Baby Proofing Your House For Dirt Cheap

It’s Christmas time and the time I decorate my house with pretty, sometimes fragile items.  We’ve also been baby proofing the house for a couple months now and I was lazy and didn’t want to really buy anything (or install really), so we did a few things everyone can do to make their house baby friendly!  Can you believe they have professionals that will come to your house to baby proof it for you?  Just my opinion, but I think that’s a bit ridiculous!  Oh, how did little ones survive all these years!

Our “Christmas tree” is now 3 feet tall and on TOP of our breakfast table!  No worries about ornaments breaking, or a tree falling over.  I’ll decorate it with handmade ornaments that coincide with “A Meaningful Christmas” – a 24 day devotional telling the true meaning of Christmas!

Forget pictures on the lowest shelf.  Just fold them over and stash them to the side.  He’s started to mess with our wedding albums, but isn’t totally destructive with those, so they’ll stay for now.

Our entry way decor.  You should have seen his face the morning he saw this for the first time.  He was timid to touch it at first, but will take a few swings at the left side that hangs off as he walks by.  Luckily he has not pulled it down.

My friend shared this tip with me and it seems to be working.  For those single doors, we went ahead and installed the cheap hooks.  We bought a 12 pack for $4 and only have used 3.  If only I can remember each time I try to open the door and it slams back shut.  I feel so stupid every time.

Tables within reach are just clear.  I don’t like this one because I think center pieces really add to house decor, but he was destroying and eating the wreath we had before.

See the black poster board covering our fire place?  Beckham would stick his hand past the mesh skirt covering the inside of the fire place and grab the dust, dirt, and pebbles and eat it!  He did this EVERY time he was put on the floor (probably 10-20 times a day).  Most of the time I could stop him before he ate the stuff, but I finally was tired of it and officially baby-proofed it.  People suggested a gate or an iron decorative gate.  I knew he would just pull those down, so I went with $0.99 cent poster boards.  I bought 2 and taped them up with packing tape.  The boy has not even noticed the poster board or attempted to take it down.  It’s really weird…like he totally forgot there was a fire place there.  Complete success!

Yep, that’s a post card we got in the mail taped to the top of our computer.  This was our first baby-proof project.  Beckham would go to the computer and push the power button on and off about a million times a day.  So, my brilliant husband taped this post card really quickly one day and it’s stayed ever since.  We don’t turn our computer off unless we go out of town (we just use sleep mode), so we don’t need this button often.  It’s worked great.  The desk we bought wouldn’t hold the computer without us rearranging things.  Next step is to build something to house this so it stays better protected because I’m sure he’ll like to see if his water or milk would pour easily down those plug openings.

So, I hope that gave you some ideas, or at least entertained you with some baby proofing around my house.  If you have any other ideas, feel free to share.