• We have taken the guess work out of figuring out the right layout for your baby's room and saved you time and money. It's such a beautiful moment in the whole nesting experience - creating a room for your new baby. And yet it can sometimes be tricky: with bulky furniture, a room that doesn't quite fit it all in, and obstacles to manouevre around that don't seem to have a logical home. Check out the Did You Remember The Milk? guide to Setting up Baby's Room.

2. Baby brain

• Buy a household organiser where you can write things down and forget about them! Your baby’s milestones and immunization requirements should be there, along with babysitter briefings, a list you can keep for your local play areas, and many other useful tools. Check out DYRTM

3. No time

Taking charge of time:
• Write down a list of your goals or priorities. This will help to tell you whether something is really important to you or not.
• Figure out how much time you are currently spending on everything in your day. As a once of exercise, write it all down. Include time spent having a shower, breastfeeding, sleeping, etc. That will show you realistically how much time you’ve got to spend on anything else outside of caring for your baby. Whilst every day will seem different, you’ll get a fairly good idea of what you can do.
• Allocate a certain time each day for returning phone calls and attending to admin. That will ensure things don’t mount up, and get you stressed out. You will feel good inside, knowing that there are no nasties lurking in the home office area.
• Allocate time each day to go for a walk or do some gentle exercise. It’s amazing how good this is for you and you will find you’re able to maximize the time you have available to you.

4. Exhaustion

Checklist for getting a good night’s sleep:
• Keep a pad and pen on your bedside table. Write down any / all of your thoughts before you go to sleep. This has the effect of emptying your mind and you’ll nod off in no time.
• Take any reading material that’s either work related or that you’re not currently reading out of your room.
• Remove visual clutter – any other unnecessary items should be out of your room.
• Keep a headset and portable cd player in your top drawer, along with a relaxation CD. That way, if you do have trouble drifting off, you can drift along with something peaceful.
• Install a baby monitor – so you won’t be worried about not hearing him/her.

5. Creating memories...

Storing Memories
• Solution 1:The Record Book. They come in many shapes and designs, from blank photo albums, to templated custom designed baby books. The key is to choose a book that’s versatile enough to incorporate photos, pictures, and some raised items, like the hospital band and a lock of hair.
• Solution 2: The memory box: These also come in many shapes and sizes. Good sizes are A3 archive boxes, like the ones available at Kikki-K (insert image), or the plastic container, available from a $2 shop or Officeworks. << li>
• Solution 3: The scrap book - I have never been a scrap booker, but if this is your bag, then you can have a lot of fun with a baby scrap book.
• Solution 4: Box Framing: For a christening gown or the first pair of shoes or a tiny doll, this is a gorgeous way to keep your memories on display, and use some of that ever available space in a home – vertical wall space!

6. Eliminating the Clutter.

There are some golden rules to creating a clutter free home.
• Everything needs to have a home. If it doesn’t have a home, you need to create one, or seriously consider whether that object has a future.
• Develop clear functions for each room and cupboard in your home. That way you know where to go to find things.
• Make your storage stretch twice the distance by using vertical space (which we have a lot of) rather than horizontal space (which is pretty limited in the average home). Ways to do this: stacking, shelving, hanging, layering. For more info, see our storage guide.

7. Getting out of the house.

The following list can be printed out and laminated and inserted into the inside pocket of your nappy bag. When you come back from each outing, take out the dirty items, replace the contents and you will be out the door with ease the next day.

Nappy bag contents:
• Nappies
• Wipes
• Barrier Cream
• Nappy Sacks (pref environmentally friendly)
• Milk bottle and teat
• Bottle bag to keep warm
• Formula sachet or container / milk
• Portable change mat
• Snacks
• Rubbish bag
• Change of clothes
• Bib
• Spoon
• Drink bottle
• Hat
• Sunscreen
• Muslin wrap or blanket
• Any medication required
• Favourite teddy / toy

8. Wardrobes

How to set it up: There are three ways to take on the task of creating a great wardrobe: you can have them custom built, you can use a handyman, or you can do it yourself. All three require designing the space to accommodate the contents. Custom-built closets are the most expensive. Relying solely on a closet designer from the company of your choice can be a big mistake. Many points must be considered and factored into the design. It is not uncommon to spend a large amount of money on custom closets and be disappointed with the final product. Generally, you will not be aware that the design is flawed until you are putting your things away. To avoid costly mistakes on any of the three ways – custom, handyman, and do-it-yourself wardrobes, you must do your homework first.

Designing a wardrobe is like a jigsaw puzzle. You need to size it up before you start and make sure you’ve got all the pieces.

• Sort: First thing to do is to sort all the clothing in your wardrobe by putting all like items together. E.g, put all of the pants together (his and hers), all of the shirts, etc.
• Measure: Then measure the linear footage (the amount of hanging space from left to right that you need to hang your clothes that is taken up in the closet by groups: shirts and blouses, hong-hanging pants, pants that are hanging folded at the knees, long dresses, short dresses, suits, and skirts.
• Take notes: Write down your findings. For example: Shirts = 100 cm- wide space, Skirts = 60 cm wide space, Pants = 164cm wide space.
• Count: the number of shoes and add the shoe count to the linear list. A pair of standard women’s shoes is 8” wide, and a pair of men’s shoes is 9” wide. Given this information, in order to get three pairs of women’s shoes, side by side, on one shelf, the inside dimensions of the shelf must be 24” (8” x 3 pairs), and three pairs of mens shoes side by side need 27inches (9” x 3 pairs). If these measurements are not part of the equation, your closet can be “off”.
• Measure: the length of each type of clothing, from the closet rod to the bottom of the garment. Now consider how much height space you’ll need for shoes. There are two ways to use shelves for shoes: straight or tilted. Straight shelves allow also for adjusting shelf space up or down. Note: Tilted shelves require installation of a “toe kick” or “fence”, to keep the shoes from sliding off the shelf. (Wire shelving can be turned upside down to create a shoe fence.)
• Measure the interior of the closet: ceiling height, width, depth, and soffit. (The soffit is the space from above the opening of the closet door to the ceiling. This is an important measurement because if the top shelf is too high, it will not be accessible due to the soffit.).
• Using graph paper, plot the measurements of your closet to scale to get an overview.
• Measure any partitions in the closet and add them to the graph of the closet. (Partitions are the vertical wall panels between which closet rods are attached). Also measure the width of partitions, they also take up space.
• Consider if you want your wardrobe to have drawers. Another option is to purchase a small tower of drawers. Either way, if you are considering putting drawers in the wardrobe, don’t forget to plot them on your overview too.
• Once you are satisfied with the layout of the overview, it is time to prepare the elevations. Elevations are the plans used to build the wardrobe. An elevation has to be prepared for each wall on which something will be built. Even if you don’t go this far because you are working with a custom closet company, at least you will have an excellent idea of how your space will best function. There are other little things you need to be aware of. In a walk-in closet, there is always some dead space in the corders. Not every cm is usable space. You must have reach-in space.

9. Meal times

• The hardest part of getting the meal on the table is leaving it til 4pm. The baby needs to be fed at 5 / 5:30 and you are tired and also need to get dinner on the table for you and your partner, if he or she isn’t cooking. The key is to plan ahead and know what you’re cooking and to prepare it in the morning. The other trick is to cook in advance and store meals in the freezer. Some winning strategies, along with worksheets and templates are available in the New Baby section in the shop.

10. Saying thanks

• Keep a list of all the pressies you received, and who gave them to you in the baby’s room (not on your desk – it will get lost). Add to it as gifts come in. Eventually things will settle down and you’ll have a nice photo you want to send everyone – there may even be a smile! Your list will take the pain out of saying thanks. But it also doubles up as a great thing to put in your child’s memory box so they can see when they’re a little older who was involved in their parents life at that time.

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