Household garages can be very dangerous for toddlers and young children. Here is some helpful advice to keep your family safe when it comes to the room of the house that contains dangerous machinery, equipment, and substances.
Keep the door locked or use a child gate
One of the first steps to keeping a child from getting into some of the dangerous objects common in garages is to make sure children are not in this part of the house without supervision. Placing a child-gate inside the door frame or setting a lock for the entrance to the garage are simple steps that can be taken to ensure a child’s safety. Of course, the following advice is still important for when children are in the garage even if they are with an adult.
Store hazardous and toxic materials out of reach
Keep liquids such as anti-freeze, fertilizers, pesticides, and gasoline on high shelves or in child-locked cabinets. The same goes for charcoal and other chemicals as well. Power tools should be kept in a similar fashion or in a locked and off-limits work bench. If it goes in the yard, the grill, or the car keep it up high and out of reach, as these materials are dangerous if ingested. Power tools can be very dangerous as well if a child instead of a trained adult is using them. This can lead to serious injury.
Make sure motorized machines are off-limits
Keep car doors locked to lower the risk of hand injuries from doors closing on your child’s hand. Lawn mowers should be placed on high wall-hooks with the blades facing the wall and the battery removed if possible.
Keep containers closed or upside down
This applies to buckets as well as trash and recycling bins to ensure that children are not able to fall in and risk becoming trapped. These precautions also prevent liquid from accumulating and creating a drowning risk for toddlers.
Watch children carefully when opening and closing garage doors
Garage doors are capable of causing both brain damage and broken bones. To prevent these injuries, keep children close when the door is activated and make sure the garage-door opener is above their reach. Although not a cure-all solution for the need to supervise, sensors near the bottom of the door that stop it should an object pass through underneath will help ensure the safety of children if they walk beneath it.
We are in the midst of creating a lovely garage space – having recently cleaned it out and clearing the space up. This is very helpful! Thank you!
These are all great tips on child-proofing a garage. I feel like I need to clean my garage out based on this…LOL!!
It’s really important to make sure that the whole house is safe for the kids especially when they start walking and wandering off on their own around the house. I think these are wonderful tips for parents.
You’ve got some great tips here. It’s definitely worth child proofing the garage too. People may not really think about it, but it’s got to be done too.
This post was so informative, and very much necessary! Kids are so smart and strategic, so this tips are very important! I strongly believe in prevention, and so many are not aware that we need to child proof everything, including the garage…shoot, sometimes, even the children themselves need to be child proofed lol
The garage can be a super dangerous place for kids. I’m thankful that my kids never cared to play in the garage. I’ve heard of kids getting into cars and it not turning out so well.
These are all great tips. I don’t have a garage, but I do have a little storage room/carport where I store some of these items. I should make sure they are out of reach!
When our children were little, we always keep our garage close and all the chemicals and other products goes up in the shelves where they can’t reach. These are great tips.