How to Prepare Your Home for Newborns, Babies, and Toddlers
Baby Prep 101
September is baby safety month, and we thought we’d get started a little early and give you some helpful (designer-approved) tips for preparing your home for the little ones in your life. It isn’t uncommon for new parents to want a bigger place for their growing families. While some parents may look to buy or rent a family home, there are some that want to build a home that will be passed down from generation to generation. For these families, that means spending a lot of time finding the right house plan can go a long way. Of course, you’ll need to start thinking about keeping your family safe, especially when decorating.
The Interior Designers at Broadleaf Residential take a three-pronged approach to baby prep: safety, storage, and organization. Having a “safety first” policy is sort of a no-brainer for us. Of course we want things to be comfy and lovely, but sacrificing safety for either just isn’t something we’re willing to do.
SAFETY FIRST!
Give your house a thorough and unbiased safety check. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to do this and do it well. You just need to find a good checklist (see below), have a little common sense, and be willing to solicit a second (or third) opinion.
BEFORE BABY COMES HOME
CRIB CHECK – Check for recalls and missing or loose pieces or parts. Confirm that your crib and the mattress conform to current government safety regulations. The US Consumer Products Safety Commission is a great resource! Don’t forget to check your pack-n-play, portable crib, and/or bassinet as well.
CLEAR THE CRIB – Remove pillows, bumpers, plush toys, and heavy blankets from your child’s bed. Sure, that bumper your Aunt Sally made and all 47 of those super-soft lovies you got at your work shower make your baby’s nursery look warm and inviting, but as there were more than 3,500 sleep-related infant deaths last year alone, we think you’ll agree that adding “comforts” that increase the risk of suffocation to your baby’s bed just isn’t a good idea.
If an empty crib just looks sad and sterile to you and you find yourself resisting our advice, read the CDC’s article on safe sleep for babies. It’ll change your mind.
SENSOR CHECK – Make sure that your smoke detectors and your carbon monoxide detectors are in good working order. Ask your local monitoring service to confirm that all systems are good to go, and double check with the local authorities (fire and police) to confirm that your monitoring service will communicate with them directly and efficiently.
WRITE IT ALL DOWN – Create a list of important numbers: pediatricians, medical specialists, emergency family contacts ,and emergency services – including poison control. Laminate your list and then store it in an easy-to-access location.
CONFIRM VISIBILITY – Make sure that the numbers on your house are easily seen from the street – during the day AND at night. Invest in some outdoor lighting, if need be. In an emergency, seconds are precious. You don’t want emergency services to waste them hunting for your house number.
CHECK YOUR RAILS – Confirm that your hand rails have been installed properly and that they are secure. Reinforce them if you’re the least bit concerned. Since roughly 25% of infant accidents happen while a parent is carrying the child up or down stairs, we think this is one point worth checking twice!
WHEN BABY MOBILIZES
CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN – Remove dust, dirt, and grime from all surfaces on which your baby is likely to crawl.
SHOES OFF – Have guests and family take their shoes off at the door. Many parents argue that subjecting your child to a little “clean dirt” is actually good for their development. And, to an extent, we agree. But, when have you ever thought “Mm, now this is some good looking dirt!” while downtown? Instituting a “no shoes inside” policy will help keep your home tidy and your baby healthy.
OUTLETS – While recent regulations have done a lot to reduce the number of toddler deaths related to electrical outlets, we still believe in covering our electrical outlets. It’s such an easy thing to do. There are plenty of things that you can do yourself to help protect your children from electricity in the home as well. To put your mind at ease, you could contact an electrician to come and check the wiring and the outlets in your property. However, it can also be as simple as making sure wires aren’t left in reach of young children. For more tips on reducing your child’s risk of electric shock, check out Healthy Children’s article on the subject.
AWAY WITH THE CORDS – Drapery cording and electrical cording—hide it and secure it, or get rid of it. A child can strangle him/herself on drapery cording and can do the same with electrical cording. This is why it’s important to be prepared with some first aid training, in case your child were to go unconscious or any other eventualities. Electrical cording presents the additional risk of pulling whatever it’s attached to over onto your child.
PAD THE HARD STUFF – Cover hard edges and sharp corners with protective padding to reduce the risk of head injuries as the baby begins to pull up and scale the furniture.
TIE EVERYTHING DOWN – Make sure the tip bracket on your oven range was installed properly. Make sure bookcases and televisions have been properly secured and won’t fall over onto your child.
BATTEN THE HATCHES – Install safety gates at the bottom of your stairs and in the doorway of any room that has not been properly “baby-proofed.” Secure your kitchen and bathroom cabinets with locks or latches.
MOVE IT ON UP – Take all of the chemicals and plastic bags out from beneath your kitchen sink (and any other place easily accessible to a crawling child) and move them to the top of a closet or into a lockable pantry. Is this particularly convenient? No. But neither is a poison-related hospital stay.
GET DOWN + PICK UP – Remove choking hazards from the floor where your baby will crawl and/or toddle. To know that you’ve been thorough, you’ll likely want to get on your hands and knees and move through your home just like your baby would. The things that you missed while you were standing up will probably shock you.
ORGANIZATION
This Nursery Design Studio article borrowed tips from Marie Kondo’s book The Magic of Tidying Up and applied them to nursery storage and organization. It’s a good, but quick read.
STORAGE
Rule number one: don’t skimp! Get the good, heavy bins with the lockable lids and get plenty of them. If you have items that you don’t need immediate use for, consider looking for storage unit prices in your area so you can use your in-home storage for items that you’re more likely to use in the near future. For storage that you have to look at, spring for the cute stuff! If you like it, you’ll be more likely to use it. And if you use it, your life will be less cluttered and, therefore, less difficult! (Notice we didn’t say “easy?” You are about to bring a baby home after all.) Here are two cool storage systems we really like:
The Like-it Modular Short Medium Drawer from the Container Store
Kuggis Storage Boxes from Ikea
ADDITIONAL HELPFUL HACKS
DITCH SYNTHETIC SCENTS!
In an effort to reduce the amount of harsh chemicals with which your baby comes into contact, consider getting rid of scented candles and room sprays. Instead, opt for this essential oil diffuser from ASAKUKI.
HEPA FILTERS + HOUSE PLANTS
Clean air is essential for the well-being of everyone in your home – especially your baby! So, we recommend a three-pronged approach to air purification. First, make sure that your vacuum cleaner has a well-rated HEPA filter. Perhaps this list from Best Reviews will be helpful? Second, we recommend an air purifier. Good Housekeeping rates the Blue Pure 211 as one of the best air purifiers on the market. Lastly, we recommend mother nature’s very own air purifiers, house plants! Check out this list of 20 baby-safe house plants from Home and Garden. Be very careful not to deviate – some house plants are toxic.
This fun potting solution from West Elm is one of our favorites!
The Equus Wall Vase from Global Views is another one!
Well, that’s it for Baby Prep 101! We hope you found it helpful. But, if your needs go beyond that of a few safety tips and/or storage ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d be honored to help you plan a new custom home for your growing family. Send us an email or call the design center today.
