Make your living room kid-friendly with this guide
Do you have a little one that loves to run around in the house? While having a visually appealing or aesthetic design is great for any home, you also need to be practical. We all want our living rooms to be clutter-free and clean at all times, but sometimes that just isn’t possible. Plus there are many electrical outlets across the living room, and this needs to be made childproof.
So how do you make your environment safer for kids? Here are some tips from our experts to get you started.
Avoid glass
Have your eyes set on a glass table that you love, or do you already have one in your living room? Well, furniture with a glass surface should not be a part of your living room, at least until your kids learn that going near this can be dangerous. Furniture made of glass tends to chip and has rough edges. Moreover, it isn’t easy to find such chips, and if your child plays near them, it could cut their lip or hand or cause any other form of injury.
Children are curious and they naturally want to touch everything around them, especially shiny surfaces. You also have to maintain glass surfaces very often with cleaning products, and the time taken to do this is also overwhelming as you’ll need to look out for your child too. Therefore, the best decision is to eliminate this.
Glass panels such as sliding doors should have big and understandable warnings at your child’s eye level so that they don’t run into them. If they do, they could cause the glass to shatter and also get head injuries.
Round corner furniture
To make your living room kid-friendly, you wouldn’t want furniture with extra-sharp edges around, even if it’s in wood. Toddlers who are just learning how to walk tend to be a bit more unstable than older children, and about the height of a small center table. If they run through the house and fall onto the edges, it could be disastrous.
Barewood surfaces are also not kid-friendly at all and could lead to abrasions, wounds, cuts, and bruises. If you have upholstered furniture in the house, and furniture with round edges, this is far safer and also lasts for a longer time.
Try fixing your furniture to the walls
Taller items which aren’t as stable, such as certain cabinets or bookshelves, can be secured to the walls. In case your furniture didn’t come with a safety kit, you can easily purchase one from a hardware or home center store. Make sure to get wall anchors and decently sized “L” brackets. Then you can set off on a DIY which is super easy to do but helps your bookshelves and cabinets in being far more stable.
In some cases, your little one might want to even climb furniture, in which case, you might put a small safety gate around areas with tall furniture. It’s always better to be safe than sorry!
Moreover, windows in high-rise buildings should be fortified with grilles, and you should make sure to keep them properly locked and shut so that children can’t open them on their own.
Make your floors slip-free
Slippery floors are a nuisance for toddlers who love running around. In case your floor has smooth or hard floors, as is usually the case with Dubai, place runners or rugs and keep them in place with carpet tape. There’s no point putting a rug in if they cause your toddler to slip as well.
Slipping rugs are not only harmful to children but also to your pets or the elderly. It is similar to a slippery bathtub, which, by the way, you can make slip-proof with traction strips. Check for the most slippery areas around your place and do your best to plug them in with items that will make them non-slippery. You also don’t have to keep your floors super polished and make sure that children don’t run on slippery socks.
Electrical safety
This is mandatory and is also easy to do. Whenever you’re replacing an outlet make sure it is child-sade. A child-safe outlet tends to block the open ports and you would need more strength to plug them in. Kids aren’t able to do this, hence it’s a safe way for them to keep away. These outlets last for the long term and do their job very well. In cases you can’t install child-safe outlets, you can use safety plugs instead.
Keep an eye out for your extension chords. They tend to get damaged over time due to wear and tear, and if you see that they look old, then replace them at once. To make sure that the little ones don’t slip, keep them away from extension cords or put tubing around them, or place the cords in areas where people don’t usually walkthrough.
Small objects
Make sure that there aren’t tiny, small objects around such as bottles, coins, balls, caps, beads, or more that children can easily swallow. Put all these away from your living room and also check under your sofa cushions if there are any dangerous items around. These could prove to be a major choking hazard if not checked.
Baby gates
Make baby gates your best friend. Make sure that your baby isn’t wandering about from one place to another, especially in dangerous places such as the staircase, but install gates at key locations. If you can’t change your furniture, then place a baby gate at the beginning of the living room area too.
Steaming liquids
If your little one likes to prowl around the kitchen or dining table, then put sturdy, non-slip placemats under the dishes so that they don’t pour the liquid all over themselves.
Avoid Rat-Poison
If you have put poison around the house for rats or cockroaches, make sure that the pellets are kept away from children especially if they are in mothballs or open trays. Lock away your medicines too in cabinets at a higher elevation so that they don’t get swallowed by your kids by mistake.
Use these tips to make your living room kid-friendly!
Most of these tips are easy to do and are important to make sure that your living room is kid-friendly. If you have any doubts, especially regarding the electrical aspect, then do reach out to experts at Octopus and we can help you. Call our toll-free number 800 3993 and our experts will get in touch.
