Creating a Transitional Nursery: From Baby to Kid | Tips

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All opinions are mine alone. #SnugHugs #CollectiveBias

After two kids now, I have come to realize that sticking with the necessities (like well fitting, affordable diapers, wipes, and a few essential products) is best and often easiest and the most cost effective too! With babies though, the necessities can take up a lot of space, so something we did with our first and now our second child is make a space that will grow with them, without having to completely remodel every time they grow into a new stage.

Here's how we currently have Ezra's diaper station set up:

To avoid having to totally redo the room when he is no longer using this diaper station we took these steps to make sure his space will transition easily and inexpensively into a big boy space.

1. Use a dresser instead of a changing table. It doubles as clothing and bib/burp cloth storage and we just added a changing pad with grippers on the bottom to the dresser top. Later you can just use it as a dresser.



TIP: When your toddler gets too heavy to lift (or you get pregnant again) try storing the changing pad UNDER the dresser and changing them on the floor.

2. Use a small shelf above the dresser works great for diapers for easy grabbing, ointments, pacifiers and even small toys. Later, as you will see below, this is actually a photo ledge and can be used for displaying special pictures, artwork, or legomen in the future. This shelf cost $12.99, but you can buy a simple spice rack that serves the same purpose for under $10. 
3. Use a basket for extra diaper and wipe storage. We keep most of our diapers in the top of the boy's closet and refill this basket once or twice a week from the closet, which is just to left of the dresser. This keeps the room looking neat and if needed we can just grab the basket to take to another room, on an outing or when we are traveling, we just fill it up and take it along for easy access in the car! Diaper organizers are great, but a basket can be reused as storage later on!

You see it's convenient for everyone?

Now, before I get to the big boy transition, we are nowhere near potty training this little dude, so we are still trying to get the best for our money. A great way we have found to do that is when we are at Sam's Club, we pick up a huge box of diapers - he's in Size 4 now - so the Huggies Snug and Dry come in a 200 count and get a $10 Savings! Plus if you use the Ibotta app you can get an additional $7 off Huggies Snug and Dry at Sam's Club. 

Huggies Snug and Dry are super soft inside and out, plus they keep the moisture off of our little one's sensitive skin with their leak lock system and triple layers. They fit great around his waist and have a closer-to-body fit which basically means they don't sag like some other diaper brands we've tried.... and obviously the box makes for a great train when you are supposed to be getting ready for school. 

SIDE NOTE: Anyone else's kids OBSESSED with balloons?! Also, these have been floating for 3+ days now and have been in multiple fans - why are they still floating!?

Finally, here's how easy it is to transition this set up to a big boy space! 

In less than five minute and using things that are already around the room, we have a space that will grow with our boys! Of course, if this was more permanent, I may change the prints out in the photo frames on the wall, but these will work for the toddler years too!

I hope this was helpful for first time moms and mom's to be. Our boys actually share this room as you may have seen previously on the blog and we are making it work for the baby years and the preschool years! 

Tell me what your tips are to save money through babyhood? 

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