You have just brought baby home from the hospital. Here are some practical tips to help you get organised and to make your life easier.

 

1- Changing

It is obvious that baby will need to be changed often, day and night.

So, the place where you change baby must be at a height that suits you (think about your back) and fitted out with all the necessary equipment for changing.

If you find, like I do, that having the diaper pack near (or under) the changing table is unsightly, you can store the diapers in a pretty, colourful or transparent, plastic box.

If your bathroom is big enough, it is certainly one of the best places to change baby. Otherwise, any table elsewhere will do, as long as it is practical. You must be able to reach what you need with one hand (the other hand will be holding baby to make sure they don’t fall).

Remember to place a pedal bin nearby, because if you handle the diaper with one hand and hold baby with the other, only your foot will be free to open the bin!

 

2- Bedroom furniture – a key word here would be ‘anticipate’

If you are breastfeeding, think of putting an armchair in the room. Your back will thank you.

In terms of clothes, we recommend that you do not buy one of those very cute – and very small – wardrobes. Your child will grow so fast that soon you will no longer be able to hang their clothes in it. A “normal” wardrobe or closet will be more useful.

If you choose to buy a chest of drawers, choose a “neutral” (rather than a childish) style, as you may have to use it in another room later on.

 

3- Toys and stuffed animals

Baby is very lucky and has probably already received some stuffed animals and toys.

Until baby is old enough to play, simply store the toys in a plastic box in the wardrobe. And all of them should be high up, of course.

To make sure the stuffed animals don’t get too dusty, while still making the people who gave them to you happy, put them on display alternately. For example: one week it’s uncle’s elephant, the next week it’s granny’s teddy bear, and so on.

 

4- Clothing and shoes

4.1- When things get too small

As sentimental parents, it is very difficult for us to part with our child’s first pair of shoes, their first pyjamas, their first baby wear, etc. Ok then: let’s keep them and put them in a storage box with your child’s first name on it.

Tip: keep a box at the bottom of your child’s wardrobe for you to gradually put the clothes and shoes in that are still in good condition but that no longer fit.

4.2- When things are too big

What about the clothes and shoes you have been given and which are too big for the moment?

Store them in a box that will protect them and dive into it two or three times a year. Take what you think is right for your child for the next two seasons.

In general, when in doubt, you can live by the well-known rule: “one thing comes in, another goes out”. In other words, for every new piece of clothing you store in the wardrobe, an old one must come out. This is how you guarantee that you will always be able to close the wardrobe doors!