When you're trying to keep a tiny human alive, thinking about organizing might be the last thing you want to do! But having an organized nursery will help to reduce the stress by cutting down on frustration at not being able to find things, or exasperation at chronic messiness. The good news is there are steps you can take to help beat back the clutter and stay organized.

Double up on furniture usage

One of the best and easiest ways to keep a clutter-free nursery is to make the furniture work double time. Choose a crib with built-in drawers, or get a crib skirt to hide the bins underneath. Instead of having both a dresser and a changing table, buy a cheap dresser that can double as a changing table. If you're worried about safety, keep in mind that most changing pads come with security straps that you can attach to the back of the dresser.

All the bins

Now that you have a baby, bins are your new best friends. Use them for everything. Put them everywhere there is reasonable space. In the closet, under the crib, on the shelves. Bins everywhere. These days you can find super cute bins from almost any store that sells home items. Get basket style ones or soft fabric ones with cute colors and patterns so that you're not only creating organized spaces for your baby's things, you're also decorating! Use the bins for toys or clothes or sanitary items and stow them in places that are out of the way but easy to reach.

Closet clutter

Since baby clothes are so small, they won't take up much space when hung up. You can add a double bar in the closet for more space, and even add a shelving unit where you can store even more bins! If you really want to get organized, you can purchase or make clothes dividers to separate your child's clothing by size and season. And why not do the same for the closet bins? It's much easier to see a label on the outside of the closet bin than to pull each one out trying to find whatever it is you're looking for before mom brain has you forgetting altogether.

Drawer organizers

To beat back the clutter even further, get yourself some drawer organizers. Babies require so many things, and a lot of those things tend to be teeny tiny. Do yourself a favor by organizing all those little items into drawer organizers for easy retrieval. 

Go vertical

Make use of door hangers for towels or jackets or hats. Even better, buy one of those over-the-door shoe holders to store various knick knacks or items that you need to be able to grab quickly. Install more shelves on the walls or screw in a few hooks to hang up jackets and hats.

Toss out the junk

All of the aforementioned tips and tricks are ways to keep the items you have organized so that you can enjoy a clutter-free environment (since your baby won't appreciate such a thing yet). But clutter can build up before we know it. Tackle clutter head on by tossing out junk. Maybe you've gotten too many hand-me-downs. Can you think of someone else who might need them? Could you donate them? Sometimes items get worn out or outgrown. Throw out what can't be used any more and see if you can donate or give away the things that can. 

We're all out here just doing the best we can, trying to keep tiny humans alive and whatnot, and although organization might not be at the top of mind, you will thank yourself profusely once you've organized and reduced the nursery clutter.