How We Actually Baby Proofed Our Home: What Really Worked for Us
The simple baby proofing buys we actually use at home – from hidden cupboard locks and door protectors to the playpen that became useful for almost everything.
Sophie
8/21/20269 min read
Babyproofing was one of those things I knew we'd eventually have to do, but I don't think I appreciated quite how suddenly eventually would arrive.
For months, you put your baby somewhere and, broadly speaking, that's where they stay.
Then they start crawling.
And somehow crawling very quickly turns into clinging onto furniture, pulling themselves up on cupboard doors and discovering that absolutely everything in your house deserves investigating.
Suddenly you're looking around a perfectly normal room thinking: That's dangerous. That's dangerous too. And apparently she's interested in the oven now.
We didn't babyproof our entire house in one big hit. We've gradually added things as our daughter has grown and shown us exactly what she's interested in getting her little mitts on.
Some have been proper babyproofing products. Others are ridiculously basic things that just happen to work. And a few have ended up being useful for completely different things than we originally bought them for.
So this isn't an exhaustive babyproofing checklist. It's simply what we've actually used in our house, why we needed it and what has genuinely worked for us.
Hidden magnetic cupboard locks
These are probably my favourite cupboard locks because you can't see them at all.
They fit inside the cupboard, so from the outside everything still looks completely normal. We've had ours for a long time now and our daughter has never managed to work out how to get into the cupboards they're protecting.
You open them using a magnetic key from the outside. We have little magnetic pads in a couple of convenient places around the house where the opener lives, so we're not forever wondering where we've put it.
There's another feature I really like too: you can click the individual locks into unlocked mode.
If our daughter isn't around and we're baking, cleaning or putting shopping away, we can temporarily disable them and use the cupboards normally without reaching for the magnetic opener every five seconds.
They take slightly more effort to install than some of the stick-on locks further down, but the pack comes with a fitting tool and we found them fairly straightforward.
The pack I've linked is a good starter set because it also came with something we initially thought we'd never need...
The oven lock we thought was unnecessary
An oven safety lock.
My husband was pretty unconvinced by this one initially.
Our oven is quite high up, and when you've got a tiny baby it's difficult to imagine them ever being particularly interested in it.
Then she started walking confidently.
Suddenly the oven was fascinating.
If the light was on, she'd be endlessly tapping at it, looking inside and investigating what was going on. Once she realised that things could be opened, we were extremely glad we'd fitted the lock.
It's sturdy, straightforward for us to use and has prevented her from opening the oven when we really don't want her anywhere near it.
So something we initially dismissed as an unnecessary extra has become one of the things I'd consider a must-have in our house.
It's also a brilliant example of how quickly babyproofing gets sprung on you.
At crawling stage you look at something and think, she can't possibly reach that.
Then seemingly five minutes later she's standing in front of it trying to work out how it opens.
Hidden magnetic cupboard locks + oven lock
Quick stick-on cupboard locks
We also use another style of cupboard lock, and these are much more of a quick win.
Rather than fitting something inside the cupboard, you stick these onto the outside and adjust the ridged section until it's tight enough.
There's a clasp at the end that releases the lock when you need to get in. They're straightforward enough that I can generally open them one-handed, which becomes surprisingly important when you're carrying a toddler or have your hands full.
We've mainly used ours on unpainted wooden furniture, including our wine cupboard.
Our daughter hasn't worked out how to open them yet — although I'm fully aware that may be a temporary situation.
The downside?
They're not pretty.
Ours are black and there's absolutely no disguising the fact that you've child-locked the furniture.
I'd choose the hidden magnetic locks for somewhere like our kitchen where I'm looking at the cupboards all day, and these for places where I just want something fast, simple and effective.
Don't lock every cupboard
This isn't something you can buy, but it's probably one of my favourite things we've done.
We've deliberately left a couple of safe cupboards unlocked.
They contain things our daughter is allowed to access, so she knows she can open them, rummage around and get her own things out without us constantly swooping in and saying no.
For us, it seems to have taken some of the excitement away from cupboards generally.
Not every door is mysterious forbidden treasure because she has cupboards she's allowed to explore.
Obviously you'll need to decide what's safe and appropriate in your own house, but this has worked an absolute treat for us.
The enormous playpen that became everything except a playpen
This is probably the baby purchase that's had the most unexpected second life.
We originally bought a huge modular playpen for the obvious reason: containing a crawling baby.
But because all the sections can be reconfigured, we've subsequently used it for so many other things.
TV guard
Fireplace barrier
BBQ guard
Christmas tree protector
Temporary barrier while we're fixing something
Temporary barrier while we're cleaning something
Patio-door barrier
The patio-door setup was particularly useful when she was crawling and just beginning to walk.
We could position the playpen a couple of metres back from the patio doors so she couldn't constantly lean against the glass or immediately head outside when the doors were open.
It has its own little gate, so we could still walk through normally.
If I needed to quickly step outside to put something in the bin, for example, I could have the patio door open while she remained safely in the sectioned-off part of the room.
Eventually, of course, she became old enough to understand how the playpen gate worked.
And that's another thing worth knowing about babyproofing:
Nothing stays babyproof forever.
Their abilities change ridiculously quickly. Something that works brilliantly for a crawling baby might need completely rethinking once you've got a confident toddler.
Even so, we've got considerably more use out of this than I ever expected when we bought a playpen.
Clear corner protectors
Once they're pulling themselves up, you suddenly become extremely aware of how many pieces of furniture have corners at exactly toddler-head height.
We've tried a few different corner protectors and these clear, rubbery or silicone ones have worked best for us.
We've put them on side tables and various units around the house.
They're really simple to fit. Clean the surface properly, let it completely dry and then remove the backing from the adhesive strips and stick them down.
Some of ours have been there for around a year and a half and haven't budged or gone particularly grimy.
They also come in two different shapes, which has been useful for different furniture corners.
The only slight problem is that if a toddler discovers they're there, peeling them off can apparently become entertainment in itself.
Foam door protectors for little fingers
Doors made me incredibly nervous once our daughter became mobile.
We had a few scares where little fingers were getting dangerously close to being trapped and decided it simply wasn't worth the worry.
These are ridiculously basic horseshoe-shaped pieces of foam that you wedge around the edge of a door so it can't completely close.
That's it.
We don't keep them fitted everywhere permanently. We often leave one hanging on the door handle and put it onto the door when she's playing or running around that particular area.
We've even used them on our patio doors when we've wanted to make sure they couldn't suddenly close onto her fingers.
They're easy to put on, easy to remove when you actually want to shut the door and give us a bit of extra peace of mind.
Foam door and finger protectors
The humble doorstop
Possibly the least exciting recommendation in this entire article.
Buy some doorstops.
Honestly, they've been a godsend.
We initially used them to stop our daughter pulling doors closed or accidentally shutting herself into rooms.
But they're equally useful the other way around.
If one of us is cleaning up a mess and needs to keep her temporarily out of a room, a doorstop on the other side can stop her barging her way in when there's no lock.
We've used them while cooking. My husband has used one when he's working from home and needs to take a call without a toddler suddenly bursting through the door.
They're tiny, require absolutely no installation and can simply live in a drawer near the rooms where you're likely to need one.
Sometimes the most useful babyproofing purchase is apparently just... a doorstop.
Blind and curtain cord safety clips
This one falls into a slightly different category for me because accessible blind and curtain cords can present a serious risk to young children.
We have quite a few pulley cords around our house and once our daughter became mobile, she was naturally interested in playing with them and could start getting herself tangled up.
We fitted simple safety cleats to the walls so the cords can be wrapped around them and kept safely out of her reach.
They require a small amount of fitting because they're screwed into the wall, but once they're there they're incredibly straightforward to use.
It's a minor job for something that addresses a potentially major risk.
If you've got accessible blind or curtain cords, this is definitely one I'd check around the house.
Blind and curtain cord safety clips
An extra-tall baby gate — even though we don't have stairs
We live in a bungalow.
So you'd be forgiven for thinking a baby gate wouldn't be particularly high on our shopping list.
Except we also have two large Australian Shepherds and one particularly tall toddler.
Our baby gate is primarily for the kitchen.
Sometimes our daughter comes in and helps us. Other times we're cooking something hot, unpacking shopping, cleaning up a spill or doing something where it's simply safer and easier for her to stay in the other room.
At the same time, we often want the dogs to stay in the kitchen.
So the gate solves both problems:
Dogs in. Toddler out.
We deliberately chose a sturdy, extra-tall metal gate.
With two large dogs, I didn't feel particularly confident about a fabric or retractable barrier that they might be able to jump over, lean against or pull down.
The extra height has worked really well for our tall daughter too, and we've never had an issue with her trying to climb over it.
It's easy to open and close, easy for us to walk through and has honestly been an absolute godsend.
If you have cats, you may also be able to choose or position a suitable gate so they can still get through while your child can't — friends of ours have done this, although it's not something we've personally needed.
You don't need to turn your house into Fort Knox overnight
I think this is probably the biggest thing I've learned.
Babyproofing felt like this enormous future job when our daughter was tiny.
In reality, we've done it gradually.
Crawling showed us one set of problems. Pulling herself up showed us another. Walking confidently introduced an entirely new selection.
And it happens incredibly quickly.
You don't necessarily need to buy every babyproofing gadget you see before your baby can even roll over, but I would start looking around your home slightly before you think you need to.
Look at what they might be able to reach once they're standing.
Check your cupboards.
Think about doors and little fingers.
Look for accessible cords.
Think about the oven.
Consider what could happen when they're no longer just crawling around the floor but pulling themselves upright using whatever happens to be nearest.
Then watch what your particular child becomes interested in and adapt as you go.
We've also found that we don't need to stop our daughter exploring everything. Giving her safe cupboards and spaces of her own has worked really well alongside the things we've chosen to restrict.
Babyproofing for us hasn't really been about creating a completely toddler-proof fortress.
It's been about putting sensible boundaries around the things we genuinely don't want her getting into and letting her explore the rest.
And perhaps buying some doorstops.
Honestly, the doorstops are brilliant.
Everything we've used
Hidden magnetic cupboard locks + oven lock
Blind and curtain cord safety clips
Find all our recommendations in one place
I've also put our recommendations together in the Walden Weekly Amazon shop, so you can browse everything in one place rather than hunting through individual links.
You'll also find our other curated lists there, with more of the baby and toddler products we've genuinely found useful along the way.
Browse the Walden Weekly Amazon shop
Some links in this article are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Walden Weekly earns from qualifying purchases. It doesn't cost you anything extra to shop through our links. Everything mentioned in this article is something we've genuinely bought and used ourselves.
A quick safety note
This is our experience of babyproofing our own home, rather than a complete home-safety checklist. Every home and child is different.
Always install and use babyproofing products according to the manufacturer's instructions and regularly check them as your child grows and becomes stronger and more mobile. Particular care should be taken around significant hazards including stairs, windows, blind cords, furniture that could tip, water, heat and cooking appliances.
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