The year is 2013, I am 25 and a brand new mama, trying to figure it all out. There was so much I didn’t know, so much I wanted to know, so much I eventually ended up learning. If you’re new (hiiiii!) , I’m a very ‘I don’t want to wait to do it or have help, I’ll figure it out myself’ type of person. That first year of new motherhood is so much learning and growing thru experience. One thing I implemented quickly (in our rental home, which was where Conner was born and a 2 story), was that diapers needed to be available in multiple rooms – not just the baby’s room like I had thought originally 😅
Naturally I’ve always been an organized person, so when I realized this was essential, I thought ‘how am I going to make it look not like a pile of diapers and wipes in every corner?’ Baskets (bonus points if it has a lid!) were always my way of hiding stuff, however, make it functional for us was equally important. You don’t want all of these things that you need to have on hand to make diaper changing around the home impossible to get to, right? That would basically defeat the purpose.
Since having 3 more babies since my sweet little guy, I’ve gotten better about this and intentionally placing these little ‘stations’ around our home. If you want to do this effectively and also save your sanity when you’re in another room where you DON’T have anything set up – ask yourself: what rooms are we most frequently in?
In our home, we have this ‘set up’ in 3 rooms: our bedroom (for when baby was sleeping in our room before their nursery), our family room, and our loft which is a main common area. Funny enough, with baby #4 I didn’t even keep any diapers in her changing table/nursery AT ALL (but posting this is making me think I should probably add some in there, as she is spending more time in there with us and her siblings). Colly is now done with sleeping in our room, but I keep a little diaper caddy full of essentials in there still as I will get her up first thing in the morning and usually take her to our room to get changed and eat. It’s nice having these on hand in there, even now. At the end of the night when her siblings are showering and getting ready for bed, we get her ready for bed in our room too and again, it’s nice having all of her diapering needs in there still.
I’m rounding up a few baskets we’ve used to keep changing essentials in over the years. What’s nice is in our main living space and family room, they can still be tucked away in an entertainment center or under our coffee table and it’s not a huge eyesore. As your baby gets older, you also want to keep these things out of reach so they can’t have access to them. If you do have a space where it can be in a bin inside of a shelving system, it’s a huge help in that aspect.
I hope this idea can help new (and even) seasoned mamas! There are still things I’m learning, now almost a decade in, I think back to that time when I was eager to learn and still feel that way. Times and methods of parenting and thriving in motherhood are always changing. I think it’s safe to say we all just want to do what’s best for our kiddos….while having our own peace of mind stay in tact!
