5. Plan on relaxing your housekeeping standards first year after baby's arrival. Focus on baby's and your needs. Aside from basic clothes washing and meals, house can wait.

6. Develop a feeding "system." If nursing, have a small bag filled with essentials: small pillow, blanket, bottle of water, cloth, which you can grab at a moment's notice when baby is hungry.

7. Make lists. It only takes a moment to jot down errands to run, items to buy and things to do. The next time someone offers to help, you'll know exactly what needs to be done (and maybe if they see list, they'll help even more).

7. Here's a tough one. If you don't use it every day, remove it from your counters. So many of us complain about not having enough counter space yet we crowd counters with items we don't even use.

8. Check out all racks, drawer units and organizers on market to more efficiently store your kitchen items. You'll find a variety of selections at home stores throughout country.

9. Set up a small pantry somewhere in your home for extra cans of soup, coffee, etc. You'll save money by buying in bulk or during sales and you will save space in kitchen for more important things. A small closet can easily be converted to a pantry. Once you have one, you'll never want to be "pantry-less" again.