Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Childproofing for Cheapskates

Yes folks, we are in that stage of life...life with a baby that is quickly becoming a toddler.  Little E took her first steps a week ago today and has very quickly gotten in to absolutely everything.  We had already purchased the above childproof lock for our cleaning supplies cabinet & we assumed it would be a while until she figured out how to get into anything too breakable.

Wrong.  Of course, she learned how to open cupboards.  For a day or so it was her absolute favorite activity--opening the cupboard to bang on pots while mama did things in the kitchen.  But after E's first smashed finger we figured all of the cabinets needed to be childproofed, the only problem was we didn't have any more of those plastic childproof locks.



So what's a frugal mom to do?  Pull out her bag of saved twist ties of course!  I have a shelf that won't stay together unless I twist tie around the corners, so when I get a nice long twist tie I save it in a little shelf-emergency-repair-kit.  New or expectant parents:  All the brand new stuff you get for your child will be held in the box with these gloriously long twist ties!  Save them, they will come in handy!


Or, if you're not quite the frugal freak that I am, & don't have a stash of the world's most perfect twist ties, use bread ties.  Here are the knobs to our china cabinet, because they are so close I just twisted two bread ties together to make a long ties.  Worked like a charm.


Or you could use the twist ties that come with some types of garbage bags.  Whatever works.


Either way, I don't see any pinched fingers in our future!

**Please note, I realize older children can open these, so this might now work for everyone.  I also DO NOT RECOMMEND using these to close up cabinets that contain, knives, guns, bleach, explosives, or any other dangerous items you have in your home; you may want to go with the locking store bought version for those items.  I will say, that if you are looking to prevent pinched fingers & keep your breakables safe, this is a great way to go.  

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