Child-proofing kitchen

We have quite a few cabinets and drawers that are single ones and we can't safety lock them with the types that do double doors through the handle. We had a complete kitchen reno a couple years ago and I really don't want to use the traditional screw in latches. Are any of you using the adhesive kind with the magnetic key to unlock them? It is more pricey. I also was wondering does the adhesive stick after you peel them off and make a big mess on the doors? Or is there another type out there that is better? thanks

 

We did use them for our one cabinet to keep the kids out of our plastic bag stash. We found that they worked really well for about a year and then the adhesive on the top part of the cabinet came off by itself (didn't ruin the wood) but it no longer works for us now. But the kids are out of their "bags are so cool" phase, so that's okay. We have not taken down the main adhesive part yet.

 

We use the magnetic kind, but the adhesive is just for a template to drill it in, and it didn't leave a residue at all. We LOVE these. I even put a sent on our china cabinet.

 

These magnetic locks seem to get pretty good reviews.

I'm loving that kidsafeinc.com website. I've ordered some top of the door door locks that work great, and I'm about to order some straps that will basically tether our chairs to the dinette table, because Colin loooooves to push chairs all around the kitchen and living room which drives me batty That site has a lot of unique items that I've never seen anywhere else (those the safety 1st magnetic locks I linked to can probably be found on Amazon, I haven't looked).

 

We just installed the ones in the link above. They sell them at Target for cheaper (19.99 for the set). Comes with 4 locks and a key. I used them on the cabinet below the sink, because I didn't want to take any chances with them getting into chemicals. For all of the other cabinets, we used the plastic latch things. I thought for sure they would figure out how to open them, which is why I shelled out extra $ for the Tot Loks, however they havent figured it out. they pull on the cabinets and drawers all of the time, but haven't tried to push on the plastic thing.

As for the adhesive ones, I have seen them, but haven't used them. I understand you are concerned about damaging your new cabinets, but it is just short screws on the inside of the cabinets, which you can't see once closed.

 

On the cabinet under the sink where we keep the cleaning products, we have a magnetic lock that DH had to install with hardware. But I used the adhesive kind on my desk drawer for awhile. It worked great until one of the kids put all her weight on it and pulled it right off. So, a qualified recommendation. Probably fine for those cabinets that you don't want them to get into because it would make a mess, but not for the ones that have really dangerous things in them.

We used the cheap plastic latches on a lot of things too. The kids could still open them if they pulled really hard, but the fascination wore off after awhile because it was kind of a pain for them. :ibiggrin:

It also depends what kind of kids you have. We keep all our knives in a knife block right on the kitchen counter and it never occurred to them to try to reach it. They also never opened the oven (though we did have to put a lock on the fridge). Some kids are a lot more inquisitive/persistent.

 

We have these ones and LOVE them, we did have to put a small hole in the cabinet doors though. I love that we can turn the lock off when the boys are in bed!

 

I used to have the adhesive kind with the magnetic key as well when I noticed that my son found out how to open drawers. But now that I installed the new Kitchen Cabinets Philadelphia, I want to try the magnetic lock. Some people say that it's way better, but I'm not sure about that, so I guess I'll try to find out.