Organizing Pregnancy and Maternity Clothes

10/14/2022

Pregnancy and postpartum are times of so much joy and expectation! While this is a wonderful time, it can also be filled with lots of change, many decisions to make, and plenty of extra tasks. The last thing you want to do is open your closet in the morning and be disappointed that you don't fit into your clothes and stressed because you don't know what to wear. Let me share the journey of one new mom that I worked with as an example.

Wooden chest of drawers with one drawer open and showing undergarments stacked haphazardly

Before Photo: Maternity Undergarments

Wooden chest of drawers with one drawer open with neatly stacked maternity undergarments and wet wipes.

After Photo: Maternity Undergarments

The client was a new mom who was frustrated with getting dressed each day. Her closet was overflowing, yet she couldn't fit into most of the clothes. Not only was it difficult to locate something that fit, but it was also taking an emotional toll knowing that the clothes didn't fit. She ended up wearing the same few items over and over as they came out of the wash.

We first took the clothes out by category, beginning with shirts. We went through all of the shirts one at a time. The client decided whether or not the item brought her joy and was still in good condition. Then, we sorted the 'keep' shirts by size.

Bed with dark green sheet covered by piles of folded shirts of all colors and piles of shirts on hangers.

In the end, we created a series of storage boxes that were organized by size for various times during pregnancy and postpartum. The clothes that went back in the closet were all clothes that currently fit. As time went on and her body changed sizes, she could easily replace the clothes in the closet with ones that fit from the appropriate storage box. This is a similar idea to keeping out of season clothes in another location and switching them out as the seasons change.

Three large clear plastic bins are shown stacked vertically with clothes folded inside.

Large clear plastic storage bin with pants folded vertically and sorted by size with paper tags.

The pants that did not currently fit were organized vertically in a storage container with tags to mark the various sizes. Think of it like a paper filing system, just with pants! After our work together, she knew that she could open the closet and fit into any of the clothes items that were in there.

Our work took several sessions. It was important for her to have support while decluttering, so she did not work between sessions on her own. She was thrilled with the results, relieved to open the closet each day, and happy to be able to easily get dressed in the mornings.

From the desk of Laura

Organizing Pregnancy and Maternity Clothes

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