The excitement of expecting a new baby for the first time is something few fathers can describe. But welcoming a newborn also means ensuring your home is in the perfect condition to raise a child. Therefore, you need to do some essential home improvements projects first before the baby comes. We want to protect our newborn but everything and that includes ourselves.
Make room for a nursery
Believe it or not, the arrival of a baby also means the arrival of so much baby stuff, from gifts you receive from loved ones to the baby stuff you buy in preparation. You will need enough space in your home to use for a nursery and accommodate all your baby stuff while keeping your house organized. If you have a spare bedroom in your home, you could clear it out and use it as a nursery for your little one. Having all your baby stuff in one place keeps everything within reach. If you don’t have the luxury of space in your home, you can try some fun and easy ideas for small nurseries.
For example, instead of assigning a whole room, you can set aside a small portion of your home. The most important thing here is to get creative and use every available inch you can get. You can take the help of professionals providing general contracting services and keep your project within budget. Avoid installing furniture items you don’t expect to use, even if you’re convinced your baby will need them later. Also, only make the most important things available in the nursery – a crib, a changing table, a rocking chair, etc. Keep adding (and taking away) stuff as the baby grows, depending on what they need at each stage.
Reconsider your painting job
Of course, a new baby will not notice a new painting job, but you need to do it anyway, especially if you live in an old house. Plus, you don’t want to attempt a new painting project when you have a baby at home. So, if you feel your walls look dull and lifeless, give it a new lease of life with a new painting job. Do your best to let your creative juices flow by adding artistic features to your walls.
The goal here is to ensure that your walls have a more friendly design. You can also expect your growing child to start drawing over your walls. So, you can try transforming one portion of your wall into a washable whiteboard or chalkboard for your little one. If you feel your walls look good just as they are, make sure that the paint used is anti-fungal to protect your child. If you need to buy fresh paint, be sure that you opt for a child-friendly or baby-safe option for the safety of your little one. And, speaking of safety, on to the next point.
Purify your interior air
You want your baby’s new home to be as healthy as possible, which means purifying the air. The growing menace of air pollution in most major cities does not stop outdoors, as it also finds its way into homes. Polluted air from outside can and will damage the air indoors if you allow it. Keeping your doors and windows shut all the time will not help. So, your best option is to find ways to improve the quality of air in your home.
One option is to use an air purifier. Your safest option is one that comes with a HEPA filter and activated carbon fiber, capable of trapping particulate matter to improve air quality. Because expert opinions remain divided on how efficient air purifiers alone are in improving air quality, you can supplement them by adding some air-purifying plants to your home. But be sure to keep these plants well away from your baby’s reach. It would also help if you made your home a no-smoking zone, vacuum regularly gets rid of lead-heavy materials in your home and avoid using toxic pesticides.
Secure your furniture
Babies grow pretty quickly, and before you know it, they’re already crawling, climbing, and trying to pull themselves up by holding on to anything available. Unfortunately, one of the most common causes of accidents at home comes from furniture not adequately secured. So, it is essential to secure every furniture item you don’t often use before your child arrives. From your bookshelves and dressers to your tv sets, ensure that every furniture item is appropriately held in place, so they don’t move quickly. Also, be sure to keep all your electric cords and cables well organized and out of sight. You can also seek the service of an expert to find ways of modifying them.
Conduct a safety exam
Babies are curious little beings, and having one means having a little guy crawling their way into your kitchen, bathroom, opening cabinets, etc. Therefore, you must always ensure that you keep any harmful products like medications, laundry products, detergents, etc., out of sight. Always ensure that cabinets that contain potentially poisonous products come with locks (and always remain locked). And if you have firearms at home, you might want to keep them locked away and out of sight.
Bathroom renovations
Remodeling or renovating your bathroom may not be the most convenient undertaking, no matter the time. But it is primarily an inconvenient job to take on when you already have a baby at home. Take the time to factor in childproof expenses like anti-scalding solutions for your bathtub as well as some cabinet latches. If your medicine cabinet is too short or low, then you might have to replace it with a taller one, with handles beyond the reach of your children.
Even if your current cabinet already comes with a lock, there may be days when the stress involved in raising a child might make you forget to keep the cabinets locked at all times. Also, if your current bathtub is old and messy, then you need to replace it before your baby comes. You don’t want to bathe your baby in an old and messy bathtub. According to My Expert Midwife, when it comes to bathing a newborn baby, ensuring a safe and comfortable environment is crucial. A bathroom renovation can greatly assist in creating an ideal bathing space for your little one. And the same applies to your kitchen sink. Additionally, you might also want to add heated flooring to your renovations, as it will go a long way to make bath times and those cold early mornings more bearable.
Flooring renovations
Most people might not think about their flooring so much until they have a baby crawling, laying down, or playing on the floor. There are few renovation jobs you might want to do before your child arrives. First, if you have broken or uneven floor tiles and floorboards, you need to make the needed repairs to even them out. You can seek the services of an expert to help you with this one if you don’t know how to go about it. After working on your floors, ensure that you get your floor rugs and carpets cleaned. You can also consider bringing in new ones if your budget has enough room for that. When purchasing new rugs, opt for soft area rugs and floor mats that come with enough padding underneath.
Laundry room renovations
Another thing you can expect to have (or do) when you have a new baby is loads of laundry work. So, conduct a quick inspection of your laundry room or space. If you need to make any remodelings, updates, or improvements, now is the best time to get them done. If you have old-fashioned or unreliable washers and dryers, you need to replace them with high-efficiency models.
And if you don’t have a dedicated laundry room or your laundry space isn’t enclosed, you may want to install or create storage spaces that come with safety latches to store your detergents and other cleaning chemicals. You will also want to put all cleaned clothes out of the reach of your little one. So, it would help if you considered adding a space or two for sorting out and folding your laundry, as well as proper storage for off-season clothing, to help protect your clothing and eliminate silverfish and moths. You can see this useful article by The Laundress for more details on preventing fabric damage and getting rid of critters naturally.
Kitchen upgrade
As mentioned earlier, you can expect your new baby to come in with loads of baby stuff, including baby food, bottles, cups, etc. That means that you are going to need enough space in your kitchen to contain the additional products. Where possible, try to add new shelves or cabinets so you can separate your regular kitchen stuff from your baby’s products. If creating new space is impossible, you might have to eliminate some of the things you already have in your kitchen but don’t use them often to make room.
Also, take the time to rearrange the things in your kitchen cabinets. It will be best if you put your baby’s food products, cups, bottles, etc., at reachable places on your shelf. Arrange them in such a way that your baby’s products are always in front of every other thing. The purpose of this is to ensure that everything is easily accessible when you need them. You don’t want your baby’s products to get missing among your other products.
