Having a child involves a multitude of lifestyle changes, including making a few child-friendly improvements to your home from child safety measures to blockout curtains to get your bub sleeping. Here are just of few of those improvements you may wish to make in order to make life easier for you and your infant.

Get equipped

The first step should be to buy all the important pieces of furniture. At first you may only need a cot, sanitizer, changing mat and playmat. However, it’s worth investing early in other furniture such as walker, high chair and baby bath (you may also want a wardrobe/chest of drawers for keeping all your baby clothes). You can save money on a lot of this stuff by looking second-hand on sites such as Gumtree and Preloved. Many mothers will also get into couponing to save money on such purchases.

Hide away homely hazards

Eventually your baby will start to crawl and get curious, picking up all kinds of objects and often giving them the taste-test too. This is when you have to start being careful with home hazards. Make sure that any cleaning chemicals and small choke hazards are stored out of sight. It’s also worth tucking curtain pulls and cables away that your child could put around their neck. The amount of hazards will step up once they become a toddler and when eyes are needed on the back of your head. Common hazards to look out for are objects on kitchen countertops (make sure pan handles don’t protrude over the side) and collapsible heavy objects (such as ironing boards and wobbly wardrobes). Also consider covering up sharp corners of low furniture such as coffee tables.

Be safe in the bathroom

A baby bath will be used at first. Once your kids are able to start taking adult baths, supervision will still be needed for a long time, but precautions such as anti-slip mats and tap protectors may allow you to loosen up a little more. As with items around the rest of the house, be careful where you keep razors and cleaning chemicals such as bleach and toilet cleaner.

Get the garden in shape

If you’re letting your little one out in the garden, make sure all tools are stored away, whilst also fencing off dangerous areas such as ponds (you may be able to reinforce that kids stay away and not have to worry with fencing or a net). There are lots of fun features that you can add to your garden to make it more child-friendly as this blog post shows. As kids grow up, these can be useful for dragging kids away from the TV and getting them to play outdoors.

Limit wandering

Stopping kids from venturing into certain areas can be important. This may include fitting a stair-gate to stop them wandering downstairs and having an accident. It’s also possible to buy playpens for keeping children in – useful for keeping toddlers at bay whilst doing the housework or having to attend to other matters.