Not many people think that a baby will take up a lot of room as they’re so small. But babies come with a lot of paraphernalia and you need to have some space to be able to store everything that you need for your baby. Having a smaller living space doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful nursery, and it also doesn’t mean that you have to sell your house and move into a new one.
When it comes to furnishing the room and buying equipment, you’ll no doubt be weighing up the pros and cons of organic crib mattresses, prams and beyond. Do you really need to have a changing table that stands on its own? Probably not. And if you have a smaller nursery space, you probably won’t want to fill the room with furniture that you don’t necessarily need. As long as you have a nursery that has been kitted out for safe sleep, with an empty cot with a mattress and a fitted sheet, your baby is going to be happy.
Let’s take a look at some of the things that you can do to get ready for a baby when you have a small nursery space.
1. Plan as much as possible in advance
You know that the baby probably won’t be using this room for about four months, but that doesn’t mean you won’t sit in it to rock the baby to sleep, or just to get some peace and quiet. A little bit of time spent planning can help you to save a lot of time and a lot of money as you go along. Before you start decorating your baby’s room, we need to think about what you’d like it to look like. What colours do you imagine? Did you have a theme you wanted to stick to? Once you have a rough plan, sketch out the room and measure everything so that you know what space you’re working with.
2. What goes into the nursery?
Once you know how much space you really do have, you need to think about where your priorities lie. The baby will be sleeping in your room with you for the first four months of their life, which means that you won’t necessarily have to set up a full cot just yet. That means that you can use the nursery as a changing station, or somewhere you have a rocking chair to sit with when it comes to nighttime feeds if you don’t want to disturb somebody else in the house.
As time moves on, you can then outfit the room to include a crib and any other sleeping things, but you should also consider storage. You need to make sure that your baby’s clothes, washcloths, towels, and anything that belongs to the baby has somewhere to go.
3. Consider the bassinet or moses basket
The bassinet or Moses basket is going to be in your bedroom for the first six months of their life, but if you don’t want to go straight in with the standard-sized cot, think about what space you have in the nursery for when the baby goes into that room. Within a couple of months they’re going to outgrow the bassinet, so you have to consider whether or not a cot is going to fit in the smaller nursery space or you could handle a smaller crib.
4. Use the corners
In a smaller nursery, using the corners is really helpful. You could have the crib set up in one corner and the wardrobe in another. If you don’t want to put storage in the nursery, then have it elsewhere in your house, and then set up a rocking chair in the corner. Being able to sit somewhere in the night when you’re doing feeds is a real comfort.
5. Play around with storage ideas
Underneath your baby’s crib will be an underutilized space, so if you don’t have any room for a standalone wardrobe, you could always use storage rolling drawers and have those underneath the crib. Using the walls and even the ceiling is also going to help. Floating shelves make great storage options for easy-to-grab burp clothes and lotions, and the storage, even from the ceiling, can hold all of the stuffed animals.
6. Choose your colours carefully
Darker colours tend to absorb the light, so it can make a small nursery feel even smaller. To avoid this, think about sticking with the lighter colours on the walls and the ceiling. Neutral colours are a great choice as well, whether you’re having a boy or a girl, because if this room is going to be their bedroom as they get older, it’s easier for you to redecorate rather than trying to retheme the whole thing.
7. Do away with the changing table
You really don’t need to have a standalone change table for your baby. Instead, you could put a change table on top of the crib. This area can then be used with a hanging storage basket over the side of the crib that has nappies, baby rash, cream, wipes, and anything else that you need for changing. You can even turn the baby’s dresser into a changing area or your dresser. If your room is functioning as the baby’s room, all you need to do is add a changing mat to the top.
8. Consider adding lamps
Lamps are great to allow the room to be dimmer while you’re trying to change the baby during the night, and you don’t want to wake them up too much. You might also want to consider blackout curtains because they won’t take up any extra room and they can make a very big difference during seasonal months, when it gets light earlier.
9. Consider the size of the rocker
A rocker or a glider is very nice to have in the nursery, but it doesn’t often work with a smaller space. Instead of a bigger rocker that takes up a lot of space, a small armchair can do a really good job. Of course, it’s the spaces that are tight. You can leave out that chair of the nursery altogether. A comfy chair in the living room for cuddles works very well. Just make sure that you leave a dim light on in the living room so that you can see where you’re going at night.
10. Keep the space as tidy as possible
It’s really easy to allow a nursery to become cluttered, especially if you’re trying to keep up with the rest of the house. When you keep your baby’s room neat and tidy, it’s a much more enjoyable space, and this means you don’t have to step over debris in the middle of the night. Take time to declutter the space regularly and then thin down their clothes or get rid of anything that doesn’t fit. Babies grow very quickly!
11. Add a rolling cart
Loading up a cart with nappies, wipes, creams, burp clothes and spare clothes that you can move from room to room is actually one of the best things that you can add to the nursery. You can roll the cart around the house, so no matter where you are you can get it stationed and have it within arms reach. This is so helpful if you need to have a quick clean-up.
12. Make it cosy
From cozy rugs to wall stickers, and the scent of baby lotion in the air, the nursery can be such a lovely place to sit and relax. Adding a cozy rug to the floor could transform a small nursery and it can make the space seem larger. Pick something with an all-over pattern or a solid colour and use a product such as Scotch Guard on it first to add resilience against spills.
