safety proofing house? any advice?

I figured all of you would know best... My house is not child/baby safety proof at all.

Do most people put gates on both top and bottom of staircases?
Did you attach all your furniture to the walls or bolt to the floors even in rooms that you don't want your twins in? (your bedroom, home offices, etc)
Did you add extra safety latches to all kitchen cabinets? like the ones around the knobs and then the ones that you push down after opening the cabinet a little bit?
Did you put safety devices on cabinets above the counter tops or sink basins?
Where did you decide to put all your housecleaning chemicals? I'm used to having some in each bathroom, the kitchen, and then my backup sale price ones in the basement. This is just too many places for them to get into liquid Spic N Span...kwim?

Any more tips or ideas?

 

I just use baby gates to gate them in a big area. They have access to the family room and kitchen. I have Tot Locks on all the cabinets in the kitchen and every bathroom except theirs. I have all of our major cleaning supplies in the guest bathroom locked under the sink. I have all of my outlets covered and cords either tied up or not visible.

 

How old are your babies? When they first became mobile, we confined them to a gated living room and just made sure that room was safe (covered outlets, nothing they could pull down on themselves, etc). As they become more and more mobile and indepedent we've done more babyproofing. Its more of a process than just a one-time thing. Go to BRU, TRU or lowes and look at all the baby proofing things that are available! I actually spoke to someone at BRU who gave us some great advice.

 

I don't have stairs so I don't know about that one.
None of our furniture is attached to the walls with the exception of the girls dresser.
Yes, most of our kitchen cabinets have the safety latches. It's more for the safety of my dishes so they don't get smashed on the floor! lol
No safety devices on cabinets that the girls can't reach.
The majority of the housecleaning chemicals are under the kitchen sink, which is latched shut. The rest are in my back room, my girls aren't ever back there unsupervised, that room is usually baby-gated off.

My other advice would be to lie down on your floor and look around at anything heavy or anything you wouldn't want them to get ahold of and then remove it. 'Cuz that's the first thing they're going to get into!

 

Keep the ideas coming! My guys will be 6 months on Monday.
Most of our rooms on the 1st floor don't have doors and the latches don't work well on the doors on the 2nd floor.
Old old house.

We have too much stuff that can and will get knocked over. I figured it would be best to put stuff in place soon for us to learn it before They do!

 

Yes, cabinet locks & gates at the bottom & tops of stairs. Get down on your hands and knees... good luck!

 

[Do most people put gates on both top and bottom of staircases?
Don't have stairs, but I would if I did
Did you attach all your furniture to the walls or bolt to the floors even in rooms that you don't want your twins in? (your bedroom, home offices, etc)
YES! What if someone leaves a door open on accident and the babies/toddlers/kids got in there? Or you brought them in for just a sec while you did something?
Did you add extra safety latches to all kitchen cabinets? like the ones around the knobs and then the ones that you push down after opening the cabinet a little bit?
Yes
Did you put safety devices on cabinets above the counter tops or sink basins?
Not me. By the time they can reach those things there brushing their own teeth or doing the dishes anyway.
Where did you decide to put all your housecleaning chemicals? I'm used to having some in each bathroom, the kitchen, and then my backup sale price ones in the basement. This is just too many places for them to get into liquid Spic N Span...kwim?
Laundrey room, up very high, and there is a gate into that room so they should never be in there. If you need to, put them in a bucket so you can carry them around with you from roon to room while you clean.

I have three gates in my house. One gates off the play room, one for the laundry room, and one floats around the house for rooms that need to be gated off on a need to bases. Gates are my number one trick. I can gate them in the play room real quick, how many times have you broken a glass? I can throw them in there, know there safe, and handle the "unsafe" situation without anyone getting hurt. Gates also allow you to keep a room open but kids out. I can jump into my laundry room easily but not have to worry about a kid following me. I also like to keep my bedroom door open and a gate keeps them out. i could not live without gates. Im about to purchase another one for back-up. THe longest one I have is 9 feet long for the playroom.

SOunds funny, but crawel around your house. Youll see things you never did before. Plug outlets. My daughter never touched them, but my son tried to put everything in them. And be prepaired to always change. Theyll find things for you to baby proof you never dreamed of!

 

We went over the top babyproofing for our first kid. Even hired an expert to come in and do it for us. We locked everything! What a waste. Now in our 3rd house and 3rd set of babies here's what we plan to do:

gate the bottom and top of stairs if baby goes upstairs. Otherwise just the bottom.

Cabinet latches on the ones that hold breakable things or chemicals. Otherwise leave them unlocked unless it's a problem. Some folks leave a cabinet with baby friendly tupperware. The latches I like best stick on the inside instead of needing to be bolted.

Remove all floor lamps and potted plants

Pad the fireplace hearth and coffee table

I've replaced the outlet covers with the kind that close automatically when the plug is pulled out. Look on the internet. You can get packs of 25.

Latch the toilet

Put automatic closing hinges on any doors into rooms you don't want babies in. I do this on the door at the top of the stairs down to our garage, the laundry room etc.

 

Well, maybe I should move all our stuff out & then figure what is safe to put back in...
With our old house most of our lights are floor lamps. Then I just realized our "coffeetable" is wicker & is breaking apart.
Houseplants...yup got those too! Powerstrips, cords, and wires...yup got tons of those.
This is going to be some undertaking.

Is it alot of money (well I guess everything is these days) to have someone come in and do it for us?

Alright...keep the ideas coming! How long did it take your "handy person" to install everything (including being motivated to do so??!)?

 

Must for those tot locks. If you go over the top, it saves you from re-doing it later on --- like me. Be prepared for when they climb onto the sofas -- and if there is a coffee table nearby they can climb onto as well, or pictures or shelves they can then reach.

I put most of my cleaning products into the garage on a high shelf. I have separate buckets for bathroom, kitchen, etc. You can also purchase those Lisol wipes (or other brand) that come in a tube ? So if you need to do a quick wipe up of the bathroom or kitchen you just grab the container from a high shelf. I decided to completely empty out the area under the kitchen sink of all products. I also have a laundry room which I did the same. It is too easy to forget to latch something.

I also purchased these drapery hooks (s-hooks ?) to wrap the cords to the blinds up very high.

If you have a friend with a very adventurous 2 year old, invite them over for the morning and follow them around. You will quickly see what you need to baby proof !!!!

Heather

 

QUOTE(irisflower @ Mar 9 2009, 01:30 PM) [snapback]1220380[/snapback]
I figured all of you would know best... My house is not child/baby safety proof at all.

Do most people put gates on both top and bottom of staircases?
The way our house is laid out (it's small) we have door blocking our steps down to the family room and we also have a play yard stretched out to block them from the steps leading upstairs to the bedrooms and down the the few steps to our front door
Did you attach all your furniture to the walls or bolt to the floors even in rooms that you don't want your twins in? (your bedroom, home offices, etc) No
Did you add extra safety latches to all kitchen cabinets? like the ones around the knobs and then the ones that you push down after opening the cabinet a little bit? Not all of them, just the ones with the cleaning products and the one that is beneath our cooktop
Did you put safety devices on cabinets above the counter tops or sink basins? No, they can't reach them and probably won't be able to until they are much older
Where did you decide to put all your housecleaning chemicals? I'm used to having some in each bathroom, the kitchen, and then my backup sale price ones in the basement. This is just too many places for them to get into liquid Spic N Span...kwim? We still have them in the cabinet beneath the sink but we have a lock on that

Any more tips or ideas?


Find a way to block off the TV, if you have a fireplace (we have a fake one) you will need to block that off. If you have cords within their reach, definitely tie them up. If you have a pet, find a spot for the pet food where they can't get into it. My parents have dogs and have often caught DS stealing a Milk Bone from one of the dogs...yuck! Good luck!

 

I was lucky (although worried) as my boys didn't learn to crawl until 10 months. I started slowly with the babyproofing. The first thing we did was cover the outlets, then we put up the superyard in front of our tv/cd/speakers/DH area/etc. Our downstairs is very open. I can close the doors to the rooms I don't want them in and I put up a gate at the base of the stairs. I moved the coffee table to block the area where our lamp/end table was and moved the floor lamp to between the couch and recliner (which is at an angle so the boys can't get in there). As for the cabinets, I locked the one under the sink first as it has the chemicals in it. My boys didn't figure out how to open cabinets until about 13 months so I just would add a lock when they would discover a new cabinet. We still don't have locks on the drawers, but will add those to the knife drawer when needed. Upstairs we just babyproofed their room (still need to bolt the dresser to the wall when they go to the twin beds) as they are never up there without us. I close off the rooms I don't want them in up there too. I'm not sure what to suggest about the doors that don't close very well. Maybe you need a lot of those cheap wooden gates. A lot of people sell them at garage sales.