A Guide To Cleaning For First Time Parents

You’ve got the plan. You’re ploughing through pregnancy, and will soon be going through labour and then the delivery, and then be ready to go home and for family life to really begin. Once you’re home though, you might feel like you have no idea what you’re doing. 

Once you become a parent, the mess is never-ending, and that’s why us parents need those tips from adults who have already done this parenting lark, to give us some cleaning tips for first time parents on how to keep the house going, when you’ve got a whole new person in your home, taking up every minute you have available.

Cleaning jobs become a lot more complicated when you have a newborn baby in the home. Not only is your attention divided, you need to be sure that you’re not creating a dangerous environment. Fortunately, there are ways to make cleaning with a newborn baby in the house easy and as safe as possible.

Prepare your home in advance

Cleaning when you have a newborn is a lot easier if you’re just maintaining the cleanliness from before the birth. This is why it’s important to clean and declutter your home during those weeks before your baby’s arrival. Whilst you have the energy to do so, look around your home and get rid of possessions and furniture that aren’t absolutely essential. You can either find a temporary home for things, or sell them to raise a little extra cash for those baby essentials, as let’s face it, baby’s cost a fortune!

Scrub your home from top to bottom. The tiles in the bathroom, the oven, defrost the freezer – all those things that you might not have time to do once the baby arrives. This way at least you can just do quick cleans when needed to keep them maintained. 

Clean for short periods

As a new parent, you don’t want to have to leave your baby alone for longer than is absolutely necessary so cleaning for short periods is usually the best way to go. Pop on the baby monitor so you can keep an ear out for them whilst you’re cleaning. 

Now when it comes to cleaning, try to stick to small bursts rather than a fully fledged Spring clean which will leave you shattered. Energy levels are low during those first few months and so it’s good to make sure you’re not unnecessarily tiring yourself out more. Short 15 minute bursts throughout the day should be enough time to keep you on top of the essentials. 

But most importantly you should look after yourself…

Caring for your newborn requires an enormous amount of energy and if you’re not looking after yourself, you’ll simply burn out and wont be able to tackle those essential cleaning jobs. That is why grabbing naps whenever you can is vital, to keep your energy levels up, and have some much needed rest. 

And make sure you maintain a good diet throughout. Too many new parents survive on snacks and unhealthy foods when they’re caring for a newborn as they just don’t have the time or energy to prepare meals. But you don’t have to do without nutritious meals and can opt for some kitchen gadgets, such as slow cookers to make a meal from scratch without having to stand over it all day.