Congratulations! A new baby is a wonderful adventure – and a very busy time!

If you have the means, There are a few things you could consider outsourcing to make your life a wee bit easier in those first few magical whirlwind weeks.

Or if you’re wanting to gift new parents a practical gift, you could give the gift of time!

1. House cleaning: Keeping up with house cleaning can be challenging with a new baby. Consider hiring someone to pop in for a couple of hours a week to do the basic cleaning chores that you might not have time for, such as vacuuming, bathrooms and kitchen cleaning.
   Getting it done: Cleaning jobs on Jobba tend to be about $25 an hour, and 2 hours is a good amount of time for most average sized houses.
2. Laundry: The laundry can quickly pile up with a new baby, especially if they’re prone to poop explosions or being a bit “spilly” and of course you’ll still have dirty clothes that need washing too!
   Getting it done: You could hire someone to pick up and do your washing, then drop it back off to you. It might cost you about $40 for a couple of loads but it might just save your sanity!
3. Grocery shopping and meal prep: Cooking and grocery shopping can be difficult with a newborn, especially if you’re unable to drive or get yourself out and about easily in the first few weeks.
   Getting it done: This is a time when grocery delivery really comes into its own to make life easier! If you like cooking but want to reduce the mental load of trying to decide what to cook, you could look into meal services like Hello Fresh or My Food Bag. To make things really easy, you could consider purchasing some pre made meals through a service such as Angel Delivery, MealBox, or Get Fed.
4. Pet care: Your fur babies will still need love and attention, dogs will still need walking (cats are a bit lower maintenance!), and enclosures will still need cleaning.
   Getting it done: If you have pets, consider hiring a pet sitter or dog walker to help take care of them while you’re busy with your new baby. If you have pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs (or even fish!) who live in an enclosure that needs cleaning regularly, you could consider posting on Jobba to get someone to help you with this for the first few weeks of newborn life.
5. General errands: Running errands can be time-consuming and hard to get to with so much going on. If you’ve had a caesarian you’ll be unable to drive for 6 weeks or so, and regardless of your birth you might not feel up to getting out of the house much.
   Getting it done: If you’ve got jobs such as picking up dry cleaning or dropping off packages at the post office that need doing, you could consider posting on Jobba to get someone to do them for you.

Having a new baby is a wonderfully exciting time, but it’s a huge change and learning curve, and it’s so important to look after yourselves as parents. If you have the means, outsourcing one or two (or all!) of these tasks can help you focus on getting to know your your new baby, but can also help you to get the rest you need to recover and settle into your new roles as parents.