How to Childproof Your Home After the Move: Room by Room

One of the very first tasks you will want to attend to in your new home is ensuring that there are no dangerous hazards for your family or pets.

Here we will go through each room of the home highlighting potential hazards and how to make the room as safe as possible for your little ones.

Welcome to the world of childproofing.

You may also like to read: How to Dog Proof Your Home and Garden. In this guide, we explain how to dog-proof your new home and garden to keep your best friend as safe as possible.

Why Should You Childproof Your Home?

Also known as babyproofing, childproofing is all about providing the ultimate safety for your small child against the potential household hazards that can be found in a strange and still unfamiliar setting.

By childproofing your home, you’ll be giving your child a safe place to play, learn, and grow without any real risks of accidental injuries.

Experts agree that small children between the ages of 1 and 4 are very susceptible to unintentional traumas from fire (burns), water (drowning), hazardous substances (choking, poisoning), or falls.

Every proper childproofing process consists of two major stages: identification of the various household dangers and their subsequent elimination.

You may also like to read: Top Tips for Securing Your New Home. In this guide, we look at keeping you and your family safe from the moment you decide to move home to the completion of your move.

Room By Room Childproofing Checklist

The following room-by-room babyproofing checklist will help greatly in identifying and eliminating the dangers that could be lurking around each corner of each room.

It’s important to remember that your baby or toddler does not perceive the world around them the way a grown-up does, so the best way you can determine what may cause harm to your child is to turn into a small child yourself.

But how can you possibly do that?

The answer is simple: when inspecting every nook and cranny in your new home, simply get down on your hands and knees and crawl around the room to see the environment through your child’s vantage point.

Nursery

The room where your precious one will be spending most of their time needs to be babyproofed without delay.

• Cot: The cot should contain nothing but the fitted mattress sheet and your baby or toddler. Any toys, blankets, comforters, and pillows have no business inside your child’s bed as they increase the risk of suffocation – the leading cause of accidental death in babies under the age of 1. Furthermore, placing your baby to sleep on their back, having a firm mattress, and keeping a fairly cool sleeping environment are one of the few things you must do in order to fight Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
• Changing table: Make sure the changing table is secured well to the wall and is stable enough so that it won’t tip over.
• Windows: Assess carefully the immediate area around the nursery room windows and its possible threats. If necessary, you can consider installing window guards to cut off any escape routes for your little explorer, as well as cordless blinds that pose no strangulation hazard.
• Carpet: Just to be on the safe side, consider placing a soft thick carpet around the cot to serve as a fall breaker if your child happens to somehow breach the safety of their bed.

Kitchen

It’s important to childproof the kitchen as well, as that is the room where things can get really dangerous really fast.

• Storage area: If you store your various cleaning products in the cabinet under the sink, as most people do, then it’s your primary concern to make that hazardous storage place safe so that your child can keep you company while you cook. You are encouraged to either install a secure latch on the cabinet doors or move the chemicals to a higher level where they won’t be reached by your little troublemaker.
• Cooker: Remember to put on the protective knob covers on your cooker when you’re not using it so that they can’t be unintentionally turned on. Moreover, it’s advisable to use the back hot plates or burners so that your toddler cannot reach out and turn over any pans containing hot food.
• Cables: Use cable tidies to keep cables out of your child’s reach, it is easy for them to reach up and pull the kettle cable for example if it is not kept to the back of the work surface.
• Small Kitchen Appliances: Where possible keep small appliances in cupboards so that your child cannot reach up and pull the item down upon themselves.
• Washer / Dryers: Install safety catches on your washing machine so that your child cannot crawl inside it.
• Knives: Avoid using a knife block and keep knives in a secure drawer with a child-proof latch.

Bathroom

Together with unintentional suffocation, accidental drowning tops the injury-related child deaths, so you should be extremely careful when bathing your baby or toddler.

The bathroom must be as safe as possible and you should be aware in advance of what could go wrong in there.

• Bathtub: The bathtub is probably the single most dangerous place in your entire home. You should never leave your child unattended in the tub, not even for a moment simply because a moment might prove to be too long. If you are forced to leave the bathroom in an emergency, don’t forget to take your infant with you.
• Slip resistance: Improve the overall safety of your entire bathroom by using anti-slippery mats or non-skid strips on the floor and inside the bathtub. Also, use a towel for a better grip when taking your child off the tub.
• Temperature: The water temperature should be around 50 °C or lower to avoid scalding.
• Medicine cabinet: If you happen to keep your medications in the bathroom, make sure the medicine cabinet is safely closed and well out of your kid’s reach.

Living room

Our babyproofing house checklist won’t be complete without the inclusion of the living room where most dangers for your small child are often hidden.

• TV set: The obvious assailant in your living room is the TV set which is just waiting ominously to be accidentally tipped over onto your defenseless child. Make sure the TV is securely mounted on the wall or placed safely on a stable and sturdy piece of furniture.
• Remote controls: Each household has at least a few remote controls and they are usually kept in the living room. And dangerously enough, each remote control is powered by button batteries which could prove to be extremely harmful if accidentally swallowed. So, always keep your controls out of the child’s reach or secure their battery compartments so that they cannot be opened.
• Bookcase: Inspect your bookcases and make sure they cannot be tipped over in any way. Your heaviest books (or other items) should always be on the bottom of the bookcase to minimise any risks of injuries.

You may also like to read: Fire Safety in the Home and Garden. In this guide, we explain how to make a fire escape plan, the minimum fire protection you should have in the home, and general fire precaution advice.

Extra Childproofing Tips

In order to provide your child with a perfectly safe home environment, be sure to observe the following extra tips for childproofing your home after the move.

• Electric shock: Install electrical outlet protectors throughout your new apartment or house so that your baby or toddler is 100% protected against electric shocks.
• Fire prevention: Keep operating fire extinguishers and fire blankets in strategic places around your home and be sure to know how to use them in case of emergency. Also, consider installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for an extra layer of protection.
• Stairs: If you’ve just moved to a multi-storey house, then you should be aware that the stairs can pose a serious threat to your crawling toddler. Consider having safety gates installed at the foot and head of your staircase to block any unwanted access to the stairs themselves. Also, make sure all staircases and hallways are sufficiently lit, and don’t forget to hold on to the staircase railings for support while you carry your baby or toddler up and down your new house.
• Sharp corners: Consider placing special corner guards on any pieces of furniture with reachable sharp corners to avoid any danger of dangerous puncture wounds.
• Windows: Ensure that all windows have locks or opening restrictors so that you child cannot open and fall out of them.
• Out-Buildings: Because of the numerous hazards in sheds and garages ensure that there is a bolt or lock on those doors and they are used at all times.
• Exterior doors and garden gates: Ensure that any exterior doors and garden gates have secure locks that are out of reach for your little ones and that they remain locked at all times.
• Ponds: If you have a pond in your garden ensure that there is a robust safety net over the top of it and that your child is never left unattended near it.
• First-aid kit: You must prepare an emergency medical kit for your baby or toddler in case of unfortunate accidents. You can easily buy a prepackaged one from the nearest pharmacy or get one ready yourself with the help of this first-aid kit shopping list.

You may also like to read: Must Know Simple First Aid Skills. With the best will in the world and all your careful planning, accidents still happen. In this guide, we share simple first-aid tips for the most common injuries that occur in the home.

Do what’s necessary to childproof your new home immediately upon your arrival and by keeping accidents, injuries, and tears away, you’ll guarantee your precious child the happy, healthy, and safe childhood that they deserve.

Be sure to visit our home moving blog which is packed with post-move advice and tips to help you settle into your new home and neighbourhood so much easier.