Your own Princess Charlotte on the way? Tips to create space for a new addition to the family.

With another baby on the way, the excitement has started to give way to the reality of creating space for another little bundle of joy.  Luckily for us it's not the first time but with a big gap between kids we are having to think creatively about storage and space.

Creating the space

The spare room is being gutted and our oldest is making the big move downstairs, it may be that like us you will need to turn the guest bedroom into a playroom or a home office or storage space into a nursery.  We have gone vertical to create extra storage space in the bedrooms after losing some space and put the rest (especially the bulky items) into storage units.  The space under beds is often ignored, but there is often great opportunity to use plastic boxes with lids or decorative baskets to store often used items in.

Starting small and thinking big

If it is your first baby or you haven't had a little one in the house for a while the list of what new babies may need can seem overwhelming.  The reality is newborn babies need very little other than a warm cosy place to sleep, a lot of kisses and cuddles, more clothes than you anticipate you will need (for those days when you just cannot keep up with the washing) and clean nappies.  

The internet is tempting with all the items you could purchase so start with a few, you can always purchase more once your baby is born.  

If you have been given more baby gifts than you know what to do with, consider using them in a decorative but functional way.  

This picture from interior designer Claudia ZinZan shows this in a really beautiful way

Create Zones

If one thing in life is certain it is that babies and toddlers may be small, but the mess they are capable of creating is not!

Ensure all the places you will change your baby, burp your baby and feed your baby are wipeable.  If you have the room, create a minimal adults only space where you can escape the chaos that only appears with little ones in the house.

Early on create an art-space to save your precious walls.  For my daughters 6th birthday I painted a huge purple butterfly on her bedroom wall with blackboard paint.  If I had only known earlier how many walls it would save from her ballpoint pens (carefully hidden by me but always found), I would have done it from the day she was old enough to hold a piece of chalk.  

Prepare to create space in your heart

More than anything else the biggest space created is the one in your heart, be prepared for more love, laughs, tears than you ever thought humanely possible and enjoy!