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Childproofing Hacks for Decorating Your Home
Minutes after seeing the blue “lava” erupt from our paper mâché volcano at our gender reveal luau years ago, people were telling me how I’d better get used to having everything around me broken by mischievous little boys. “You can have nice things again… in about 18 years!” they’d jokingly say.
Ugh. What a depressing thought.
While I certainly wasn’t going to rid my entire home of breakables, I did want to see what options were out there to make my more fragile items less likely to cause harm should my kiddos get hold of them. Now that I’m a mom of three kids aged 3 and under, I’ve got a lot of “breakable” years ahead of me. And as a person with anxiety (read: sliiightly paranoid), I’ve got a lot of scenarios I’d like to guard against if I can.
The first thing I thought about was swapping out the glass in my hanging picture frames for shatterproof plexiglass. Amazon has a plethora of options and my favorite has been this one that’s 1/25-inch thick and comes in lots of different sizes. It looks no different than the glass that came with the frame. I’ve purchased several variations and have replaced the glass in every hanging picture frame in my home. Now I’m working on replacing the tabletop frames as well. I can rest a little easier knowing that an errant toy flying across the living room won’t shatter a gallery wall frame and send shards of glass all over my sofa and possibly my loved ones.
The gallery wall brought up another concern: if something did hit one of those frames, it might just knock it off the wall completely. Those particular frames are aluminum and the edges are a bit sharp, so I didn’t want them falling off and injuring someone.
Enter: Quakehold!
This white putty is the same consistency as sticky tack, the chewing gum-like stuff teachers use to hang posters in their classrooms — just stick it on the back of your hanging item and press it to the wall. It’s removable and reusable and works on most surfaces. We’ve secured every frame in our home with this miracle putty, and after one instance of our then 2-year-old throwing a ball full force at a picture frame while our then 8-month-old was sitting beneath it *and nothing scary happening* I felt like I’d definitely gotten my money’s worth.
BONUS USES: I’ve used this for years on our holiday decor like garlands and wreaths. It works well to keep things hanging on doors actually HANGING on the door! My Halloween countdown sign hung from a command hook on our door and would shift and knock every time we opened and closed the door. The Quakehold kept it in place — and stopped the annoying knocking sound. Win!
For tabletop items, the makers of Quakehold also have a clear version called Museum Wax that I also use in my home. Like Quakehold, it’s also removable and reusable. I bought it to secure items like picture frames and knickknacks on my living room etagere, but I’ve also used it to affix a vase on the back of a toilet in a bathroom.
I know I can’t prevent every accident or injury, but having these items in place around my home gives me the peace of mind to know at least *some* accidents and injuries can be avoided.
