7 Tips for Cleaning and Organizing Baby Clothes

I know a number of you are expecting your first baby in the next few months.  It can be overwhelming to sort through and organize your baby's wardrobe, so here are a few tips and tricks for dealing with baby clothes:

1. Don't wash all of it!  You have no way of knowing what size your baby will be when he finally fits into that cute fleece outfit, so leave it unwashed and keep the tags on it in case you need to exchange it.  Wash only size newborn and 0-3 month clothes.
2. Skip the Dreft detergent, unless you're hooked on the sweet smell.  There are lots of free & clear detergents on the market now, so find the least expensive one and wash baby's clothes in it.  We wash all of our clothes in free & clear detergent.  Andrew's skin is so sensitive, so this means we won't have to worry about a breakout if his face is snuggled up on our shirt.
3. Keep a bottle handy of Spray & Wash, Oxyclean, or whatever stain remover you prefer.  I keep one in the nursery, so when the baby has a blow out, I can immediately spray it down before putting it in the laundry basket.  It might be several days or even a week before you get around to washing baby clothes, and no one wants a ruined outfit.  Spitup stains too, so be sure to remove these stains quickly.
4. Put a box in the closet for everything they outgrow.  It makes it easy to clean out the closet.  It never fails that I'm getting Andrew dressed to go out, only to discover he no longer fits in one of his adorable little outfits.  So in the box it goes!
5. Hang up everything but onesies, pajamas, and other things that are hard to hang.  If you hang it in the closet, you can see it easier and you're more likely to dress the baby in it.  It's no fun to discover an adorable outfit that the baby never got to wear because you didn't know it was in the dresser.
6. Organize according to size, but know that baby sizes run weird!  Polo runs small and anything Carters will say 3 or 6 instead of 3-6 months.  I find that if it has a 3, it's comparable to 0-3 in another brand of clothes. 
7. If you're really neurotic, label the drawers and make hanging tags for the closet.  One baby gear magazine sells them and they look like the plastic hanging tags in department stores.  I made some out of index cards for both of my babies.  

My homemade clothes tags.  They make it easy to have several sizes in the closet at one time.

One of the drawers in Andrew's dresser.  This is his 3-6 month drawer.  The next drawer is for 6-9 months.  The labels say outifits, shirts, and bottoms. 

I love my label maker.  I'm completely aware that this makes me a total nerd, but I learned a long time ago to embrace my nerdiness!

What tips and tricks do you have for baby clothes?