Help with sterilising pump & bottles please

[BabyLT]

I’m going to start expressing next week (I’ll be 4 weeks pp).
I have a manual pump, a hakka and bottles.
I have a microwave steriliser and will hopefully have one of the plug in ones too.
I have already sterilised everything when I brought them home from the shop, but they’ve been in the cupboard since then (so for a few weeks).

I have some questions:

• do you have to sterilise again if they have been stored?
• can I use the pumps/bottles if they are still wet from the sterilisation?
• if they have to be dry - how can I dry every little bit? There are so many nooks and crannies…and can I use a tea towel to do this? When I first sterilised they just didn’t dry even after leaving them on a clean towel all day.
• where / how is best to store them after sterilising if I’m not going to be using them straight away?

thanks!

I haven’t had my little one yet however I plan to get a UV steriliser which also has a drying cycle.

from what I remember from when my brother was a baby (a while ago now) we had an electric steam steriliser and since it’s just steam there was no need to dry them before using them. I cannot be 100% for the sterilisers that use sterilising fluids like Milton but it might work the same way but I’m sure they come with instructions.

His bottles were only sterilised when needed so didn’t get stored for too long before being used after however I have seen even with the UV ones they say it can be stored in an unopened cupboard for x amount of days before use.. but again I believe that all differs depending on the steriliser you plan to use.

beware that some of the pumps don’t respond well to certain methods of sterilisation, it might be the flanges that get ruined so also check what type of sterilisation your pumps can take..

but yes if it’s just steam you can use it straight from the steriliser and even store the rest in there until next use since it sometimes is only a few hrs later.