My Home is Safer!

It is supposed to be a snow day here in South Texas – we’ll see – so I am trying to not feel guilty about declaring it a “movie day” and trying to get things done.  Especially things I have neglected since we moved into this 30 year old house almost 9 months ago!  First thing on my list, which is abnormally long, is to finally make it totally baby and kid proof!

Yes, I know.  My youngest is 19 months – what have I been waiting for?  It is not that my house is unsafe for my kids, but I can certainly make it a lot safer.  And, in turn, make my life easier and my worries less!

My first step is to look up some tips on the internet.  I did and stumbled upon this great article on http://www.thesafestline.com/.  As I read “Child Safety Tips: 10 Things You Can Do In 10 Minutes Or Less To Make Your Home Safer“, I hung my head realizing that my home is no where near safe enough for my kids!

Time to get to work!

Before

The first thing I did was assess my laundry room/ pantry.  Just last night, Megan had wandered in while I was doing laundry and dropped a heavy soup can on her toes!  She thinks the cans are great fun to play with and I have always let her-  not a great decision, I admit!  Well, this morning, her foot has a little bruise!  Bad Mommy!  I do not know why I did not think of it before, but I finally have figured out that I can move the cans higher and the paper goods I use – that can not leave bruises – to the lower shelf!  A simple rearrangement  that took 1 minute now saves her toes from injury!  It may not seem like a big thing, but all parents know, any injury that can be avoided is a great thing!

After

I consulted the article again, and decided to make sure all of my child safety latches were secure on my cabinets with chemicals!  We don’t want any of the kids thinking they are drinking fruit juice instead of Pine Sol!  Sure enough, 2 of the latches were loose and coming unscrewed.  So I grabbed my trusty drill and secured them.

While I had the drill, I went around the house and made sure that all of the outlets in this house were screwed tightly to the wall.  With a 30 year old house, some were bound to come loose and create a major electrocution hazard!  Sure enough, I found 4 loose outlet covers!!  WOW!  So, I secured them tightly!  Good Catch Mom!

Cover Your Outlets!

While at the outlets, I discovered that, though we have most of the outlets covered with safety plugs, we had lost a few and even had one outlet with none at all!  So, I reattached them and made a mental note to make sure we had plugged them all in again after vacuuming.  Instead of leaving them in our pockets for me to wash!

While running around the house checking to make sure all of our tall furniture was, indeed, secured to the walls with anchors, I noticed something on my daughter’s bookcase that my husband built her.  Somewhere in the move, or shifting it around her room to decorate, we detached the “roof” of it and now has exposed nails!  Though her bookcase is anchored, I would never want her or her sisters to climb up and while reaching for a place to grasp, cut themselves on the nail!  So, I took a picture, emailed to my husband and he will fix it tonight!  Another score for Mom!

I then checked to make sure all of the alarms were securely affixed and turned on on each of the girls windows!  For only $12 for a pack of 2 at the hardware store, we are protecting not only possible intruders, but our girls from getting out a window and us not knowing it!  Since all of their windows are single pane and close to the ground, they could easily get out or fall through and the alarm will let me know!

I spent a few more minutes running around, making sure corners were not exposed, sharp items were not in their reach, and all medications – even children’s – were put up and away!

In the end, with the suggestions from the wonderful article I found and my own keen eye, I’d say I have a much safer house than I did 20 minutes ago!

And that is always a win for me and my girls!