Keeping the house clean with a new baby

Before anyone panics and assumes that I’ve had a baby during lockdown, let’s just clear it up straight away that I haven’t! Good grief, I’ve been busy enough working, homeschooling, keeping the small one entertained and keeping on top of the house, let alone anything else. But being at home more did remind me of the early days of being a new Mum and how it all impacts on the general tidiness of the house. Why is it so much harder to keep everything clean and tidy when you’re at home more? It’s like a never-ending battle!

With this in mind, I wanted to pull together a few tips that I learnt back in the day when I was a new parent, for how to keep the house clean with a new baby. Or of course, in general!

Little and often

If you’re anything like me then you can’t stand living in an untidy house. My feng shui or whatever you want to call it goes all to pot and I just feel uncomfortable. I was the kind of new Mum that chose to have a quick tidy up over a nap when my newborn slept – it helped me feel calmer when the baby was awake, knowing my ‘space’ was how I liked it. Staying neat and organised has to be an ongoing process. You can spend just a few minutes each day tidying up the “hot spots” in your home where messes happen most often. Wipe around the kitchen sink and move those clothes off the bedroom floor. Move your post, bags, and shoes that collect in the hallway and separate stacks of papers into smaller “to-do” and “to file away” piles. If you do these few small tasks every day, you’ll already notice a huge difference to your surroundings.

If it makes you feel better, whip the hoover around at the end of each day and you’ll always wake up to a clean and tidy living room – this works wonders for your mindset.

Weekly clean

Once a week, and even now, I have one day where I have a ‘good old clean’. If you schedule in bigger tasks, they’re much easier to tackle. Vacuum your carpets and under sofa cushions and the kitchen table. Clean items that get covered in sticky fingerprints, like high chairs and toys. Don’t forget to throw out any old food before they turn your fridge into one big science project – no one likes a smelly fridge!

More than one supply

One tip I found invaluable when I had a newborn was to have a caddy of cleaning products on each floor. Make sure it has an all-purpose cleaner, sponges, soft cloths, rubber gloves, paper towels, and any other supplies you might need. Hang a broom or store a vacuum cleaner in a wardrobe or cupboard on each floor, too. This might sound extravagant but when you have a baby, you really don’t want to be going up and downstairs if you need to clean something up quickly – we’ve all been there with the inevitable exploding nappies or projectile vomiting!

These are obviously just little snippets of tips that I picked up along the way that can help with keeping the house clean with a new baby, but they can also work for you if you work full-time, part-time, or even not at all. By keeping on top of these chores, it will make your life so much easier in the long run.

Do you have any tips that you can share? Leave them in the comments below.