How To Safeguard Your House For Young Children And Babies

November 21, 2017

When you have infants and young children around the house, suddenly everything can look like a hazard. From electrical outlets to cabinets, coffee table corners to cupboard doors, a curious child can get into a variety of scenarios where they could be seriously harmed. When it comes to safeguarding your home, it never hurts to be safe.

One common hazard that not everyone recognizes, however, is your choice of flooring. When putting down rugs or carpet, it’s important to use double sided tape to prevent rug slipping. This will also help rugs from wrinkling up, further reducing tripping hazards in the home. Look for a carpet tape that doesn’t leave traces of adhesive on either surface to make sure that both your floors and rugs stay in good condition.

Carpet tape is strong enough to be used for permanent installation, so if you’re using it on a rug for a temporary measure, make sure that you have chosen a removable type so that you can move the rug if you need to. Regardless of whether or not you’re aiming for a temporary or permanent installation, it’s important to make sure that the floor is clean and dry to make sure that the tape adheres properly.

Once your carpet or rug has been rolled out and relaxed, roll half of it back so you can start laying down the tape on the floor. Stick tape strips along the edge of the floor, and then make x-crosses spaced out about a foot apart within the perimeter. Note that you should not have exposed the second sticky side of the tape yet. You’ll want to do the other half of the area before you lay it down for keeps. Once the other half is done (and the entirety of the area has been trimmed, if applicable), then the carpet can be affixed with the double sided tape.

Tape is handy to have for other safety reasons as well. Secure cables or extension cords to the baseboards or out of reach of young hands. By taping cables out of the way, trip hazards are reduced in the home. Again, you’ll want a strong tape. Gaffer’s tape, for instance, won’t leave residue traces behind, nor will it damage surfaces like carpets or flooring.

When you’re traveling with young children, it’s handy to throw a roll a tape into your suitcase. Hotels are usually not childproofed from the start, leaving many hazards that you’ve neutralized in your home available. Ask ahead of time to see if there are any measures already installed or available for use.

If there are no childproofing resources available, your tape roll can come in handy.

Common and easy ways to childproof your hotel room with tape include:

Securing electrical cords to a point out of reach
Keeping pull cords (on window blinds, for instance) out of reach
Covering electrical outlets
Shutting the temperature panel on an in-room air conditioner/heating unit

In a pinch, a strong tape can help with a wide variety of challenges faced when you need to make an environment safer for children. Make sure that you’re taking the right measures to protect your little ones.

Looking for other safeguarding tips, check out these posts:

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