Babyproofed Bookshelf

Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap  —  August 7, 2013 — 2 Comments

As soon as Jack became mobile the items on the lower shelves of this bookshelf were so tempting to him. I didn’t mind him playing with the books, but some items posed more of a hazard. You can see in this older photo that it was not at all kid-friendly:

I removed everything breakable or that could hurt him from the lower shelves until I could figure out a solution. I finally have it rearranged just how I want it and I have to say that I like it even better now than I did before!

I got a large basket on sale at Hobby Lobby ($20) and filled it with toys to keep Jack busy while I’m working in the kitchen. I chose lightweight toys so the basket wouldn’t get too heavy and stuck some foam pads on the bottom to keep it from scratching the shelf or the floor. Jack knows there are toys in there and often crawls over and pulls it off the shelf. I also used museum putty to secure the silver pig and green glass bowl to the shelves. I have actually watched Jack yank on the pig, which is stuck to the book, which is stuck to the shelf. The cover of the book lifts up but the whole operation stays securely in place. It’s amazing! I wish I would have known about this stuff years ago. It would have saved me a lot of grief with some of the stuff my cats like to knock down.

babyproofed bookshelf

I’m still trying to work out the best way to secure the shelf to the wall. It seems pretty stable but I don’t want to risk it falling over on Jack if he tries to climb it or something. I’m thinking of using a couple of metal brackets (like these) in an inconspicuous area near the top. Thoughts? I think I’ll also go ahead and use museum putty to stick down any heavy objects on the higher shelves, just to be sure they don’t fall on him. It’s so hard balancing safety with my desire to have a home that’s both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Babyproofing is definitely a work in progress around here and I’m planning a post soon on what we’ve done to make our house more kid-friendly without it looking like a daycare.

Happy hump day, y’all. We’re halfway to the weekend! I know it sounds crazy for someone who doesn’t work full-time to look forward to Friday but I do. It’s so nice having Nick around and to slack off from our weekday routine. Thanks for reading!

Share

Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap

Posts

2 responses to Babyproofed Bookshelf

  1. L-brackets are the bomb. We use them on all our bookshelves.

Leave a Reply

*

Text formatting is available via select HTML.

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>