Guest Blog:
9 Tips for Cleaning with a Newborn Baby in the Home

Newborns have an undeveloped immune system, so cleaning and sanitizing the home is important. Finding the time to clean the home, though, can be really challenging. Not only do you have a newborn that will need plenty of attention and cuddles, but you also need to maintain lots of other things in your life.

To make life a little easier, we've compiled a list of cleaning tips to help you clean your home if you have a newborn. Some of the tips can begin before you bring the baby home, and others can continue right up until they are moving out of your home into their new place. 

9 cleaning tips for homes with a new-born

Multi-task 

As new parents, you are probably getting used to multi-tasking already, but you can extend this new skill into your cleaning, too. For example, while you are talking to your newborn and watching them, it is an ideal time to fold the laundry. You can even treat this as a peekaboo game to keep them entertained. 

When washing your hands, grab a couple of dirty dishes and give these a wash too. Any small bits of cleaning that you manage while doing other tasks can greatly help reduce the amount of cleaning you will need to do later.

Use a catch-all basket and tidy as you go

If you have a place where you can safely keep a catch-all basket (near the stairs on an entryway table, for example), you can use this to place any items that need to go back upstairs throughout the day. Toys, books and tablets, for example. Then during a quieter moment when the baby is sleeping, you can empty the basket and put everything back in its right place. 

Using a catch-all basket allows you to clean and tidy as you go, and this keeps the home clutter-free. You can also extend this “tidying as you go” method to putting dishes in the sink when you go into the kitchen, slowly stacking the dishwasher a few items at a time each time you go into the kitchen. Or by doing smaller cleaning tasks each time you have a minute or two. 

Create a cleaning schedule for bulk cleaning 

While tidying as you go is a great way of staying on top of the smaller cleaning tasks, some cleaning tasks are simply too big for this method. Like vacuuming or mopping the floors, for example. These take a bit more planning, especially vacuuming, as the baby’s sleep must not be interrupted!

Once the newborn has a good routine that everyone is following, you’ll be able to make a good cleaning plan and schedule that you can follow. Try and create a schedule that will ensure someone is keeping an eye on the baby (or use a baby monitor to ensure they are okay) and then get all the larger cleaning tasks done. 

If a cleaning schedule does not seem plausible to you right now, don’t worry. We have additional cleaning tips below to help you manage your cleaning without spending large chunks of time cleaning.  

Declutter and deep clean before the baby arrives

One of the most important cleaning tips we have for you is to deep clean your entire home before the baby arrives. Your home needs to be deep cleaned prior to their arrival because they have a very undeveloped immune system, and any bacteria, dust and dirt in the home may make your baby ill. 

You can hire a professional house cleaning company to deep clean your home, they will be able to steam clean carpets and ensure everything is completely dust-free, or you can do a deep clean yourself if you feel up to it. 

It’s a great idea to declutter your home before the baby arrives too. Have a yard sale, put items up on sites like eBay, or offer them free to people that could use them. Any money you make from getting rid of clutter around the home can be used to buy a crib or some clothes for the new arrival, maybe even their favourite toy. 

Use a timer

A lot of newborns respond very well to a strict schedule and so, for a while, your life is going to revolve around this schedule too. Setting a timer can really help you keep track of your time when cleaning. Most of us tend to get lost down a cleaning rabbit hole and only come up an hour later once we have cleaned several more rooms than planned. 

Using a timer to help you clean can also really help if you don’t have the energy to clean on the days that your schedule allows. Set a 15-minute timer and start cleaning. You’ll be impressed with how much cleaning you’ll get done, and then you can relax!

Invest in a steam cleaner and other natural cleaning products

A lot of new parents are worried about using harsh cleaning chemicals around their newborns, with good reason! Where possible, natural cleaning products should be used. One of the best natural cleaning products to use, though, is steam. Steam cleaners don’t require any chemicals, yet they clean amazingly well. With very little effort, you can steam clean your entire kitchen and kill all bacteria, you can even steam clean your carpets and hard floors. 

Investing in a steam cleaner is a really good way of making quick work of all the cleaning tasks you have while ensuring that there are no harsh chemicals in the home. For other cleaning products, try and find some that are designed to be used with newborns in the home. Ones with very low VOCs and no harsh chemicals that could affect anyone in the home. 

Get the whole family involved 

If you have older kids already, this is a great time to start giving them more responsibility around the home. You could create a cleaning plan for the whole family to follow. Give the older kids the job of cleaning their rooms or putting dishes in the dishwasher once a week. Anything that can help you stay on top of the cleaning. 

If you liked the catch-all basket idea above, you could even give each kid their own catch-all basket that they are responsible for emptying each day. This will keep the home organised and give you a break from cleaning.

Keep cleaning products organised

This is another really important thing to do before the baby’s arrival. We all have a cleaning cupboard, but is yours as secure as it needs to be? When your newborn grows up and gets curious about everything, will they be able to access this cupboard and explore it? By securing this cupboard now, you can get into good habits of always closing the door and making it secure. It will also allow you to keep everything in one place and keep stock of all the cleaning products you have. 

Organise clutter and create designated spaces for everything

Finally, it is time to get organised. It is time to create a space for everything that usually ends up as clutter. This could be letters and bills, magazines, kid’s drawings and paintings, or books and toys. 

Finding a good solution to your clutter problems and sticking with it can make a massive difference to how clean your home looks and feels. Once all the clutter is gone, you’ll feel a lot happier in your home, and suddenly cleaning won’t take as long. 

With these cleaning tips, you’ll be ready and excited to welcome your newborn into a clutter-free and safe home.

About The Author:

Alex Bogdanov, cleaning expert and current Marketing Manager at a domestic and commercial cleaning service provider called Cleaning Express.