If you’re expecting a baby in the next nine months (or less), you’ll more than likely want every inch of your property to suit their needs.

In addition to creating a beautiful nursery, you must ensure your home is warm, safe and spacious to support their health, security, and first steps.

To feel 100% prepared for your son or daughter’s arrival, read these six top tips for creating a baby-friendly home.

1. Cover Electrical Outlets

Once your baby starts crawling, cruising, or walking, you can guarantee they will want to explore every item on the floor, walls, and furniture. To ensure they are safe when they move across your home, you can cover your electrical outlets with a plastic outlet cover. Research to find out what the most suitable method is for your type of electic outlet.

2. Add Corner Guards

Children are prone to falling forwards and backward when they are first finding their feet, and they’ll lack spatial awareness when moving from A to B. To prevent unwanted injuries, you can cover all sharp edges with corner guards. For example, you could add them onto the corners of tables, baseboards or low shelving, which will provide peace of mind that they will be safe when falling in the home.

3. Install Efficient Radiators

Faulty or broken radiators will fail to increase your home’s temperature on a cold night. Ensure your little bundle of joy is safe and warm every day of the week by installing efficient radiators before their arrival. There are also many beautiful designs available at warmrooms.co.uk that can complement the size of a room and its interior. For example, vertical column radiators are an ideal choice if you have minimal wall space.

4. Move Medicines and Cleaning Supplies

As mentioned, babies and toddlers are inquisitive, so you can guarantee they will want to explore every cupboard when an opportunity arises. Keep them safe within the home by moving all medicines and cleaning supplies from lower kitchen cabinets or shelving. Store them in a higher cabinet and install a child-lock for extra peace of mind.

5. Remove Poisonous Plants

Children will be happy to put every object into their mouths once they have improved their fine and gross motor skills. While you might think your beautiful plants are harmless, you might be surprised to learn that some varieties are poisonous when consumed, such as devil’s ivy, English ivy, and poinsettia. You should, therefore, remove them from your home (or place well out of reach) before your little one starts rolling and crawling.

6. Stabilize furniture

As a growing baby will want to explore different colors, textures, and movements, they’ll want to browse the many items sitting on a bookshelf. To ensure it never topples over, you must stabilize it and anchor any heavy furniture against the wall. You can also add baby-friendly products onto lower shelving, such as:

• Board books
• Soft toys
• Various textured fabrics
• Stacking cups

Don’t forget to remove breakable items from the bookshelf, such as vases, candles and sculptures.

Before your baby arrives in the world, take a walk around your home to identify potential safety issues, such as a faulty water heater, choking hazards or unsecured mirrors or furniture. It’s much easier to get all this sorted without a baby than waiting until they arrive.