A nappy caddy is not really about storage. It is about not having to stand up. If you can change a baby without walking to another room, the caddy has paid for itself.
The essentials, in the order you reach for them
- Six to eight nappies. Enough for a day and a night without restocking, not enough to squash everything else.
- One open pack of wipes. One. Spares live elsewhere.
- Barrier cream. Standing up, lid on, in a side pocket — not loose at the bottom where it will open.
- Two nappy sacks or a small roll.
- One muslin square. For the surprise. There is always a surprise.
- One spare vest or babygrow in the size they are actually in, not the size you bought.
That is it. Six things.
What people put in and regret
- A full pack of nappies. It fills the caddy and defeats the point of it being liftable.
- Bottles or formula. Different room, different routine, and it makes the caddy heavy enough that you stop carrying it.
- Toys. They migrate out within a day and never come back.
- Anything glass. Obvious until it is 3am.
- Sentimental things. A caddy lives on the floor and gets kicked. Keep it functional.
Where to put it
Wherever you actually change them, which is rarely the changing table after the first fortnight. For most people that means the sofa in the day and the bedroom floor at night — which is exactly why a caddy with handles beats a fixed drawer unit.
What to look for
A divided middle section, so nappies stand upright instead of collapsing into a pile. Side pockets that actually hold a cream tube. Handles that let you lift it one-handed while holding a baby with the other. And it should fold flat, because in eighteen months you will want the floor space back.
Whatever you keep in it, keep a muslin on top — our cotton muslin squares come four to a pack. The rest of the changing and pram range is in Pram & Changing, from £6.99.
The honest test
After a week, look at what you have actually used. Take out anything you have not touched. A caddy with six things in it gets carried around the house. A caddy with sixteen stays where it is, and then it is just a box.