When you have little ones, you have got to take the steps to child proof your home. The majority of people buy their house or apartment before their children are in the picture, thus parents have got to be creative and work through some of the less child-friendly aspects of their home.
Cover Electrical Outlets
Very simple task; simply run down to the nearest store and grab a few of those plastic plugins. Basically what you are looking for is a 2 or 3 prong plugin, that you place into each unused outlet. While you may not have to worry about outlets on your kitchen counter, you definitely should take care of all outlets below a meter from the ground.
Move the household chemicals
Grab your Clorox Bleach, your Windex, etc… and move them up to a higher cabinet. While some parents will just place this out of a child’s reach; never underestimate how smart your child is. Before you know it, your children can be moving boxes around to climb onto higher areas and the once out of reach chemicals are now at their mercy.
Do not take any chances, place these chemicals out of reach and in a cabinet. You may even consider locking this cabinet since you most likely do not use these chemicals on a daily basis. The last thing you want is to come into a room and see your child playing with a full bottle of bleach, or even worse the bleach gushing out of the bottle onto the floor and your child.
Store medicine out of reach
This is another simple thing that can be done instantly. Simply moving your medicine to a higher cabinet, or moving your pillbox from your nightstand to a higher area, will allow you some peace of mind. While some people go overboard and only buy medicine that has childproof locking mechanisms, this may be a bit extreme.
While we never want to ever put our children at risk, simply storing your medicines in a higher cabinet, out of sight, should do the trick. If you want to go a step further and get rid of all the medicine you have with no child proof mechanisms, that is your choice; but again, probably a bit over the top.
Install Safety Gates
It is hard to overstate how important this is. A safety gate is inexpensive and a must-have for every household. Some parents only think of a safety gate for their homes with stairs, but I can tell you from experience that you will want a safety gate for many things you have never considered.
I personally love to have my children in the kitchen with me when I cook, and our kitchen is set up in a way that I can trap them between the fridge and pantry with the placing of a single safety gate. This allows me to keep an eye on them at all times while keeping them away from the stove and oven when I am making dinner.
Cover edges and corners
Last but not least, taking care of pointed corners on tables, coffee tables and desks throughout the home. Anything with a corner that your child could fall on, should be covered up. There are many different options to choose from and personally tend to lean towards smaller foam cushion items to do the trick. I always try to go with the cover that is the closest colour to the corner it is protecting.
The main reason for this is that I do not want my children being drawn to a bright pink cover on a plain wood table, and trying to rip this colourful object off throughout the day. But if you take care of these 5 things, you are on track to childproofing your home and create a safe environment for everyone in your family!
