Your home should be a haven for those living in it. It should be a comfortable place where you can drop your defenses and relax. Improving your home to make you feel more comfortable is one thing, but if you’re a parent living with very young children, you know that even safety can be challenging. Below are some ways to improve your home’s safety, most especially if you have kids around.
Have the Necessary Alarms
As a parent, you are in charge of many things almost simultaneously around the house, so you’re not always all eyes on your child. If this is the case, you may need to set up alarms around the house to let you know where your baby is. The first one you might want to consider is a GPS tracker or locator alarms that will send off an alarm if your child wanders off and you can’t immediately find them.
Use Doorknob Covers to Prevent Them from Going Outside
The outdoors is a fascinating place for young kids. Unfortunately, it’s not the safest. There will come a time that they’ll try to grab the doorknob to wander the outdoors- and when this happens, you want your doorknobs to be reliable.
However, completely overhauling all the doorknobs in your house can be too much of a hassle. Instead, you can opt for doorknob covers to make the act of turning it around relatively difficult for your children’s hands. This might sound like a simple solution, but it’s an effective one nonetheless.
Use Cabinet and Drawer Locks
Toddlers are inquisitive and will want to grab at anything that catches their attention. It’s also at this stage that they learn to stand up and waddle around, holding onto objects for balance.
In this case, you have to be attentive to which drawers are off-limits. Child safety locks will keep them from accidentally opening a cabinet or a drawer and spilling contents to the floor. This is especially important in the kitchen, where many potentially hazardous tools can harm children.
Cover Power Outlets (and Keep Away Power Strips)
It’s obvious that power outlets are very dangerous to children, but because we don’t see them that often, we tend to forget how toddlers can crawl to tight spaces. Power outlets are not out of reach for small children, so you will want to cover them up to protect your baby. Extension cords should be lifted off the ground and placed out of children’s reach, and wiring that goes across a room should be covered, too.
Avoid Glass Furniture
There’s a reason why you won’t often see glass tables in nurseries and other childcare facilities. In a place where there are lots of energetic kids moving about, it’s simply a hazard.
However, this doesn’t mean you should throw away all your glass furniture. Consider placing them in a room where your child won’t frequent, or if it really can’t be helped, use corner padding to make sure the edges won’t hurt your kids. Ideally, your glass furniture should be made of tempered glass so it won’t shatter in case of an accident.
Keep Chemicals Out of Reach
Children will always want to explore and experiment with their surroundings and the things they find, and even if you deliberately say no. Especially when it comes to toddlers, their curiosity is at a stage where many of the items they pick up inevitably end in their mouth.
That’s why keeping dangerous chemicals out of their reach is crucial. Place cleaning agents and chemicals in high cupboards, preferably in dedicated storage closets where the doors are difficult to open.
Anchor Your Large Furniture
Because younger children do not have total control of their balance yet, they will have times when they will stumble and fall. When this happens, your furniture should act as a support and help them instead of bringing them to trouble.
Make sure your dresser drawers, bookshelves, or any large furniture are sturdy enough to catch your child. Use furniture hooks or anchors to connect them to a wall to prevent them from falling over. When your 5-year old tries to climb your drawer, you’ll be thankful that you anchored it to your wall.
Home safety is every parent’s concern. While you don’t want to stifle your children’s creativity, you still want them to be safe. This quick home safety list is just the tip of the iceberg: you also need to observe your kid’s habits to make your house safer for them. Just remember to be mindful and cautious, even when at home.