If you’re having a new baby, whether it’s your first or you’re a seasoned veteran, these hacks are useful and may even change your life:
- Place baby wipes and burp cloths in every room. This is such a simple thing that can make your life so much easier.
- Prevent a newborn from scratching their face by placing baby socks over their hands. They seem to stay on better than the baby mitts.
- Choose clothing that snaps or zips for easy outfit changes, as we all know that newborns can go through many, many outfits a day and don’t have the patience for clothing that is difficult to remove.
- Get a high chair with a dishwasher safe tray, like this one from IKEA. Although you’ll still be wiping it down a few times a day, it’s nice to be able to run it through the dishwasher once a week or so.
- Layer crib sheets and mattress pads to make middle-of-the-night clean up so much easier.
- Keep stain remover in or near your baby’s laundry hamper to help take care of stains before it’s too late.
- Place one baby holder in each room, if possible. Spread the bouncer, swing, pack and play, etc throughout the house so you have a safe place to put baby down whenever you need to.
- Get a baby carrier. You can accomplish so much by having your hands free while still carrying baby close to you.
- Keep a small basket of toys in the living room. This helps to prevent clutter and gives baby something to play with outside of his or her room.
- Put together a breastfeeding basket with water, chapstick, snacks, burp cloths, nursing pads, nipple cream, and any other essentials so you can have everything you need nearby.
- Trim your baby’s nails while they sleep for as long as possible to make it as easy as you can.
- Use clothes pins on baby hangers to hang pants and skirts.
- Use closet dividers to separate clothes by size, and don’t remove price tags until they are ready to be worn. Chances are baby will grow too fast to wear many of the clothes you are given or will buy.
- When out and about, keep hot water in a Yeti to warm bottles.
- Keep pump parts in the fridge between pumping so you don’t have to wash them every single time.
- Keep a small toy at the changing table to keep baby’s wandering hands out of their diaper as you’re changing them.
- Put together an emergency car kit with anything you might forget or need while out and about. This will save your sanity and your wallet.
- When changing baby’s diaper, place a clean diaper underneath before removing the dirty diaper to make for easy cleanup.
What new baby hacks have you used? Share them with us!
