Making Space For Baby - Getting The Home Ready For Baby

Babies are small but they take up a bit of room and need a lot of stuff.

Making space & nesting are birds of a feather… Taking stock and clearing out the accumulated objects and clothing around the house seems to be part of the ‘nesting process.'

It’s important to understand how much space you need, what you need it for, and be efficient in the clearing process.

For the parent staying at home with the baby, the space around them, which they will be in all day, will make a big impact on their state of mind. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE this. You nest for a reason. Mother Nature doesn’t do unnecessary. If both of you are at home, let me tell you that the more space the merrier.

Getting The Home Ready

1. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - Have a plan

Decide on the space you need to make.

If you need some help check out the blog called Make Space For Baby for direction.

2. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - Measure 3 times!

Create a plan for each room, then measure, draw, and make a list. Draw up a floor plan if you need to move furniture around or buy furniture to make sure it all fits – and then you can play around on the computer.

3. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - What needs to go

Work out what needs to be cleared out throughout the house – in drawers, on shelves, from the floor to achieve the plan. You will need space in bedroom/s, kitchen, garage, entry way, bathroom/s, linen closet, laundry, living room/family room. (And don't forget the car, too)

4. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - Get odd jobs done before bubs arrives.

Decide if you need any work done by professionals e.g. electrics, plumbing, carpentry etc. Are there some odd jobs that need doing that you can do – fixing the door hinge, fixing the leaking tap?

5. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - Schedule it in and get it done gradually

Go room by room – for example, one room per weekend – which will give you time to go through your things, buy the adequate storage solution for that room; clean up, and fix anything that needs fixing.

6. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - The cleanout - donate, sell, gift, throw.

Check out the experts if you need some inspo, like Marie Kondo and Peter Walsh. Personally I am a hold it and chuck it kind of clutter cleaner. I don't like touching something twice, so it's just easier for me to make piles as I go along -donate, recycle, sell. That way I don't have time to reconsider. Food for thought:

If you haven't used in 6 months or more, and don’t have any concrete plans to use in the future – lose it
Be realistic – how many sheet sets, towels, plastic containers, mugs do you really need?
If you like keeping things for the memories – create a small/medium/large memory box and keep collecting into there.
I have a Happy Box which I fill with stuff that I am not sure I need but don’t want to throw. If I don’t go looking for it, the happy box contents gets donated. I’m happy as I don’t have random shit on my tables and shelves! And it goes to a good cause. The Happy Box!

7. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - Organised storage is important

Consider what storage spaces you have to utilise, e.g. Creating additional shelving; buy storage boxes, hooks, cleaning out the garage. And also which storage solutions will work best in those areas. I am obsessed with clear plastic from Officeworks. They are stackable, seethrough and have wheels.

Placement is key – make sure things are easily accessible and you can see what you have
Make good use of all the spaces available, lay it out properly, and make sure the space suits the need. There is no point putting regularly used things in hard to reach places.
Group your things by category – makes them much easier to find
Label, label, label – if you don’t know what’s in the box you won’t use it or worse still you may spend ages looking for it!

8. Getting The Home Ready For Baby - Get Things Out

If you want easy ways to sell your stuff try eBay, gum tree, facebook markets, a garage sale, or a community market close to you. Donating is also great. Check if there is a recycling depot near you. The Waste Transfer Station close to us recycles everything, and drop off for most stuff is free. Better than landfills. They take electronics, clothes, paints, paper - most household things.