Space Station – How to Prepare Your Home for a New Baby

In the last few months of pregnancy, the urge to nest is stronger than ever, and with your due date coming up, it’s important that you feel like your home is ready for a newborn. First on the list is the nursery, but once this is finished you can start to make the rest of your home baby-friendly. From stocking up on the basics to scheduling family visits, there are plenty of ways you can make life as easy as possible for yourself in those first few weeks of chaos.

Do a deep clean

You probably won’t have the energy to do much when you first bring your baby home, so it’s worth giving the whole house a proper clean while you can. Pay extra attention to any parts of the house where there’s the potential for harmful bacteria to grow, like the kitchen and bathroom.

Risk-assess your home

While there’s usually no need for stairgates or drawer latches until your little one can crawl, there are still heaps of hazards to be wary of. Carry out a basic risk-assessment on each room in your house, and make a note of any baby-dangers. This usually means smoothing out sharp-edged furniture with rubber corner covers, tucking dangling wires and cables out of reach, putting anti-slip mats under rugs and making sure that tiny, swallowable objects are securely stored.

Keep the essentials to hand

To save you an endless number of trips up and down the stairs when you’re already feeling tired, keep a stash of the essentials in different rooms all over the house. Having nappies, wipes, dummies and a clean babygro to hand can make a real difference.

Cook and freeze

Feeding the baby will be the priority at the beginning, but you need to eat too! If you have time in the lead up to your little one’s arrival, it’s a good idea to do some batch cooking. Why not choose three or four of your favourite dishes which freeze well, and make several portions of each? That way when you’re too exhausted to cook, there’ll always be something tasty to heat up without a fuss.

De-clutter your space

From the pram and the Moses basket to highchairs, muslins and monitors, babies need a lot of stuff, so make space for it! A new baby is a great excuse for a clear out, but if you’ve got furniture you need to move to make space for a cot, why not consider hiring a storage unit? This is also a great place to keep anything your baby gets too big for, which you might want to use again as your family grows.

Baby entertainment

A 2017 study by NTNU confirmed that babies exposed to stimulation ‘get a brain boost’ – and there are lots of different forms this can take. While baby gyms provide a great source of entertainment for little ones, they can also be stimulated by sensory toys with different textures and noises, or even something as simple as a storybook.

Getting your home ready for a new arrival is super exciting, but if finding space for everything is proving tricky, get a quote for an affordable, humidity controlled storage unit from Space Station today.