Universal Diaper Bag: The Best Tips To Packing It All
Nothing is more frightening than reaching for something in your bag and not finding it anywhere… and the little guy’s already on his business.
This article is a piece by piece guide on the best way to Organize your Diaper Bag.
We’ll be giving you the breakdown about:
- The things to consider for the Bag Type
- Handy Travel Solutions
- Cleaning and Re-organizing your Diaper Bag
- And a whole lot more…
Be careful not to miss anything.
So let’s fire away!
We really do consider a diaper bag an essential in our lives. Having a travel version of our changing table is a huge plus in our lives. On days when my spouse and I feel exhausted, we do not even want to walk upstairs to our nursery changing table. Those days, we defer to our diaper bag that we usually keep by the door (so we know never to forget it).
Because we use it so frequently, we find that it is necessary to change things out when they get stale, old, or cluttered. I am told I often forget old snacks in some of the packages. Oops! My spouse has been very kind and has been spearheading finding a system that works for both of us. Then we try to implement it into our daily lives. While it has taken some getting used to, I find that finding a reliable system is necessary. Organizing our diaper bag has definitely streamlined our lives.
Below, we have gathered our best suggestions, tips, and considerations when finding how to best organize your diaper bag
Consider The Type of Bag
This may be picky, but my spouse took a good amount of consideration to what kind of diaper bag that would work for a variety of situations. We aimed to find ones that work in situations where only one of us was taking care of the baby.
First of all…
… the diaper bag, whether it is a backpack, messenger bag, or purse, has to have enough room. It needs to carry all the essentials for a diaper bag. It also has to have a fair amount of compartments and pockets to help section off items. We found those to be the best kinds of diaper bags for mom and dad. We are not opposed to using a backpack as a diaper bag either. As long as they fulfill our pockets rule. Otherwise, it is likely that things will not stay organized. It can easily get mixed up with one another, and eventually, turn into a dark hole of a carrier.
Below are the following items we would consider essentials for a diaper bag. We find that it is important to find one that can at least fit the following. We considered these as bare minimums for our situation. Yours could include more, but it is important to consider how much you want to be carrying.
Some things to include, but you are not limited to, are:
- Diapers (get a bag that can hold several at at time)
- Baby wipes
- Changing pad
- Burp cloths or bibs
- Change of clothing
- diaper cream
- Hand sanitizer
- Wet bag for dirty diapers (whether you use cloth or disposable, having a bag to carry dirty diapers is always helpful)
- Snacks
- Extra bottle with formula
- Sippy cups (if your child is older)
- Sunscreen
My spouse prefers having both hands available to do a variety of activities. They like being able to push a stroller or having them available to help carry things if need be. Even when given the option to put down our diaper bag in our stroller, we prefer having a backpack-style diaper bag. I for one, do not find there to be a big difference. I find that I prefer a messenger style bag because it is convenient. I have also found more backpacks in this style that work for multiple occasions. With a backpack, I sometimes sweat on my back having to carry so much.
The type of backpack ultimately comes down to your preference, and your lifestyle.
Optimum Packing
Whichever backpack you end up choosing, having an organizing system is crucial.
Whether physically or mentally organizing, knowing where things are is key. This is an important component of a quick and easy diaper change. Generally, we recommend packing the things you need most on the outer pockets of your diaper bag. For example, an extra diaper, wipes, and a changing pad on the easiest to reach pocket. An extra change of clothes or snacks can be on the second most outer pocket. This is because changing clothes often come with changing diapers.
Anything else that is secondary, such as a first aid kit and milk bottles for feeding can go in deeper parts of your diaper bag. Items that you might use across different situations (such as hand sanitizer, wipes, or burp cloths) can go in the same outer pockets as diapers. They can even fit as a separate bag hanging outside of your diaper bag, for example, if you have a stroller. These are all things to consider if you are organizing your diaper bag without a label system.
Here’s another tip:
Organizing with cubes or specific pouches with labels is a great way of keeping everything in order. They are compartments organized by function (changing, feeding, cleaning). Or by items (wipes, clothes, and onesies). Utilize diaper bag organizers to help you group your items based on need. That way, you will know what to change out at the end of the day as well. If you were out the whole afternoon, you will know exactly what to clean out of your bag at the end of the day.
Consider Travel Friendly Solutions
We like buying things in bulk, but some things, like diaper creams and baby wipes, do not do so well re-packaged for travel. There have been situations where large, full-sized ointment has spilled on us. This is because we have overpacked. That is why we like buying travel-sized things specifically for our diaper bag.
We encourage buying things like ointments, creams, or wipes for your diaper bag. We like having a set for at home and on the go. This is because I found that sometimes, I would forget to replenish them at the end of the day. I used to forget to bring the diaper rash cream from our changing table a lot. So much so that at some point, it was just easier to buy a small version. We have the same product at home, but a travel option is much more compact.
Another problem I ran into with carrying everything all at once is that some products dry out in the car. Even if we leave them in there for a few hours, they could go bad. For example, baby wipes do not carry well in our car. We had a few times where leaving baby wipes in the car dried them out after just a few hours. As a solution, we started using a travel carrier specifically for baby wipes to help keep the moisture locked in.
For Yourself
Your diaper bag, at some point, may start to replace your purse, wallet, or double as a work bag. It just seems more convenient to add your things into your baby’s diaper bag. If you find yourself going down this route, we encourage utilizing a baby organizer cube or bag. You could even get ones that look visually different than your baby’s. This can help to distinguish between what items are yours and what items are theirs.
My spouse and I like keeping things in an organizer with our essentials (like phones, wallets, charging banks). This way we can switch from our respective bags to our diaper bag. This helps keep things from turning into a deep abysmal hole. Some things you may find yourself carrying in your personals organizer are:
- Charging bank
- Wallet
- Pen and notebook
- Phone
- Charging cable
- Personal toiletries
Carrying Extras
It is always helpful to carry extras of the important things.
There may be situations you run into during a long day out. You may not have access to say diaper wipes or an extra set of clothes. We find that we are always grateful for an extra set of clothes hidden away at the bottom of our diaper bag. Some other things we are glad to have extra of when it comes to diaper changes are:
- Wet wipes
- Inserts (disposable or reusable)
- Set of clothes
This is another helpful tip if you are the organizing system type:
Even having just extra cubes and wet bags with us has been really helpful in emergencies. The fact is, some days are messier than others. We have had to go through a set of clothes, a bib or two, and several burp cloths. One wet bag was not enough for us. But luckily, my spouse left a few extra bags at the bottom of our diaper bag. This helped keep our whole diaper bag clean enough to hold us over until we got home.
Carrying Food Separately
This is along the same lines of why we love extra wet bags. Carrying food separate, helps to keep everything clean and free from cross-contamination. You might have a preference for having snacks in an outer pocket for easy access. That is fine. I am talking about carrying bottles of formula or baby food, pre-measured formula powder, or possibly bowls or utensils for feeding. All of this should be in a separate bag or outside of your diaper bag.
My spouse and I have a preference to carry this outside of our diaper bag. This is because we find that no matter how careful we are, we always end up with a messy food bag at the end of the day.
Cleaning Your Diaper Bag
Part of organizing your diaper bag also involves how to best maintain and keep it clean. For the most part, we will clean out our diaper bag every few days or even every week. We noticed that little things end up collecting at the bottom of the bag. My spouse and I will switch off by purging the diaper bag. Now, for a deeper clean, this will depend on the type of diaper bag you have.
Is it leather, or vinyl, or cloth?
We will not do a deep clean unless a big mess happens, and that rarely happens. We currently have a vinyl and leather diaper bag, and every few months, we will wipe down the bags inside and out. For the vinyl diaper bag, a general-purpose cleaner does the job, and for the leather diaper bag, we opted for a leather cleaner and moisturizer. If we get a stain on the inside, we found that baking soda and vinegar works well. We also do a spot treatment with some laundry detergent or stain remover.
When To Re-Organize?
Every once in a while, as we are cleaning our diaper bag, we will evaluate when we might need to switch things out of our diaper bag.
This is a great time to do so since it helps purge out some things we might not be using so often. Re-organizing is also a good thing to come back to because your child’s needs will change as they grow. Some parenting websites recommend including clip-on toys for children. At the time of writing this, our baby is neither interested nor old enough to need them yet. But she might someday! And when that happens, we will look to re-organizing our bags to include more toys or more snacks.
Stick with me here…
Another example of when to reorganize (specifically your food or snacks bag) is when you have way too many opened and uneaten snacks. This may be a sign that she is developing her tastes for certain foods. It is a good indicator for us to maybe look into other sorts of snacks she might like.
Final Thoughts
We covered a lot today. The type of diaper bag you and or your spouse end up with really comes down to both your preferences and lifestyle. For optimum packing, we recommend having a system. Whether a physical system of organizing cubes and bags, or mentally assigning certain pockets for storage. It is really worth looking into items made specifically for travel. Travel-sized items, or containers that can handle sitting in a car both work. Do not forget to include your essentials and toiletries too.
At some point, the diaper bag might become yours as well.
Having extras, like a change of clothes, at the bottom of your bag is always helpful. If you worry about cross-contamination of food to your diapers, you can consider carrying your baby’s food bag separately. Finally, cleaning your diaper bag is an essential part of organizing. Not only does it help keep it clean, but it is a good time to reset your priorities. You may need to re-organize your bag as your child moves into another stage of babyhood.
This system is not perfect by any means, but we hope that it may help you.
