Thursday, August 6, 2009

Baby Proofing: Peeper's Room

We know that our days with an immobile baby are numbered, so we're working on getting the house baby-proofed.

On our list of things-to-do is an inventory of drawers, cabinets and electrical outlets, so we can make a trip to Lowe's for latches and covers to keep her out of them.

In the meantime, I've been making some changes in her room, to put things that she does need access to within her reach, and get those that she doesn't need to mess with out of her reach.

While this was really cute:


This is a lot more practical. The fabric drawers will have toys in them. So far, I've put a bunch of puzzles in one.


I've also removed the package of disposable diapers (which I'm sure are way to small for her by now anyway), miscellaneous bottles, tubes and tubs of messy, "for external use only" stuff, and a box of of garbage bags from the bottom shelf of the changing table, and replaced them with toys - including some storage cubes for little things.


Okay, we still have some work to do here.

The can that you see to the right used to be a trash can, when we used disposable diapers and wipes, but it's now the diaper pail.

It's lined with a washable bag (we have two of them) which goes in the washer with the dipes and wipes. Over by the door, we have a clothes hamper for clothes that don't have bodily fluids on them. (Or that do, but are colors that we don't want to wash in hot water.)

We're now using the cloth diapers exclusively, and I use only cloth wipes, but Shrike prefers disposable wipes, especially for poopie pants.

(I know. I can't convince her of that, though.)

So, we still need a trash recepticle of some sort, but it doesn't need to be very big.

We've been hanging a plastic grocery bag on the corner, but the other night, I noticed that Peeper was getting interested in it, so I thought we ought to look for another solution.

I'm thinking this is not it.


Not pictured, is the $1 yardsale toy box that we repainted. Right now, it's full of books that she's not yet ready for (pretty much anything with paper pages, rather than cloth or cardboard), and has some stuffed animals sitting on it.

We need to replace its lower-slower hinge, and try to figure out how to put spacers under the lid to keep it from closing on her fingers, but for now, she has no idea that it opens, so we'll just let her think it's a bench, and the whole storage aspect will be our little secret.

Speaking of storage, this large bin has come in quite handy for holding Mr. Panda, our baby carrier stash, out-grown and still-too-big clothes, boxes of toys, and who knows what else might be in there.



I suppose this might be a problem if there were, say, a child sleeping in the box, huh?

Good thing that never happens!


7 comments:

  1. When I first read the whole 'this large bin has come in quite handy for holding Mr. Panda.....' I kept staring at the picture thinking how interesting the bin was and oh look, cute little drawers right next to it and... wait!! it's a crib! LOLOL I'm a dork. Obviously.

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  2. And you will have to do it all over when she learns to climb in, oh, a month or two.

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  3. I love your book shelf idea. I am totally stealing this for Simone's room. Hope you don't mind. I've been looking for something appropriate for a child's room for ages, and her room is 9X9, so space/storage is at a premium.

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  4. I was thinking about that "large storage bin" the other day and thinking that y'all might go ahead and convert it sooner rather than later, and it would give her a place to climb up and play (kind of a little perch area) when she gets a little older. You would lose the storage though. Why does this remind me of stories about people who put their Chritmas trees IN the playpen to keep their toddlers away from them. :D

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  5. Melody - That shelf is a "Closetmaid 8 cube organizer" from Target.

    Anonymama - You'll be happy to know the above mentioned shelf, Peeper's dresser and the "highboy" dresser in the bedroom have all been anchored to the wall.

    But, yes, I'm sure we'll have to move 1000 more things out of her way soon, especially if she's a climber.

    D's Mom - LOL

    LadyLay - We've kind of discussed that. For now, in addition to storage, the bars are good for holding on to, and soon will be good for cruising. Of course, she wouldn't be climbing in and out of it as a "toddler bed" until she's walking on her own anyway.

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  6. Yeah, I imagine that the bars make great "cruisers." For the record though, Frappa climbed before she could walk. When she was at the cruising stage she could scramble right up on the couch, lol.

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  7. Do not forget while baby proofing to know that all of your outlets are safe. Electrical fires are really deadly and terrifying. You should get outlets that prevent these from ever happening and let you know when the electrical heat is too high. You can get these types of outlets at
    http://www.bsafeeletrix.com

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