# Baby proofing small apartments



## Azik's mom (Nov 19, 2007)

Hi,

My DS is 9 months and he is an active little one. How do you baby proof a small apartment? We have a really tiny space and we dont have lots of shelves to put things up high. Just wondering if anybody has any creative areas to keep him safe.


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## nevaehsmommy (Aug 6, 2007)

I bought a child proofing kit at the evil empire for doors and cabinets. As far as shelfs and such I bought baskets to keep down low. I did not move anything unless it was in danger of being broken forever or hurting her. I taught DD that the baskets were for her. She can only play with them. I change out the toys every two or three days. I put in utensils, old baking goods pans and her toys. She got to explore but in a manner that I found acceptable.

I also find that the more I take DD outside the less she gets into stuff in the house. My DD was 9 month during the winter so dont know what you could do outside together though.....


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## Twinklefae (Dec 13, 2006)

We live in a small space and I try to keep hurtful things out of reach (tops of books shelves works well) and spend a lot of time chasing him down to get the other stuff back. I've made my peace with the fact that he thinks the remotes are his.

Just re-read your post, you may need to prioritize what's out. I'm not sure what things are really getting in your way. I moved some of the picture frame. Can you trade some of the things up high down? (safer wooden/plastic/metal things?)

Maybe it's time to de-clutter?

We don't have any baby locks, although I am thinking of getting one for the toilet. (he likes to play there... yuck! )


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## Racecar (May 19, 2005)

When we lived in a small apartment with out first, we got two of those giant babygate-esque play yards (the outside of the box shows a couple of toddlers coexisting sweetly cordoned off in a huge living room sort of area) and we detached the gates and wrapped them around the stereo, computer area, forbidden bookshelves, etc so that our ds couldn't get to that stuff, period. We had his toy bins out of "captivity" but everything else was secured. It made life so much easier! I hope you can somewhat picture the sort of scene we cooked up or that something similar will help you. It's hard when there isn't logistically a possible way of a separate space dedicated to child friendliness and there is still a need to keep the stereo operational, etc.


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## Ironica (Sep 11, 2005)

We did something kind of similar to Racecar. Our solutions were very much tailored to our son's interests; some things just didn't fascinate him (like the stereo) so we left it alone... OTOH, we had a fence around the toilet, including the toilet paper and cat box. ;-) We used packing tape (the clear kind) to attach the stereo speaker to the wall, because it kept getting overturned. ;-)

Finally, we gated off our kitchen and dining area with a ConfigureGate, since the apartment was one of those where the dining area is off the living room and there's no doorway. That gave us a zone where DS1 was never wandering without CLOSE supervision, so we could put things that weren't baby-safe there (like our in-progress halloween costumes).


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