Top Tips On Preparing Your Home For A New Baby
It’s one of the most exciting milestone moments in the life of a house – welcoming a new baby! You may have been searching for your perfect place for a while, redecorating and imagining the day you could bring home a child and start a brand new chapter of your life. When you’re expecting your first child, everything is new. And there’s a lot of changes in a short amount of time, which can feel overwhelming. One of the things that you will need to consider before the baby comes home are any changes you need to make to the house. Suddenly, you’re sharing the space in a different way, and you’ll have different needs from your home. So how can you make sure that your space is fully prepared?
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Moving? Get Ahead Of The Bump
Expecting a baby is a natural trigger to move house for some – you may be in a small apartment and wanting a house with a garden, or simply need more space for a nursery. If you know that your current home isn’t suitable, you need to arrange a move as soon as you can. Even if you want to purchase somewhere, it may be an idea to think about renting somewhere temporarily to buy yourself more time. The process of buying a home can be long and unpredictable – stress that you certainly don’t need when you’re preparing to welcome a child into your life as well. The physical aspect of moving house is something to consider too – moving boxes around, deep-cleaning a new house and even attempting some renovations like installing fencing in the garden. You’ll need to make sure there are plenty of people around you who can help you out, as you don’t want to be tackling most of these jobs while heavily pregnant.
Get Smart With Storage
One of the things many first-time parents don’t expect is how much stuff one little arrival brings with them – from stacks of muslins and baby grows, to a host of toys and even equipment like car seats and strollers. It’s a lot, so considering storage for all the things that are coming is a great idea to keep things as clutter-free as possible. Take the chance to have a declutter of your own household objects first, to free up some space. Then invest in some good toy storage units that will be easy to tidy away things into. Consider things you might need like a changing table or chest of drawers, and think about creating a place for common items – if you know just how much storage space you have to play with it becomes easier. Babies can certainly take over your life, so it’s nice to feel like you can reclaim your space at the end of the day when they are sleeping.
Create A Changing Basket
Babies go through an awful lot of diapers, so one smart idea for the home is to create a diaper changing basket that can follow you around to whichever room you happen to be in. This saves you running to the nursery whenever you need a change. Working out how many diapers you’ll need in a week is a good idea, and keeping a basket stocked with them, wipes, muslins,a changing mat and nappy disposal bags can be a lifesaver – especially if you have stairs, which you don’t want to be running up and down multiple times a day, when you’re tired, achy and physically weak after the birth. If you’re planning to breastfeed, it may also be a good idea to create a little basket of essentials for yourself, as you can get trapped in one place for a while – a bottle of water, some little snacks and a good book is always a great idea!
Rethink Your Layout
Sometimes you need the vision to see your home in a slightly different way. Making positive changes to make the space work better for you and your new family can be really exciting. A lot can be achieved with simple layout alterations to your home. Something a lot of new parents find helpful is creating more open plan space, so they can be getting on with one activity, while still keeping an eye on the baby. If you’re thinking about removing walls to add some open plan space, consult a structural engineer. If the walls are non-load bearing, then removing them is quite a simple thing to achieve – or conversely, adding in a stud wall to alter a layout is also straightforward. If the wall is structural, then it can still be done, but it’s going to be a much bigger and more expensive project requiring steel beams to be installed – which may be too much with a baby on it’s way. Occasionally, even just moving around the furniture or the purpose of the rooms can work. For example, you might have an unused dining room that would serve you better as a downstairs playroom. So think creatively about the layout of your home and how it can work for the daily activities that you have.
Have A Pre-Baby Safety Check
Time seems to accelerate when you have a child, and they move through development stages so quickly – as soon as you’ve gotten the hang of a newborn, they move onto sitting up, or crawling. So future proof your home now by casting an eye over any safety aspects that may endanger a small child. This could be as simple as relocating ornaments, adding soft padding to sharp table corners at eye level, and making sure medicines, cosmetics and household cleaning products are all stored securely and somewhere that a child could not accidentally get into. You may also want to consider window safety catches and making sure your back yard is fully enclosed, and if you have a pool, installing extra safety measures. It’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to these things.
