From the moment we announced my pregnancy, I was amazed at the amount of love and generosity Ryan and I were shown. We were given many gifts. It was wonderful how excited people were to meet our baby. Since Ryan and I were moving while we were pregnant it was difficult to have any kind of real organization. But heed my warning: have a system in place. Whatever works for you, just stick with it. Here are some of the ideas that I used once we moved into our new house (when Addison was 9 days old- holy stress Batman).
1.) Keep the clothing you have for baby separated into sizes. That way you can easily see what sizes you have a lot of and where you need to fill in the blanks. You also might get a really cute outfit that you love, from a few different people. But the nice thing about that is you can just exchanged the extras for different sizes. Why not enjoy that cupcake onesie for sizes 3 months, 6 months and 9 months! And on the same token, you can take a glance at a full closet and say to yourself, "I really love this but baby has quite a few pairs of 6 month size pajamas. So I'll exchange it for 9 months and get more wardrobe balance." Baby clothes, especially Carters, are very easy to exchange/return. I almost never had a receipt and I never had a problem bringing things back.
2.) Have a separate place for all baby product instruction manuals. I have a file in my filing cabinet for all the instruction manuals that I have for things around my house. But since everything for baby from toys to furniture and even spoons and teething rings have specific instructions on use, cleaning and assembly you will have a large volume of them. Even items that you will use right away, don't get rid of the manual. Here's why. First- a LOT of baby products are intended to grow with baby and you don't want to get to the next stage and not know how to adjust the item for growth. Second- even if you are cleaning or using that item three times a day every day right now, eventually you will put the item away and then take it back out when you have another baby. I promise you, with all the gadgets you have now, and will have later, you won't remember what can be washed in cold water or what is dishwasher safe or how to assemble that swing again.
3.) Keep a stash of stamps. You will send out Thank You notes. Many many thank you notes. And I am sure that in the time that passed between when I opened a present for Addison and then realized I didn't have stamps, and then found time to buy some- I probably forgot who I sent a note to and who I didn't. It's terrible. My mom raised me better than that. But there is no way to over estimate just how stressed and busy you will be once baby is here. Showering, dressing, hair drying, and the inevitable redressing (baby puke, leaking breast milk, pureed carrots- take your pick) alone is an hour long process and then you have to start feeding again. It takes real effort and a lot of time and patience to get out the door so do yourself a favor, before baby arrives and stock up on anything you can. The last place you will want to be when you have a little one, is the post office. And like I said, people fall through the cracks.
4.) Keep a list of toys by age. If you have a few toys for baby that are for an age they haven't reached yet, keep a little list. These milestones go by so fast and sometimes the age that a gift is intended for is so brief a window that if you put something in a closet you may forget about it until that window has already passed. For instance anything that is geared toward crawling will be a short period of time.
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