacuum-Sealed Bags

Spacesaver Vacuum Storage Bags - How To Store Outgrown Baby Clothes

First up for clothing storage containers are vacuum-sealed bags, sometimes referred to as space-saver bags. Vacuum-sealed bags are my favorite option when storing anything soft because they squish down to such a smaller size!

If this is your first time using vacuum seal bags, all you do is fill the bag to the appropriate lines with your soft items, like clothing or blankets.

Then, you take the included hand pump or the hose attachment on your vacuum and suck all the air out of the bag. Then, you are left with a much smaller, more manageable package to store!

When I went through my son’s outgrown baby clothes, I put them in these vacuum-sealed bags and stored them under the crib. The bags of clothing were out of sight without taking up precious space in our home.

Since buying those first vacuum bags to store my son’s clothes, I found that Amazon has its own brand of vacuum bags that are about ten dollars cheaper than the name brands! You can check them out here. I also love that there are many sizes to choose from, and they are budget-friendly!

Plastic Containers

If you’re looking for a storage container that is more sturdy and easily stackable, plastic tote containers might be what you need.

While plastic storage totes can work nicely and give you plenty of room to work with inside the container, some things make these my least favorite storage option. For example, they are the most expensive container on this list and take up so much room!

If plastic totes are the best option for you, this 6-pack of totes is a more budget-friendly place to start. These totes come in many sizes and have latching handles for more secure storage. Plus, they have groves that make them stackable and nestable!

Clothing Boxes

Our last choice for outgrown baby clothes is clothing boxes. Clothing boxes are storage containers that aren’t quite as sturdy as plastic totes but can still hold their fair share of weight! Often, they have reinforced handles to provide you with plenty of lifting support.

What I like about clothing storage boxes is that they are much cheaper than plastic totes, much lighter, and come in many shapes and sizes.

For example, if you like the idea of utilizing the area under your child’s bed, these storage containers are perfect! Plus, they come in a pack of three, giving you plenty of room to work with.

But, if you would instead stack the boxes in a closet, for instance, these ones would be great. They also come in a pack of three and can fit many items in them!

6. Label the Container

After you’ve chosen your preferred storage container and loaded all of the outgrown baby clothes into them, you’ll want to label them. Labeling your storage bins will allow you always to know what’s in them instead of just guessing by looking at them.

When it comes to labeling your containers, you can get however fancy you want with them. When I first put away my son’s outgrown baby clothes, I wrote what was in the bags on a piece of printer paper with a marker.

But if you’d rather, you can use a label maker, print some pretty labels from a place like Etsy, or try and create your own!

Another great thing to remember is that you can get however specific you want with your labels. You can write ‘Baby Boy Clothes 3-6 Months’ or the size of clothing and list particular things in the container, like winter clothes.

7. Store Them for Later!

Now that you’ve completed all the hard work, pat yourself on the back! It’s finally time to store those outgrown baby clothes until you need them again. While you can keep your baby clothes wherever is easiest for you, here are some great spots to stash them:

In a Closet

If you have ample closet space in your home, it can be a great place to store clothing because it’s weather controlled, and there are fewer chances of water damage happening.

Under the Bed

Under-the-bed storage is terrific because it allows you to use what’s likely unused storage space. Plus, clothing fits easily under a bed when using the correct storage containers!

On Garage Shelves

Lastly, shelving in the garage is another great place to store outgrown baby clothes. Just use storage containers that seal tightly to avoid any garage smells or bugs from getting into the clothing.

Why store outgrown baby clothes?

Some might wonder if it’s worth the bit of work to store their baby’s outgrown clothes. Here are the top three reasons to store outgrown baby clothes:

Store Outgrown Baby Clothes For the Next Baby

The main reason to store your baby’s outgrown clothes is to save them for your next baby. If you plan on having more children after your first, saving clothes will save you money.

And, reusing your child’s outgrown baby clothes is fantastic because you know they are in good condition, plus you have those extra memories associated with them from your first baby.

Store Outgrown Baby Clothes as Keepsakes

Another reason you might want to store outgrown baby clothes is as keepsakes. If you know you won’t be having more children, but you don’t want to part with cute outfits that are sentimental to you, store them!

The great thing about storing baby clothes as keepsakes is that you don’t need as much room for storage since you aren’t keeping whole wardrobes. You can get one larger container and put all the outfits/items you want to keep in it.

Store Outgrown Baby Clothes for Nieces or Nephews

Lastly, if you have brothers or sisters who want to start a family within a few years of your own, storing baby clothes for them to use can be wonderful!

If you want to store baby clothes for family members, I would make sure to verify with them that they would like to use them. There’s no sense in keeping baby clothes that won’t really get used someday!

How To Store Outgrown Baby Clothes - Pin Image

And there you have it; the ultimate guide to learning how to store outgrown baby clothes. I hope these tips helped you bring some order to the clothes you’re storing for your next baby. Easily seeing what you have will be so helpful when using them next!

Before you go, check out these related articles:

What is your favorite way to store outgrown baby clothes? I would love to know in the comments below!

How To Organize and Store Outgrown Baby Clothes