You can childproof your home to reduce your home insurance premiums. When you add children to the equation, your insurance premiums can increase. With kids being kids, they are prone to injuries and accidents.
When they start to crawl and walk, the risk of them accidentally injuring themselves increases.
How Can You Decrease Your Home Insurance Premiums?
You can decrease your home insurance premiums by babyproofing your home. Does that mean you need to invest expensive childproofing items? No, not necessarily.
You can childproof your home without having to invest in costly items to protect your little ones from harm.
We are going to tell you about budget-friendly ways to childproof your home as well as how you can maintain your home and avoid dangerous items.
10 Tips to Childproof Your Home
Here are a few ways you can childproof your home:
1. Safety Gates
Install sturdy and durable safety gates that screw to the wall and one you can lock easily. You can add the safety gates in the kitchen area, up and below the stairs depending where your child is, and any other place you do not want your little ones to wander to.
2. Door Knobs, Locks, and Latches
You do not want your children to get into drawers, especially the ones in the kitchen. You do not want them to touch any toxic substance or find a knife or another sharp tool when their curious mind tells them to open the drawer and explore. You can also secure drawers and cupboards in the laundry area and bathrooms of the house.
3. Sharp-edge Bumpers
Install sharp-edged bumpers on furniture with sharp ends such as coffee tables. You can find a diverse collection of soft, plastic sharp-edge bumpers that you can use to prevent injuries in the event your little one runs into a sharp edge.
4. Anti-tip Brackets
5. Safety Rails
6. Tie or Remove Window Blind Cords
Window blind cords may look harmless, but they are the opposite. If left hanging, they can loop, or noose are your child’s neck. You do not want to take that risk and that is why, you need either tie them in a high knot or remove them.
7. Safety Switch
8. Fence Off the Swimming Pool Area
If you have a swimming pool in your backyard, you need to create a fence around to ensure your little ones do not accidentally fall into it and drown. When you are enclosing your swimming pool with a fence, ensure the gate latch is over 1.5 m from the ground and that is self-closes, self-latches, and opens outwards.
The fence needs to be 100 mm or less from the ground and at least 1.2 m high. The vertical gaps of the fence need to be less than 100 mm apart. You do not watch your children climbing over the fence or unlocking it and venturing to the swimming pool area unattended.
9. Mount Your TV on the Wall
Do not place your TV on a stand, as your child can climb it to reach it. There is a risk of the TV falling on the ground from a high height, which can seriously injure the child. Instead, mount your TV on the wall. As for the TV stand, you can anchor it with Velcro straps, placing them through the air vent holes.
Do Not Keep Balloons and Crayons Lying Around
If your child is under the age of eight, do not keep latex balloons in your house. Your child can accidentally swallow, resulting in blocked airways due to choking. The same goes for crayons. A small child can break a crayon in half and put it in their mouth, causing the child to choke.
10. Safety Toilet Lock
You need to add a safety toilet lock on all the toilets in your home. Children aged from one to four can get into a number of accidents in the bathroom. For children, reaching the toilet and opening its lid is a piece of cake.
They can also increase your repair costs, as they intend to throw toys inside the toilet, causing it to clog and overflow. By adding a safety toilet lock, it will save you from future expenses as well.
Other Things You Can Do to Babyproof Your Home
If you have an unkept home, you need to work on this. Some signs of an unmaintained homes are overgrown branches, toys and sports equipment lying around the home, or structural damage that can make a part of your home more dangerous. You need to keep your clean and tidy, especially if you have little children running around.
You should also avoid having dangerous items as part of your home such as a trampoline and swimming pool. If you do have a trampoline, you should keep it in a place where your children cannot access it. As for the swimming pool, we already told you what you need to do to prevent kids from entering the area.
If you want to reduce your home insurance premiums after you have kids, childproof your home.
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