One way of ensuring your children’s safety is to childproof your home, especially if you have kids between the ages of 1 and 5. The effective ways to childproof your home includes identifying things and areas that could possibly hurt your child and taking drastic measures to keep them safe from those things and areas.

Here are some effective ways to childproof your home:

1. Proper balancing of furniture

If there’s any unbalanced furniture at home, like bookcases, dressers and wardrobes, they could fall and pin a child underneath. Secure your furniture to the wall with furniture straps and bolts to make sure it wouldn’t accidentally fall and injure your child.

2. Rid your home of choking hazards

Small metal corks, toothpaste caps, tiny pendants, doorstop caps and lots of other items are classified as choking hazards. Don’t keep any of these within your child’s reach. Discard when no longer in use. As for doorstop caps, use the one-piece types that are secured into a wall or on the door.

3. Use self-sliding outlet covers

Prevent your kids from touching exposed sockets with the use of self-sliding outlet covers. These covers slide close when no appliance is plugged in them and prevents your kids from poking their little fingers into the outlet.

4. Installation of window guards and wedges

A lot of children like climbing up the windows. You can install window guards and wedges to ensure that the windows will not open more than a few inches or wide enough for them to fall through.

5. Poolside gate

If you have a pool within the premises, your little ones are surely exposed to the dangers of drowning by accident. Surround the poolside with removable fencing, sturdy enough to be moved by an adult only.

6. Keep all medicines and potential poisons away

We all know that when medicine is taken beyond the recommended dosage or is expired, it becomes poison to the body system. Keep all medicines and potential poisons locked away. This includes washing and cleaning liquids, acrylic dissolvers etc.

7. Soften the furniture corners

If a child falls and hits his head on a sharp furniture corner, it could lead to serious injuries. These corners are usually found on tables, TV stands and side stools. Cover the sharp edges with bumpers. This will decrease the impact of any possible falls.

8. Keep the pots away

Do you usually allow your kids to make music by banging on your cooking pots? Then you better keep those pots out of reach when there is food inside, especially hot food. It could be a potential burn hazard if kept within a child’s reach. Keep them inside cupboards with childproof locks.