This post shows you the Before the Baby Comes Cleaning Checklist that will help you stay on top of everything, but make sure that you’re not stressed or overwhelmed!
As someone who is super organized and tidy and loves planning everything in advance, I was actually overwhelmed by the abundance of information when it came to preparing for a baby.
Along with pregnancy, newborn care, and shopping lists, there was also everything I needed to do in my home to make sure it was baby-friendly.
No matter how many lists I checked and cross-checked, everything seemed super complicated and left me thinking I was going to miss something.
So, I sat down with my husband and created a spreadsheet (once a manager, always a manager…), and then we listed all of the rooms in our tiny apartment. Then we talked about what we needed to do. It wasn’t that hard!
I also realized that a lot of lists, checklists, and things to do were giving me anxiety, and the goal of my Pre-Baby Talk is to reduce anxiety!
So that’s why I present to you my (Anxiety and Stress-Free) Before the Baby Comes Cleaning Checklist, which will save your nerves and make you fall in love with your apartment and the baby to come!
Presented to you by a mom-to-be and a philosopher, a dad-to-be and an architect, and our dog!
Bedroom and Nursery Before Baby Cleaning List
Your baby needs a safe space to sleep. That’s it. Along with food, shelter, love, and diaper changes, it’s basically everything your baby needs.
So, I suggest you start with your bedroom and their nursery (same room).
I’m not going to tell you to vacuum, dust, and wash your bedding. You do that anyway. I’m just going to tell you about the less obvious stuff you need to clean or deep clean.
1 Wash Your Pillows and Duvet
I like washing my pillows with detergent, baking soda, and vinegar every six months. And during pregnancy, I was sweating buckets, so all my pillows felt yucky, and I had to wash them several times!
In addition, you should vacuum your mattress and leave it out in the open in a sunny room. You can also consider deep-cleaning your mattress with a professional service.
Do this now, and you’ll have your bed super clean when the baby comes.
2 Clean Your Windows and Window Sills
You really want to clean your windows for maximum light and vitamin D. It’s not something you do very often, so I would suggest you do it before the baby comes.
I used regular window cleaners, but my husband cleaned them weeks before the baby came.
If you’re worried about chemicals, use something that’s baby-friendly or just a mix of vinegar and water.
Also, wash your curtains if you have them! The curtains are dusty and dirty! The same goes for your blinds. Wash them with detergent, and make sure to scrub them well.
As I said, this is not something you typically clean in your home on a monthly basis, so it helps to have a list of things to clean!
3 Sanitize Light Switches, Doorknobs, and Drawer Handles
I never once thought about cleaning and sanitizing doorknobs after COVID-19. I totally forgot!
But they get dirty, and you need to clean them. The same goes for all the light switches, handles, and drawers.
Since we often touch light switches with dirty hands (like when we enter the apartment at night, and it’s pitch dark), I started sanitizing them weekly. Better safe than sorry.
4 Wash Your Dog’s Bed
If you have a pet, a cat or a dog, make sure to wash their bed. My dog has a bed in our bedroom, and while we often change his sheets and wash them, we rarely wash the bed itself.
We vacuum it pretty often, but washing their bed is a good idea before the baby comes.
Once the baby grows up a little bit, I’m sure they’re gonna bedshare!
Bedroom Deep Clean Checklist
Now is a really good time to deep-clean some of the items and surfaces in your bedroom.
Here’s what we did:
- AC – we thought about calling a professional to deep clean the AC and air vents (we live in one of the hottest areas in Europe and have the AC on all summer), but my husband did it instead by following YouTube tutorials. It’s essential you do this before the baby comes! There are so many germs and potential mold and bacteria, it’s crucial you do this.
- Deep clean your carpets – we do this twice a year, but we made sure to call professionals to deep clean our carpets a month before my due date.
- Repaint walls – we did this, but it may not be necessary in your home. We did it a couple of months before the baby came, and we made sure to use low-VOC paint. Then, we kept our windows open for days to let the fumes out!
- Bonus: have your husband go crazy and check every single area in your home for mold, water damage, dust, and scratches. It really helps if they go overboard!
Living Room Cleaning List
This is your go-to playtime, naptime, and feeding time area, and then it will be your baby’s favorite room.
It’s essential you give it a good scrub and start practicing some healthy habits to maintain that cleanliness.
1 Sanitize High-Touch Areas
Your remote controls, your coffee table, your favorite trays… everything needs a good cleaning!
Then, every single surface where you may put your baby’s stuff needs to be cleaned and wiped!
H3 2 Clean Your Couch and Throw Pillows
Vacuum your couch, underneath your couch, and wash all your pillows! If you have any throw blankets, make sure to wash them.
You’ll be sitting on the couch a lot, and your baby will probably have their own blankets, but you’re still gonna touch everything.
Not Everything Has to Be Super Clean for Your Baby
I’m not saying you should go crazy and clean everything all the time! I’m just saying there’s a good chance you haven’t cleaned some things in a while, and now is a really good time. Also, babies just need to live in normal, livable environments. They don’t need to be in super sterile rooms!
Living Room Deep Clean List
Some things will need a good wash!
Before we decided to have a baby, we didn’t really bother with deep cleaning our sofas or steam cleaning our furniture that often.
Friends would come and visit and sit on the sofa in the same pants they wore on public transport. That was just normal to us. But when we started preparing for a baby, we really needed to change that!
Here’s our deep cleaning list:
- Same as in the bedroom, deep clean your rugs, pillows, and the AC.
- Steam and deep-clean your sofa! And maybe think about some sofa covers to use for those first visitors when the baby is very young.
- Wash your walls, air vents, and baseboards. There’s a lot of dust and grime there!
- Clean and dust your lampshades and ceiling lights.
Kitchen Cleaning List Before the Baby Comes
This was the worst area in our home! We did a little bit of renovating before the baby (we replaced the sink and cabinets, repainted everything, and installed a new kitchen hood), and we had to deep-clean everything.
I was obsessed with keeping everything super clean, as I was obsessed with food and nutrients before the baby (and after the baby), so I really wanted my kitchen to be spotless.
We live in an urban area, and the apartment is on the 6th floor, but we keep our balcony open all spring, and there’s always a lot of dust and dirt, so regular cleaning is a must! But what about the stuff you have to deep clean?! That’s where the real work is.
1 Deep Clean Your Fridge
Take everything out and clean your fridge of all the dirt, food, stains, dust, and whatever is hanging out in there!
The dirtiest parts of my fridge were definitely the fresh produce drawers, so I’m gonna make it a habit to clean them more often.
2 Wipe Your Cabinets and Drawers
Take out all of your stuff and give your cabinets a good scrub. Do the same with your drawers, and make sure you clean and wash your drying racks. Clear the space near your sink and the area where you’re gonna dry your baby’s stuff.
Use safe cleaners, whether DIYs with baking soda, vinegar, and water or store-bought baby-friendly cleaners.
3 Clean Your Oven and Cooking Areas
You probably do this already, but give everything a good scrub! You won’t have time later, and you may reheat some of the frozen meals in the oven, so you want everything nice and ready before the baby comes.
Don’t use chemical cleansers for your oven! Only use baking soda and vinegar, as your food will be there.
4 Clean Your Microwave
Probably the worst thing in the world when it comes to cleaning, your poor microwave needs some love.
I knew I wouldn’t be cooking or reheating anything for my baby, but somehow, having a dirty microwave made me feel uneasy, so I had to clean it.
Since I don’t like any chemicals touching my microwave or my oven, to clean them, I take a glass bowl and fill it with 1 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of water, and 1 spoon of lemon juice. I set the microwave on medium heat and turn it on for 2-3 minutes until the mixture starts boiling and gets steamy.
Then, I wipe it with paper towels and repeat the process (with the same mixture) until I clean everything. If it’s really bad, like super sticky and dirty, let it run on high heat for 3 minutes and leave it closed for 10-15 minutes before you start cleaning.
5 Clean Your Dishwasher
It’s a good idea to get some dishwasher tablets for deep cleaning and run them on the self-cleaning cycle or at the highest temperature.
You can also pour 1 cup of baking soda and 2 cups of vinegar directly into the dishwasher and run a cycle at high temperatures for extra dirty dishes.
6 Get Some Good Baby-Friendly Cleaning Products and Sanitize Your Sink
You’ll be washing your baby’s pacifiers or bottles all the time, maybe your breast pumps and so many new things, so it’s a really good idea to get some baby-friendly products and start washing your sink all the time!
7 Change Your Water Filters
If you use filtered water, it’s smart to check if they need replacing and swap out old filters now. Add a recurring reminder to your phone or planner to change it regularly going forward.
8 Clean Your Trash Can
I don’t know why I had to do this, but I simply couldn’t stand anything remotely gross, so I had to ask my husband to scrub our trash can.
It’s really something you should clean every couple of months, but I won’t pretend like ours didn’t end up gross, so we had to clean it!
Detailed Bathroom Cleaning List Before the Baby Comes
I am not very happy with my bathroom as it’s really small and there’s not enough room for all our toiletries! But I knew I had to do something about it, as it was going to be important both for me and my baby.
I’m going to share a list of all the things we scrubbed and cleaned that we don’t usually clean every week, or even every month.
Give the Bathroom Cleaning List to Your Partner
It doesn’t matter if you’re using all-natural cleaning products or you’re going overboard with bleach, you should definitely avoid cleaning your bathroom while pregnant. I gave this task to my husband, and I think it should be a man’s job. It’s also good physical exercise and something you can definitely delegate.
1 Clean Out and Reorganize Bathroom Cabinets
You’re gonna need room for baby stuff and your postpartum care, so make sure that you have everything ready before the baby comes.
You can always grab your baby stuff before you give them a bath, but you’ll need fast access to pads, your peri bottle, and disposable undies, so think about yourself first.
Toss everything that’s expired or that you haven’t used in a year.
2 Wash Your Tub, Shower Curtain, and Mats
These all collect bacteria, mold, and mildew.
You should even replace your shower curtain if it’s moldy and over a year old. That’s how I do it, even though I wash it every month or so.
Your tub needs a good scrubbing, as your baby will use it too, so it has to be cleaned regularly.
3 Deep-clean Grout and Tiles
Along with scrubbing your tub, you need to scrub your tiles and clean the grout. You can use your regular cleaning products or buy grout cleaners. Whatever you decide, it will make your bathroom feel brand new, and you’ll get rid of the bacteria and mold.
4 Clean Your Bathroom Fan and Vents
Again, mold loves your bathroom. Wherever there’s moisture, dampness, and poor ventilation, you’ll have mold growth. Remove the fan and vent covers, vacuum them, and wipe the inside.
5 Stock up on Postpartum Care Items and Baby Bath Gear
Go have fun shopping and make sure that you have all the stuff you need for your first days at home.
To me, it was really important to have easy access to pads and bins, as I wanted to avoid making a mess or feeling like my bathroom was a crime scene!
Hallway Cleaning List
Here, you just need to vacuum, wash, or replace your welcome mat and make sure that you have a regular routine of mopping the floors.
In my home, we don’t wear shoes indoors, and this is pretty common where we are. We ask our friends and visitors to take off their shoes, and we did this even before the baby.
To make everyone feel comfortable, we bought several rubber slippers (think Adidas slides or something like that) that we sanitize with alcohol after every visit.
This way, our guests are happy, and we can relax and not worry about germs and dirt in our home.
Again, you should clean and disinfect your light switches in all rooms, but pay special attention to hallways, as our hands are dirtiest when we first get home.
Laundry Room
I don’t have a laundry room, but I do have a washer and dryer (in my bathroom) that also needed some care.
Detergent residue can build up pretty fast, so make sure to run a cleaning cycle on your washer. The best way to do this is to add baking soda and vinegar and run a hot cycle. This will kill the mildew and bacteria!
You should repeat this monthly once the baby arrives.
Another thing you may have forgotten is to set up a separate laundry basket just for your baby!
You’ll want to wash your baby’s clothes separately and use gentle detergent to protect their delicate skin. So don’t wash your baby’s clothes with your clothes, and get a separate laundry basket.
So, how do you find this baby prep process? Are you getting overwhelmed, or is this a piece of cake for you?
I really wanted to create an anxiety-free Before Baby cleaning checklist, as I think we put so much pressure on ourselves, it’s crazy how we think we need to overperform in every single area.
It really helped me to have a checklist and helped us with house management, as it took the mental load off me and onto my husband. And it gave me such a dopamine kick to tick off the items from the list.
So, to help you get the same kick out of it, I’m sharing a printable Before the Baby Comes Cleaning Checklist!
Preparing your home and deep cleaning everything are all part of the Pre-Baby Talk. That’s why, when the baby comes, you’ll be ready and prepared for…
…all the love in the world.
Which of these cleaning items do you think is the most important? Let me know in the comments!
Don’t forget to pin this post so you’ll always have this checklist handy!
This post showed you the Stress-Free Before the Baby Comes Cleaning Checklist.
You may also like:
Leave a Reply