Baby Proofing For Less

Outlet plugs we picked up from Amazon for 99¢

It's week 34. Just over a month before baby arrives (assuming baby girl doesn't come out early).

With that in mind, we've been baby proofing things around the house.

Of course, baby proofing is another added cost to having a baby. However, it need not be overly expensive.

There are a few things we've done already so far plus a few more things we've yet to do.

First off, the basic outlet plugs. The previous owner of our home left a few of these plugged into our outlets. However, we have a lot of outlets. With the renovation of the basement complete, we have even more outlets that need to be covered up.

I looked up the price of the covers in our home. Amazon doesn't appear to sell them. Nor could a Google search turn up any results. However, Amazon does have outlet covers that range from $3 to $4 for a pack of 24. That's 12 outlets. Not bad.

However, back in July, I found this awesome deal. Well, it's no longer awesome. $14.99 for 36? That's nuts. The deal I got was 99¢ for the same pack of 36. I bought two packs. I already installed most of the outlets around the house with these. They are a pain to remove. However, that's the point right? Even the ones left by the previous family are a pain to remove. I still have a box left. So we'll see what else needs to be done. I've pretty much plugged in baby's room and the more common areas.

Another thing that came up in my search was baby proofing doors. As in preventing them from slamming. Apparently, babies love to slam doors. However, aside from the slow destruction of the door and door frame, there's also the worry that babies could slam the door on their fingers. I mean, I've pinched a few fingers from closing boxes and the like, so ouch!

I did some search and found this. Essentially, you can only outfit one door for $4 USD and whatever duties and shipping costs. I found these on amazon.ca. You get 3 foam door stoppers for $17.59. As we have many doors at home, I figured to try something I saw online.

It was either orange or green.

That's right. I bought a pool noodle. For $4.99 at Canadian Tire (they have one for $2, but you need to get the one with the hollow centre. If they have a hollow centre pool noodle for $2, then great!), I figure I can protect around 8 doors. More if I want to use shorter lengths. The pool noodle itself is 56 inches long. So 7 inches each should be long enough. With an old serrated knife, I cut a length of 6 inches off the pool noodle and then sliced down one side. I then installed it (more like attached it) to the door in the baby's room. And voila!

This door is now pinch free!

Instant pinch free door. This doesn't guarantee the baby won't keep slamming the door anyway, but at least the baby can do it without us worrying about her breaking a few fingers. All that's left is to baby proof the rest of the doors, but we figure we don't really need to worry about that until the baby is able to crawl. I estimate sometime in early 2017.

Second hand from Kijiji for $35.

A baby gate was also important to us as the baby's room is on the second floor of the house. At the time, I was really just looking at prices, not really looking to buy anything. However, as I mentioned previously, a seller was looking for move this baby gate on Kijiji. Based on the price we found at Toys R Us, this baby gate normally goes for $100 + tax. It's actually on sale this week for $80. However, we negotiated the seller down to $35. There were other sellers on Kijiji looking for move their gates for $30 or less. But for the $5, we saved ourselves from driving to Richmond Hill or Vaughn and instead walked to the nearby gas station to pick it up. Actually, a neighbour was trying to sell their baby gate at their garage sale a couple of weeks later. They were asking for $20. It was mainly plastic, though. So $35 for this all metal one was really nice. Wife was especially happy because it doesn't look ugly.

Finally, the last two things I can think of. The first is baby proofing our cabinets. The second is baby proofing the door that leads down to the basement. The first one is, I think, an easy fix. Rather than spend $10 on a locking mechanism for the cabinet, I figure it would be easiest to move all hazardous things into a couple of cabinets and then use a rubber band (or two) to keep the cabinet doors closed. Of course, as the rubber band is stretchy, this could be dangerous for other reasons. As such, I may look into something else, but we'll see how active the baby is when she's able to crawl and walk. The basement door, we just need some kind of latch to make sure the door cannot be opened. Of course, the problem exists if someone goes into the basement and the person upstairs latches the door closed without realizing it. Oops. Well, I'll think of something.

In short, baby proofing doesn't have to cost a lot. As you cannot monitor baby 24/7, she is bound to pull something off that will make your heart jump if you were around to see it*.

And you cannot think of everything they will do. I remember as I kid, stabbing my mom's recliner with a fork. No idea why. Sorry, mom.

*Actually, this happened with a neighbour's kid. She was jumping and dropping herself on the couch bottom first. I had a thought that she could potentially fall off the couch. But her mother was there with her, so I thought nothing of it. Well, turns out my fear was well founded. The little girl, bounced off the back cushioned and, instead of dropping down, launched herself forward and flipped off the couch. Luckily she was okay. Also, it was lucky I moved the coffee table. She cried for a bit afterwards, but that was expected. However, the next time she came over, she did the same thing again. Except on the longer part of the couch where we have the chaise lounge. This is our couch. (It's actually more expensive than when we bought it.) So yeah... she learned not to do that on the smaller section of the couch which is something.