Even before your little one is born you will find yourself the target of marketing. With the birth of your first child you are entering a whole new consumer demographic and everyone from financial service companies to private schools to car manufacturers to nappy brands want you to know what they’ve got on offer.

You’ll be buying all sorts of new equipment, from buggies to cots to baby sleeping bags to slings to high chairs (Mumsnet has a helpful list ). And you’ll need to make room for it all in your home. The last thing you need as you navigate this huge change is a cluttered home. Clutter makes it harder to maintain your home; and visual clutter can add to feelings of stress and overwhelm. Here are some tips to keep your home with a new baby clutter-free.

Store items that are not yet needed

Parents of older children love to pass on outgrown clothing and baby items and of course these are generally useful. But it leaves new parents with little piles and bags of clothing dotted around the house. Sort them quickly and bag them up by age and store them away until they are needed. This could be a job for a visiting grandmother! You could even mark your calendar at the appropriate month to remind yourself that there’s a bag of six-to-nine-month clothes in the back of the wardrobe or in your storage unit.

Store items that you won’t use while the baby is small

The first year of a baby’s life is a busy, intense time for both parents. You spend hours of each day (and night) caring for your baby and you are likely to be sleep-deprived and distracted. This can mean that some of your hobbies, particularly those that require intense concentration, will fall by the wayside. And there are some hobbies that just don’t mix with babies once they start to move around the house getting into things.

Consider putting your equipment away so that you don’t have to feel guilty about half-finished projects. You do get your life back eventually – promise. And around that time you’ll find you’ve got a small person who is (sometimes) keen to learn from you!

Store to make space

There are some bulky baby items that you’ll only need in the first three months or the first year. For example, a nursing chair, changing table or a co-sleeper. These items can make your life with a baby much easier, so it’s worth making space for them even if you need to get rid of, or store, another piece of furniture to do so.

And, of course, if you are planning to have more than one child, you’ll want these items out of your space once the older child is too big for them but before the next child is born.

Store to get ready for crawling

If your baby is an early crawler or walker you will discover a whole fresh kind of hell as you deal with a tiny, curious person with absolutely no sense of responsibility and no interest in obeying your increasingly urgent requests to ‘stop!’ and ‘don’t touch’.

Consider getting anything you don’t want gummed, poked, puked on or destroyed out of the house until your child can obey simple commands. Get down on your hands and knees and look at what might tempt your toddler. Think of it as preparing for a flood – anything less than two feet above the floor is in danger.

How much does storage cost monthly?

As new parents you’re on a tighter budget than usual, and you may worry about increasing household costs by using storage. But if you choose your storage company carefully and deploy your space efficiently, you can keep your costs down. We’ve got a blogpost with advice on working out storage costs. You should also factor in the cost of insurance, as this is required by all reputable storage companies. But if you’re looking to save money, don’t just settle for their offering: get a quote from Store and Insure, as our prices are competitive.