Do not bring in nor keep carboard boxes in the house. Ditto paper sacks. Roaches love 'em. Look under the sinks and use steel wool (soap free) to plug any holes around the pipe openings. Caulk windows and doors outside and keep them closed. Keep all containers closed incluing the toy box. Keep crumbs off the counters and the floor. Keep your dishwasher and clothes washer tigntly closed.
Keep the trash can sealed with a lid. (A garbage disposal is a good thing.) No standing water or kidding pools near the house. Empty pool daily and turn it upside down. No standing water in sinks, showers or bath tubs. Rinse soda cans and bottles thoroughly. Roaches like everything sweet and sticky like jelly, candy, pies,candy wrappers, soda, etc.. So do ants.
If you have a fireplace, do not stack wood next to the house. Spiders and snakes do not like mothballs. You can tie those up in nylon hose and tack them under the eaves.
Wasps love corners of porches and under the eaves. If you spray late at night in a couple of days you can knock down the nest. Never spray when they are awake. They will swarm and attack.
Vacuum frequently in baby room and every room where family activities concentrate the most.
Mold spores are in the ground and in the air. If your child has allergies, one of the best things you can do is use the filters that are marked "mold, pollen, pet dander, smoke, dust mites, etc" The 3 M Filtrate bramd marked 1200 or higher work very well. Change it once a month. It's a good investment. We have two lung diseases in our house. Open windows let mold spors inside the house. I've beng doing it for 5 years. It's amazaing how much the filters cut down on flu like symptoms, allergic reactions to pollen, sinus irritants and colds in our house. Plus dust.
If you use a hose outside. Turn off the water and drain the hose as much as possible. Make sure the shelves where ou stoer sugars, syrup and anything sweet is washed regularly and the outside of the containers too, Roaches that cannot find food and water will go elsewhere.
Water bugs live in the sewer system. When the sewer flood - you may never have a flood - they come into the house through drains. I did not learn this until I had a basement full after a flood. I almost had a heart attack when I turned the lights on. The walls were almost black. IF you get an infestation you will have to call a professional. IF you do, go to a motel for 3 days and hae the carpet cleaned before you go home. Allergies and carpet go hand-in-hand. If you can get all wood floors that is even better.
Been there, done it all. Too old to move.
If you do all these 'little; things, you'll be Suzi Homemaker in no time.
. If you believe that I'll sell you some ocean front property in Chicago, cheap.