Kids

The Minimalist Mom’s Guide to Baby’s First Year

by theminimalistmom |

This is the book I wish I had read while I was pregnant. Maybe even before I got pregnant.

But I didn’t have this book. I had an obsession with online ordering and my husband and I decided to sell, buy and renovate homes as I entered the third trimester and as my husband was mostly out of town. I was stressed. So stressed I would dash into a pharmacy every other day to check my blood pressure. So stressed I fixated on strollers and onesies and bought more and more stuff.

Stuff wasn’t much help when our son arrived. Neither were the credit card bills that I had accumulated from my lunch hour and online shopping.

What was helpful:

  • sleeping when I had time to sleep
  • eating a nutritious meal
  • asking for help from friends and family
  • slowing down and savouring the short intense window of my son’s infancy (newborn cries and diapers included)

I wrote The Minimalist Mom: How to Simply Parent Your Baby because I want other parents to find some peace when they have young children. I want others not to make the same mistakes I did. I want others to not feel weight of stuffed closets and unworn and now too small baby clothes the way I did. I want others to have more time, space and money than they thought they could. I want others to see that a dose of minimalism and a bit of simple living can go a long way in smoothing out the transition of having a new young baby in the home (be it a 2nd, 3rd or 4th baby!).

This book is full of ideas for:

  • doing more with less
  • avoiding the clutter trap of too much baby stuff
  • space saving nursery ides
  • the best baby gear for small spaces
  • living in a tiny house with a baby
  • slowing down so you can enjoy the early months with your new baby
  • saving money
  • creating a peaceful spacious home no matter the square footage of it
  • finding more time in your day for things like sleep (!), relaxing and bonding with your new baby. Oh, and did I mention more sleep?

Embracing the ideas and tactics in this book helped me:

  • have less to clean – yeah!
  • get more sleep
  • live peacefully in a small home
  • beat toy clutter
  • pay off $82,000 in debt in just under 2 years
  • stay at home with my son instead of going back to work full-time
  • enjoy these early years with my son

If you want more peace and simplicity in your life this book can help you. You can also see the complete newborn essentials list I share in the book at The Minimalist Baby Registry.

  • Congrats on finishing the book!! As an avid follower of your blog, new mum to a 6 month old, and Canadian living (temporarily) in New Zealand, I would love to read it! But I don’t have a Kindle, and my Mac is too old for the kindle app. I feel like I saw mention of a pdf version you could buy, but now I can’t find where I saw that… does it exist?

    • Hi Annemarie, Thanks for reading here and nice to meet another Canadian ex-pat. The PDF version does exist on this post – you should see an ad to car button near photos of the books. You can also purchase it on this page. Thanks so much for your support 🙂

  • Many many congratulations Rachel – I am sure it will be an amazing read! My childbearing days are truly behind me – I’m a little older than you (ahem!). However I know from experience that the first year of both my children’s lives was the most difficult for me. It was actually when second born was 9 months old that the epiphany happened and I discovered minimalism – and the world seemed to be much simpler and better! Oh how I wish I’d napped more! I’ve included a shout out for the book on my post today. I can’t review as haven’t read it, but I really hope the readers I have know me well enough to head on over to take a peek (although I’m sure they read your blog anyway!) – Jo x

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  • Congrats on finishing the book! I’ll keep it in mind for any pregnant people I know.
    One question – is it a hard copy book or only available in e-book format?

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