A few months ago, I connected with organizational expert Ashley La Fond. Ashley founded Of Space + Mind, a company offering full-service organizational solutions for personal and professional spaces. After listening to Ashley’s interview on our mutual friend Cameron Roger’s podcast, Freckled Foodie & Friends, I knew that I had to meet her! Her philosophy of “freeing your mind by organizing your space” spoke to me. I messaged her in the middle of listening to the podcast with an urgent “I need to meet you!”

Prior to getting pregnant and while in the thick of fertility treatments, I looked around my bedroom in horror. It was like I was looking at it for the first time and I didn’t like what I saw. I immediately turned to Rob and declared that we needed to reorganize and redo the spaces that we spend the most time in, starting with our bedroom. Our room didn’t reflect us as a couple- it was cluttered, packed with items we didn’t need or want, and far from aesthetically pleasing. (Can you relate?)

Revamping our room led to so many positive changes throughout our whole house. The desire to minimize what we own, organize what we have, and have a beautiful space to relax in felt, and continues to feel amazing. It also gave us a great project to focus on that wasn’t fertility related!

The desire to minimize what we own, organize what we have, and have a beautiful space to relax in felt, and continues to feel amazing.

Upgrading our physical spaces to better reflect our style and our values upgraded our lives. We now feel a sense of calm when we enter our bedroom. And, after redoing my home office, I feel focused and ready to work when I enter it.

Organizing obviously leads to more physical space. But, the most exciting part is that it also provides emotional space. This is how Ashley transforms lives every day! She sees the power in organizing to help you make the most of your life and has the tools to get you there. If stuff overwhelms your living and work environments, it’s difficult to focus on what really matters. There’s simply not enough space to live your life’s purpose.

There’s mounting scientific data to support Ashley’s work and my personal experience. Having a stressful home described as “cluttered” or “filled with unfinished projects” has been linked to increased depressed mood, fatigue and stress levels. Decluttering has been linked to improved productivity. And, cluttered spaces have been linked to poorer eating habits. One study found that sitting in an organized space for 10 minutes led more participants to choose an apple over chocolate compared to the group of participants who sat in a messy room!

Having a stressful home described as “cluttered” or “filled with unfinished projects” has been linked to increased depressed mood, fatigue and stress levels.

At this point, you might be wondering what this article is doing in my Prepping for a Healthy, Low Waste Baby Series! Well, throughout our reorganization and decluttering projects, Rob and I found ourselves pregnant. With a new baby coming, we were even more motivated to be super organized and embrace minimalism even more.

Fortunately for us and our low waste lifestyle, my sister sent us our nephew’s hand-me-downs. While I LOVE second-hand items, we had a lot to sort. We needed to tackle this organizational project sooner rather than later. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t know what we already owned and therefore wouldn’t know what we needed, and we wouldn’t be able to access the items easily when we it’s time to use them. If you don’t know where things are when you need them, you drive yourself crazy looking for them and likely end up buying new!

This led me on a sustainable storage adventure.

To start, we needed storage boxes and ran right to the container store. I walked in and almost had a heart attack: so. much. plastic. It isn’t single use plastic - the absolute worst plastic offender. However, when I opened the boxes, the strong whiff of that classic plastic smell startled me. I couldn’t bring myself to put gorgeous, clean baby clothes, toys, blankets, and sheets into those boxes. Needless to say, we left empty handed.

I had to find a more sustainable storage solution that didn’t involve plastic and I found it from The Laundress. I immediately ordered large and extra-large canvas storage bags and a canvas storage box. The Laundress offers many different sizes for the storage bags and boxes to choose depending on your needs and how much storage space you have available.

I had to find a more sustainable storage solution that didn’t involve plastic and I found it from The Laundress.

Once I had the storage vessels, I touch based with Ashley to get her top tips for how to organize baby items! Unsurprisingly she came through with great suggestions.

To store baby/children’s items, Ashley advises:

1.     Take everything out. Have everything you want to organize in one place so you know what and how much you’re dealing with. (This is always the first step in organizing!)

2.     Organize clothing and toys by age: Having everything organized by age enables you to go directly to the age-appropriate box when you need the items.

3.     Don’t feel pressure to keep everything. Just because someone gave you something, doesn’t mean you have to keep it right now or forever. If you don’t like or don’t need an outfit or a toy, donate it!

4. Create a process for revolving items. Children and babies grow really quickly, and what they need in each stage of their new life will completely change. Prevent clutter by creating a system to revolve items out! As you and your child grow out of different phases and items - nursing accessories, clothing, books and bottles - have a place to store them by stage, or a bag for donation/friends if you’re not planning to have another child!

5. Designate space for baby items across your home. Don’t let children’s items get lost amongst other items in your home (or waste time looking for things!). Clear out designated spaces in your kitchen, front hall and bathrooms just for storing baby items - this will make things far easier when it comes time to feed, bathe or get out of your house with your baby.

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We took Ashely’s advice and feel prepared to stay organized as we transition to parenthood! I can’t emphasize enough how great it feels to start off organized. We know the first few months are going to be crazy and that’s why it’s even more important to get ahead on organization BEFORE baby!

If you want more information about all things organizing, storage, decluttering, check out Of Space + Mind.

I hope this article was helpful and gave you some great ideas for how to organize more sustainably. Check out the other articles in my Prepping for a Healthy, Low Waste Baby here: What I’m Packing in My Hospital Bag and Non-Toxic Big-Ticket Items (Stroller, Carseat, Bassinet, Diapers, Bottles, Glider).