Stocking Your Nursery: Infant Furniture to Infant Hangers

Filling the nursery with your baby furniture and all of the accessories can be an exciting task. Choosing a style that fits within your budget is the first step. Many new mothers find it best to register for many of the more expensive items, but you may want to go ahead and decorate long before your baby shower. Here are some types of furniture that you may be purchasing for your nursery. Learn what to consider about each piece and how to get your nursery baby ready.

The crib is usually the first thing that parents look at. Choosing the crib that you like will help you determine the style that you will use in the nursery. For this item in particular, it may be important to buy new. Safety standards change over time and you do not want to put your baby in a crib that could be hazardous.

Here are some basic tips for crib safety:

-Make sure that the mattress is tight fitting. You should have to squeeze the mattress in so that there is no space between the mattress and the crib.

-Crib slats should not be more than 2 3/8 inches apart. Older cribs may not meet this standard and a baby’s head could get trapped between the bars.

-Older cribs or cribs that have been painted could have lead paint. Expect that your baby will probably chew on the bars or rails of the crib and you should make sure that no lead paint or paint that could chip has been used.

-Corner posts can pose a hanging hazard. There should be no corner posts that could snag a baby’s clothing. If the crib you choose is a four-poster or canopy, make sure that the posts are at least three feet higher than the crib rail. Do not use a canopy that has curtains or drapery hanging down the posts as a baby can become trapped, entangled or suffocated in the extra material.

Once you have a safe crib, you can add other furniture to the room. Armoires are popular for holding extra bedding and hanging clothing. Dressers and changing tables are also common additions. Make sure that you anchor these items to studs inside the walls so that you do not have to worry about them tipping over. Rocking chairs should also be free of pinch points and lead paint. Changing tables should have straps to secure the baby when they are in a high position.

Stock the closet with shelves up high for items that need to be kept out of baby’s reach. Medicines, thermometers, bottle warmers, radios and clocks with cords need to be kept out of reach. You can easily install a lock on a closet to keep baby out. Finish off the room with hooks for hanging diaper bags, decorations and infant hangers. Your nursery will be beautiful, safe and usable in no time.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

Infant Closet Organization

A closet in an infant’s room can be a real blessing. There is so much that needs to be kept out of reach and so many baby socks, pajamas, diapers, wipes and medicines that need to be close at hand. The amount of baby supplies that you end up with after you get your infant home can be very overwhelming. Where do you put all of this new stuff? You need to get organized, and the baby’s closet is a great place to do it.
The closet can be easily shut to keep things out of sight and out of reach. Childproof doorknob covers can keep the baby from getting into things that you do not want them to. Make sure to put a second lock up near the top of the door if you plan on keeping medications in this closet.
First, you need to spread out everything that you plan on putting in this closet. Comforters, bigger sized clothes or out of season outfits, diapers, wipes, diaper bags and other items can be stored on higher shelves. You need some baskets or bins for small items like medicines, thermometers, monitors and pacifiers. Try not to install shelves too low. This can encourage climbing. Also, when your infant starts walking, they are likely to fall. Things low to the floor can be good targets for little heads. Use the space at the bottom of the closet for the laundry basket or a large storage bin. Leave off plastic lids that snap down, these can pose an entrapment hazard to your child. If you do choose a bin with a lid, make sure that you drill a lot of holes in it before using it. If your child ever does get trapped, they can at least get air.
Creating a safe closet for an infant can take a little planning, but once it is done you will be so thankful. When your baby wakes up with a fever, you immediately know where the thermometer and medication is. It’s right at hand and you do not have to disturb the baby or make them wait for treatment. Diapers, wipes and diaper ointment can be retrieved quickly. Bath time is a snap with baby towels and lotion located right in the closet.
You may choose to design a shelving system to keep everything separated, but it does not have to be difficult. There are also a lot of infant organizing systems that hang from your existing closet bar. You can use pop-up hampers or laundry baskets to store blankets and save shelf space. Protect special outfits by keeping them hung out of reach. Use childrens hangers to keep from damaging delicate fabrics. You would not want to stretch out or tear the shoulders of those special little clothes. Once your infant’s closet is organized, you will enjoy the safe and organized environment that you have created.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

Organizing a Toddler Room

Toddlers can all too quickly outgrow that adorable nursery that you put your heart and soul into. Especially if you kept your baby in your bed room with you for most of that first year. Sometimes your toddler has already outgrown the nursery before she even gets into it. When your child is old enough for a big boy or big girl room, then you need to get ready as well.
Toys can really start to pile up over the first two to three years of life. You may find that the fancy little toy box you bought when your child was born is no longer nearly enough to store all of those toys! Storage bins can be your best friends when it comes to organizing toys. This is especially true in a small room. Small room or large space, a toddler can really destroy a room. You need a system that you can pick up quickly, and eventually teach your toddler as well.
This poses a perfect opportunity to teach your little one some independent skills. Decide which bins will be for dolls, cars, blocks, magnet toys, balls, etc. Take a picture of one of the child’s favorites from each bin. Label the bin with the picture of the toy that goes inside. Making word labels can help your child to eventually recognize common objects as sight words. Make it a fun game, like basket ball. Cheer and praise your child for getting the right toy into the right basket. Developmentally, this helps children to recognize patterns and group common objects together.
Another fun way to organize is by color. Get several large bins of varying colors, or paint them yourself. One bin can be rainbow colored for toys that are many colors. The red bin is for red toys. The green bin is for green toys, and so on. Make clean-up a fun time with your toddler. Some are happy with hugs and kisses. Some toddlers thrive on applause. Some even like to be tickled when they get it right. Figure out what motivates your child and you can start teaching them the wonderful habit of straightening up. A little time spent now can save you a lot of heartache in the future.
Make clothing an easy to handle chore as well. Get a special small laundry basket just for your toddler. Placing it in the closet will keep dirty clothes out of sight. Additionally, you’ll teach your toddler that when they are changing clothes, their dirty ones should go straight into the basket. Use special childrens clothes hangers to ensure that delicate garments are protected. Childrens clothes hangers also encourage children to help with the laundry by hanging their own clothes. If you have childrens clothes hangers, then they will know that they are especially for them and they will be happy to use them.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

Nursery to Toddler Room

You’ve spent countless hours preparing your nursery for the arrival of your baby. Now, in no time at all, you are starting to realize that your little baby is quickly outgrowing all of those baby decorations and toys. In as little as a year, your baby goes from a sweet innocent dependant ball of joy to a walking talking busy-body that can get into anything. It is becoming quickly apparent that you will soon need to upgrade that baby room to a toddler room.

Safety is the first thing to keep in mind. Toddlers can get into anything. Even things that you know they can not get into may be a hazard. They can quickly progress from a child that can climb a foot to one that you catch on top of your refrigerator. Keep the progression of exploratory behaviors in mind. This is a healthy developmental step and they do need to learn how high is too high, but make sure that if they do climb, they will not be seriously injured.

Dressers and bookcases should be anchored to the wall. Drawers and shelves make an easy ladder for toddlers to climb or even crawl up. Nothing dangerous or tempting should be kept on top of a dresser or out of reach on bookshelves. Even if you have the drawers on your dresser latched shut, remember that toddlers are strong and do not have much weight to lift. They can easily climb drawer pulls and handles with just their little fingers and toes. Another problem with dressers and bookcases is that they take up valuable play space.

An alternative to even having a dresser and shelves taking up space in your toddler room is to create a closet that takes the place of a bulky dresser. You can easily install a small lock on a closet door to keep a curious toddler out. Simply buy planks of wood and cut them to the depth and width of the closet. It is a good idea to leave space at the bottom for bulkier items or a laundry basket. If you want your toddler to learn to dress themselves, then install the hanging bar down low. Invest in some cute childrens wood hangers and keep their hanging clothes near the bottom.

Shelves above the hanging bar are very useful for keeping stacks of t-shirts, pants and shorts. Inexpensive baskets that hang from the shelves make wonderful drawers for socks and underwear. Higher shelves can be used for other things that you need to keep near, such as diapers, blankets, a first aid kit or even a fire extinguisher. Toys with small parts that require adult supervision can also be kept high up in a locked closet. By implementing these inexpensive ideas, you can create space, a safe place, for your toddler to climb and play.
About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens wood hangers. The right baby hangers or childrens wood hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

Make Room for Baby

Before you welcome your new bundle of joy home, you need to prepare. This can include baby proofing your house, top to bottom. But it also has its fun points too! Preparing your baby’s nursery can be a lot of fun. If you are inexperienced with creating a nursery that’s user-friendly, then you may need some tips. Everyone will have advice for you. We’re going to discuss the things that you may not have considered about your nursery set up. Don’t fret; just keep these few basic points in mind and you’ll have a wonderfully welcoming, usable nursery for your new baby.

The first thing to think about is your baby’s sleeping situation. You want a modern crib and not too much bedding. Check on current safety standards before you purchase either. When you get your crib and bedding home, it should be the first thing that you put into the room. Consider your placement wisely. Often the place that seems the best isn’t the best at all. Better to consider why you might want the crib in a certain place now rather than finding out later that it wasn’t such a good idea. Then you might end up rearranging the whole room.

The first thing to consider is sunlight. The crib needs to be where the baby isn’t going to get a ray of sunlight or intense heat when the sun comes up in the morning. This is especially important if your windows don’t have UVA/UVB sunlight protection. Little babies can sunburn very easily. The next consideration is noise. A squeaky door can interrupt precious sleeping time. Experiment in the room with your television on. See where the quietest place is. If the nursery is at the end of your hallway, then television noise from the living room can be amplified into the baby’s room.

Many parents choose to put a single bed for a grown-up into the nursery as well. If you have good storage area, then you might want a cot in the baby’s room. This way, if the baby is sick or just needs you in the room, you’ve got somewhere that you can relax and sleep. Just make sure that if you have a cot or other folding bed, that it is where the baby can never get to it. A chain lock up high on a closet door is a good option for keeping the closet off limits.

You can really make space in the room by utilizing an off-limits closet. You can easily install a medicine cabinet up high in the closet to keep all of the essentials close at hand. Use childrens hangers to hang special outfits up high. You might even decide to install shelving for all of your other baby clothes needs. Not having a dresser is a money saving, safe, space saving option for parents looking to maximize space.


About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

Nursery Design Tips

Your baby’s nursery can be a really fun room to design. It can be cute and sweet, bright and cheerful, just about anything you can imagine. The possibilities are endless and you may be wondering what basics to keep in mind while you’re going through the design process. Appearance, safety and functionality are the three major areas that you will be focusing on.

Safety is always first and foremost. Most people start by selecting the furniture for their baby’s new room. First, you need a crib. Make sure that the crib you select is up to modern standards of safety. This is especially important if you’re using an older crib. Older cribs may have bars more than two and three-eighths inches apart and can strangle a child or baby. They may also have lead paint on them, a real danger since your baby will most likely be chewing on the rails when they start teething. The mattress should also fit tightly in the crib so that there is no space at all between the mattress and the rails.

Once you have your crib, then you can select a dresser and changing table. These two things must be anchored to the wall. The anchor should be securely in a stud. Babies love to climb up open drawers or handles and the risk of furniture falling on top of them is high. Make sure that all medicines and baby wipes are out of the child’s reach, preferably on a shelf or in a cabinet that only adults can reach. Never allow your baby to chew on baby wipes during changing. Lamps, clocks and radios should be placed up high and the plugs should be covered with an appropriate baby-proofing outlet cover. Excess wire should be secured to the wall or hidden behind furniture where the child can’t reach it.

The next thing to focus on is functionality. Determine what you’ll actually be doing in the nursery. Will you be nursing? If so, you’ll most likely need a rocking chair or other comfortable place to sit. You may want a chair comfy enough to sleep in for nights when your child is sick or just needs you often. An end table can be useful for bottles and warmers, burp cloths, blankets, and other things that you may need while you’re holding the baby. Be careful not to leave dangerous items like a thermometer on the end table where the baby can reach it. If your end table has a drawer that you can put a child safety lock on, then it is ideal. You can keep things that you need that the baby could choke on locked up. This would include things like lip balm, pony tail holders and other necessities that you may need close at hand.

If the nursery is small, consider not buying what you really won’t need. Dressers and changing tables take up a huge area. A lot of people give up going into the nursery to change a diaper after just a few days of having the baby at home. You might invest in a good changing pad instead of an entire table.

Also consider how much room the baby will have to play with toys on the floor. You may decide against buying a dresser and just put organizational drawers and shelves into your baby’s closet. This way everything is out of reach and the room has considerably more space. Keep the closet organized and functional with childrens clothes hangers for all of those precious tiny outfits. When you’re done you’ll have a nice, neat, safe and functional nursery to decorate.


About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

Nursery Design That Fosters Child Development

A child’s environment contributes greatly to their brain development and ability to learn. Human behavior, development and learning are widely thought to be reactions to our environment. Keep these things in mind when you start designing your baby’s nursery. Create your nursery with the assumption that you may not have time to remodel the whole room year after year.
Over the first years, you want your baby to excel in certain areas. Gross motor, fine motor, sensory, language and social areas of development should be considered part of your decorating plan. Research clearly shows that a child’s success in school and life is directly related to the access of an abundance of appropriate educational experiences during their first years.
Luckily, for infants, babies and toddlers, having fun is conducive to learning. Create a safe, stimulating environment for your child. They will soon recognize their room as their personal space and you want them to draw from that environment. Organized surroundings have been proven to foster critical thinking. Infants and toddlers absorb information from their environments and a cluttered space leads to disinterest and a lack of motivation to learn.

Here are some room set-up tips for each area of your child’s development.

Gross Motor: Provide sturdy, anchored shelves and/or dressers for your child to pull up on. Leave as much open space in the room as possible to promote free movement. Soft, safe climbing areas can challenge and develop gross motor skills as well.

Fine Motor: Provide manipulative toys in one area. Avoid choking hazards, but group toys that require pinching, turning or squeezing in one spot.

Sensory: Make sure that your nursery offers many diverse opportunities to explore different textures and tactile experiences. Look for toys and books that have different textures such as sandpaper, velvet, crinkly and bumpy materials. Children use their senses to figure out their surroundings. A simple thing like placing a small area rug or table near your fine motor toys can lead a child to figure out that this is the spot where they should play with those toys, leading to logical thinking. As they mature, you can replace baby toys with art supplies and a desk to foster their independence, creativity and organizational play.

Language: Books, tapes and CDs can help your child build their vocabulary very early in life. Talking face to face is the most effective, but you can also encourage language development by posting pictures of common objects around the room at the child’s level. Also labeling drawers, cubbies and toy boxes with photographs of what goes there will encourage your baby to name things early on. As they grow older, you can change the labels to printed words to encourage reading and writing.

Social: Separate loud and quiet areas if possible. Make room in each area for adults and other children to get down on the floor and play with your child. Place low chairs or floor pillows in some areas to invite children and adults to enter the room and participate. Place pictures of family members in quiet areas where your baby can study and recognize them.

Organize your nursery with the supplies you’ll need up high. Utilize bins, baskets and hanging organizers to minimize the amount of clutter in the room. Hanging clothes on baby hangers where they’re easily accessible and visible can make your life easier as well. Aim to make everything in the room a potential teaching tool and keep it organized enough that you’ll enjoy spending quality time with your baby.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.