The $25 Space-Saving Solution Every New Parent Needs (It's So Helpful!)

I always knew in theory that babies come with a lot of stuff (a crib! a high chair!), but I didn't really get it until I had my own baby this year. Suddenly I have a playmat where my coffee table used to be, and piles of baby laundry to trip over in every corner.

Since we planned to stay in our one-bedroom apartment for at least the first six months or so of her life, I tried to be incredibly stringent about what we bought, nixing tons of things on the registry must-have lists. No diaper trash can, no swing (though I was tempted on some fussy days), and no bottle drying rack. I didn't use a drying rack in the before-kid times… I just dried my dishes and put them away. Why would I need one now?!

But as with many things I thought I knew about parenting, I was laugh-out-loud wrong. We're constantly washing bottles, pump parts, and pacifiers (they're like the hair ties of the baby world… where do they all go?!). And I was wasting major counter space with everything strewn about (putting things away? What's that?!).

The beautiful drying rack solutions most of my friends recommended were for seriously spacious kitchens - or, at least, ones in actual houses with more than a couple of rooms. I didn't have that much room to spare if I wanted any surface left for occasionally cooking a meal. So I foundThis option from Oxo. It fits under my upper cabinets, taking up more vertical space than surface space (a classic small-space solution). I measured, and it truly takes up less than a five-by-twelve stretch of countertop space.

OXO Tot Space-Saving Drying Rack

Amazon

$25

Buy Now

After using it for a few weeks, it's a serious space saver and very efficient. We can fit a whole day's worth of bottles on the hooks, and the small bin on top is perfect for bottle caps and pacifiers.

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And apparently I'm not the only one who loves it - it has more than 15,000 5-star ratings on Amazon.

Listen, a half dozen bottles and their various accessories are never going to win you a design competition. But if you have to have them out (and boy do I), this is a convenient, reasonably good looking way to do it.

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there:The $25 Space-Saving Solution New Parents Need

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