9 Quick Ways to Babyproof Your House for Holiday Guests

Quick childproofing fixes for welcoming friends and family with children.

The holiday season is here, a time when many of us will welcome friends and family into our home for parties, short visits, and longer stays. While planning food, beverage, and entertainment will likely take most of your time and energy – reserve a few minutes to walk around your house and view it through the eyes of young parents and their children. You’ll be surprised to see how many hazards may be lurking in every room and how quickly a toddler who slips out of view can get injured. 

Never fear – quick fixes are here. As we spotlight some potential red flags, we’ll discuss no-cost quick fixes and in a few cases, some affordable retail solutions that will bring value to your home year-round. 

#1: Define Your Guest Zone

If you’re throwing a party, the last thing you want is for guests of all ages to roam freely around your house. This is where the classic baby gate can moonlight as a bouncer, politely saying “off limits” to herd teens and adults in the central party area. Place one gate along stairwells and hallways that lead to the home office and bedrooms, place another atop stairs to the basement. You can choose gates that are easy for older children to access if you’re designating certain areas to be the kid zones. Pressure-mounted baby gates are a great option for hallways. 

Please note: stairwell blocking baby gates must be securely anchored into the wall, but some models offer homeowners the option of removing the gate altogether when not in use, leaving gate anchors behind, but blending discreetly into the wall. It’s a small investment upfront, but certainly adds to the overall value of the home, especially if you frequently have kids or pets over as guests. Parents Magazine offers a nice round-up of baby gate options, with best picks for design, ease of use, and security. 

#2: Lock Up The Hazards

A big part of holiday prep is polishing the house to a dazzling shine, but that means you’ll also likely have cleaning products stowed in your kitchen, bathroom, and basement. Stow what you can inside cabinets and place removable cabinet locks on these doors. Sure they’re a bit unsightly, but older guests will certainly understand and appreciate your caution. 

You also don’t want guests of any age to see what medications you’re on, so stow as much of these out of reach in the master bedroom and bath and place a door spinner to keep little ones out. Safety 1st offers a wide variety of cabinet locks at most major retailers. 

#3: Dull the Sharp Edges

Empty nesters and adults without children have the luxury of making interior design choices free of considerations for bumps, bruises and owies, but some edgy design aesthetics come with added dangers for babies, toddlers, and kids who are playing with giddy abandon. Look for sharp corners on dining and coffee tables, desks, cabinets, fireplaces, and other pieces of furniture. Adhesive padded corners can be easily placed on these edges, while cabinet locks will keep doors from remaining open where running children can collide with them.

Check out a wide variety of babyproofing corner pads at Target.

#4: Prevent Slips and Falls

Corner anchoring tape works great in conjunction with a rubber mat underlay. 

It’s rare for adults to sprint through their homes, that’s how kids move through the world. Before guests arrive, test to see how slippery your throw rugs and floor mats are. Rubber rug pads and corner anchoring tape can help rugs cling to the floor a bit better. Be mindful of cleaning product splatter (like furniture polish) that might make hardwood floors and tiles extra slippery. 

#5: Tip Your Waiter, Not Your Dresser

If you hire party caterers, by all means tip the servers – but the one tip you want to avoid by all means is a knocked over dresser drawer or bookshelf. Kids are natural climbers, especially when they see something that’s out of reach. A few quick fixes here:

1. Anchor dressers and bookshelves to the wall whenever possible. Anti-tip Kits are inexpensive, and a good investment especially if you live within earthquake, tornado, or hurricane zones. 

2. Keep desirable goodies out of sight – cookie jars, punch bowls, candy dishes, etc. Anything that would inspire a kid to climb.

3. Be careful with long, draping table cloths and runners that kids might grab hold of, sending everything on the table or dresser crashing down.

4. Parent reviewers at The Babylist walk you through your many anti-tip kit options. 

#6: Prevent a Bad Trip 

It’s important to instruct visiting kids to slow down when moving throughout the house, especially during parties when tables are filled with foods and beverages – but there are some hazards lurking about the house that might cause people of any age to trip, especially toddlers. 

1. Lumps in a rug – begin with a rubber rug mat to prevent slippage, then use 2-sided tapes to anchor the corners. 

2. Power Cords – especially those leading to fans, air filters, and space heaters in the center of the room, plus those connecting Christmas trees to their power sources. If a cord must go within a walking space, tape it down and cover it with a rug or no-slip rubber floormat. Cord protectors are also available at most retailers, including Staples. 

3. If you’re not using a TV, DVD-Player, or other electronic device, unplug and stow it before the party. 

#7: Address Choking Hazards

Window blind cords are a threat to babies, toddlers, and pets. Be sure to tie these up and anchor them to the wall out of reach. Simple adhesive or screw-anchored wall hooks are an easy solution. 

See how to tie a 10-second slip-knot solution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMoMsmGebF8

#8: Prevent Finger Pinching

As party guests move into and out of different rooms, the chances for little fingers to get pinched in opening and closing door jams is high – especially when kids play hide and seek or just shyfully avoid large crowds. Pinch guards can be easily placed inside doorways that should remain open. EvenFlo offers a pinch guard that can be installed in one minute without tools. 

#9: Guard Against Mild and Severe Electrical Shocks

There are two potential electric shock sources in most every room of every home. Electrical outlets can produce a severe, if not fatal, shock if contacted with a metal utensil or toy. 

Thankfully, most modern homes were built with Tamper-Resistant Electrical Receptacles, designed to ward against the types of shocks curious kids can cause. According to the Electrical Safety Foundation, “Each year, approximately 2,400 children suffer severe shock and burns when they stick items into the slots of electrical receptacles. Nearly one-third of these injuries are the result of small children placing ordinary household objects, such as keys, pins, or paperclips into the outlets with disastrous consequences.”

For older homes, plastic electric outlet caps are a cheap and easy way to protect every outlet not in use. Babies and toddlers won’t have the dexterity to pull these off, but older children should be educated on how to respect electrical sockets and steer clear of them. 

Then there are all the other outlets you’ll find on the walls in a modern home, including phone lines and ethernet jacks, USB outlets, and coaxial studs. If the wiring within is contacted by tiny fingers, or metallic or wet objects in a child’s hands, the person might receive a mild electrical shock – one that might be more scary than dangerous. But should kids ground food (peanut butter, ice cream, frosting, etc.) into these outlets – or poke at them with the aforementioned common household objects, the outlets can be quickly broken and expensive to repair. Coaxial studs also offer the additional threat of bruising should a baby or toddler fall onto one. This is why Ryan Ames invented OutletGuard – the easy and affordable home babyproofing solution to protect toddlers and babies from all those other outlets – and vice versa. A single OutletGuard Variety Pack comes with five covers to meet the child safety needs in any given room: Coaxial, Ethernet, AC+USB, and top and bottom mounted USB outlets.

Editor’s Note: Beyond telling the story of our product, Outlet Guard, the rest of these products were selected by our editorial staff, each of us parents of children of varying ages. These are not paid AD/PR placements, we are under no contractual agreement with any of these retailers or manufacturers.

Did we miss any of your favorite baby-proofing products or life hacks? If so, share your stories with us by email or Facebook.