How to Babyproof a Home Office
If you're trying to work from home with small children around, it's essential that you keep their curious fingers out of your potentially dangerous working environment. You've likely babyproofed most other rooms in your home, but it's equally as important to babyproof your home office to ensure the safety of your little ones.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
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1
Store all equipment out of your baby's reach. Secure dangling cords, which are extremely attractive to babies, with cord wraps, and ensure your baby cannot pull your keyboard, printer, fax or laptop off your desk or cabinet and onto her head.
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2
Lock all office supplies in a drawer. Paper clips, scissors, staples, and magnets are all choking hazards, and you should keep them away from your baby at all times.
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3
Purchase a trash can with a lock on it. While a locked trash can is inconvenient for you, it can protect your baby from the many dangers present in home office waste, including ink from printer cartridges and ballpoint pens, correction fluid and small bits of paper.
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4
Insert covers into all your electrical outlets to babyproof them and prevent your baby from sticking her fingers or an object into them.
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5
Babyproof all home office shelves by making sure they are anchored to the wall, so that your baby cannot pull down a shelf on top of himself while trying to climb.
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6
Place tape over your office equipment's buttons to prevent your baby from turning on and off your computer, fax machine, printer, phone, or other home-office electronics.
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7
Set firm boundaries with your baby as soon as she is old enough to understand that your office is a place for you to work and not an environment for play. If you do allow your baby to play in your office while you work, it's never too early to start letting her know what is off-limits and what she is allowed to touch.
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1
Tips & Warnings
To occupy little hands that love to open and close drawers, consider filling the bottom drawer of your filing cabinet with toys for your baby. That way, when he tries to open the drawers filled with your office supplies and paperwork, you can quickly redirect your baby to his "special" drawer.
Never leave your baby alone in your home office even if you feel it's adequately babyproofed. It only take a minute for a curious baby to start exploring something in your office that can seriously injure her.
