In just about 4 weeks time, we’ll be welcoming a new member into our family. I’m beyond excited, and certainly now very much ready. Well, with the exception of all the events that still need to happen before my due date. It’s really just the weekdays in between that are long and drawn out. And there are still a good number of things we need to get done before this little one joins our world!

To help myself, and hopefully you, I’ll be sharing today some tips, areas and ways that you can help prepare for baby. This week we’ll focus on preparing our homes.

1. Prepare a Place

You’ve got a cradle/crib/playpen, but where is it going to go? Our last 2 have been in this house we are in, and they were in the cradle in our room, for a couple of months, then moved out into either a playpen or crib. Our boys room is HUGE, but the girls’ room is small – and this little baby is supposed to be a girl! So we have to plan to move some furniture out of there until we can get them both into a bunk bed. And that is one of the reasons we wanted to find out this time what we’re having – so we can have all of this figured out in advance!

2. Do the Laundry

Yes, another reason I wanted to find out what we were having. I have plenty of clothes for girls and boys, but since December is such a busy time of year, I wanted to have it all washed and in the drawers before baby arrived. I’m keeping some blue and neutral stuff handy, just in case ;0) Aside from baby laundry though, stay on top of your normal laundry so it doesn’t catch you off guard later on!

 

3. Get some diapers

Whether you’re cloth diapering or using disposable, make sure you have them ready to go in advance! We’ve only cloth diapered for one child so far, but we started her at 3 months and that was about perfect as her “schedule” was a bit more, ahem, “solid” :D heh heh Oh, and while you’re at it, get the baby wipes ready too!

 

4. Get organized

You know those stacks of paper you keep pushing around, putting off doing something with? They’re not going to take care of themselves. So you may as well just tackle the mountain while you still have some sane sleep in you. Sort the bills, throw out the catalogues, file the school and artwork – Git ‘er done!

 

5. Catch up on the cleaning

Yeah, my least favourite responsibility. Fortunately we were blessed last week to have a church friend send someone over to clean my house for me, and get all those areas that I haven’t gotten to in a while. It is a definite worthwhile splurge to hire someone to help out – if you can’t, bring over some friends/family members to help you tackle the chores, or take a couple days off school with the kids and put together a cleaning crew. For just the basics, stay on top of the kitchen and bathroom – you’ll be glad you did later!

 

What have you done to prepare your home for a new baby?