10 Steps to Childproofing Your Home Office

those of us who work at home may dream of beavering away in isolated splendor, the reality is that our home office spaces are also living spaces where spouses and kids and pets and work all co-mingle. Small children love to play and explore, sticking small fingers into all kinds of spaces we would never think of sticking ours. So it’s important to make sure that our home office spaces are as child safe and pet safe as we can make them.

These ten steps to childproofing your home office will help ensure that you can all cohabit in your office space safely.

1) Put the small stuff away.
Rubber bands, paper clips, paper - a lot of innocuous looking office supplies can be choking hazards to small children. So keep them put away in drawers rather than letting them sit around in the open where kids could pick them up and swallow them.

2) Secure the child-reach zone.
Toddlers especially love to grab things to steady themselves or pull themselves up. A good "child-test" when you're childproofing your home office is to crawl around it on your hands and knees to see what there is to grab at or what’s protruding just at child-height. Then secure anything that could topple over on your child and put corner cushions on your office furniture’s dangerous edges.

3) Nix or fix the blinds.
Too many children have already been injured or killed because of the dangling cords of window blinds. The best way to avoid this hazard is to get rid of it; curtains or drapes will do the job just as well and look just as nice. If you're going to keep blinds in your home office, childproof them by looping up and securing the cords so children can’t get at them.

4) Secure all cords and wires.
Loose cords and wires are a hazard to people of any age. Wires or cables near the perimeter of your home office can be taped or stapled down as close to walls as possible to decrease the chance that people will trip over them. If this isn't possible, you may want to invest in some cord covers. You can also clear up the cord mess by taking up extra cord with a Cable Turtle (or by folding, wrapping and tying the excess cord).

5) Cover all the outlets.
When you're childproofing your home office, it's important to put outlet covers over all the exposed outlets. I don't know why kids find these so fascinating, but they do and it's a lot easier to cover the outlets then to spend chunks of your work time saying, "Don't touch! Don't touch!" If you have a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) in your office, you should get a cover for it, too.

6) Put magnets and/or locks on doors and drawers.
Simple magnets on the insides of cupboard doors can deter your children from opening the cupboards (and getting into whatever is inside) by making the doors more difficult to open. For even better childproofing, invest in some locks.

7) Get your computer off the ground.
If you have a PC, having the tower sit on the ground or on a lower shelf below the desktop is a common home office configuration. Protect it from sticky hands or the possibility of having something jammed into the disk drive by moving it to a higher position, such as sitting on the top of your desk.

8) Use your computer's security features.
Don't just get up and walk away from a work session; get in the habit of logging off so no one can use the computer without logging in. Punching keys or buttons is another thing that children find irresistible and if you've left your document in an accessible mode while you go off to get that coffee, it may be gone when you come back. For even better security, password protect your documents.

9) Control entrances and exits.
Door knob covers will prevent your children entering or leaving your office without your knowledge. Safety gates and play pens work well to keep small children where you can keep an eye on them and away from potential dangers. If you have windows in your home office, make sure that they have locking latches. Even a short fall can be fatal to a child.

10) Put your paper shredder away.
The sharp teeth of a paper shredder can be dangerous to children even when it's not turned on. Childproof it by moving your shredder to a position up out of reach of small children or by keeping it in a locked cupboard when not in use.

Being able to spend more time with your children is one of the great things about working at home. But if your children are going to be spending any time in your home office, you need to make sure your office is a safe place for them to be. Fortunately, childproofing your home office isn't expensive or difficult; it's mainly a matter of taking the time to make things safe.