Kids Furniture Safety Audit

So you've done it all for your children. You (or your extended family) have bought them the best kids furniture you can find. The room looks great and put together. But is it safe? Sometimes it's easy to forget that children don't always play the way we would want them to. It's also easy to forget that furniture that is safe today may not be so tomorrow. So how do you keep your kids safe? By staying informed and preparing your kids room properly. Here are some tips from Kids Furniture N More.

• Stay on top of the current recalls. News outlets will sometimes report recalls but their coverage is spotty at best. They generally cover only major recalls or recalls of popular items. A good place to look for recalls of kids furniture, toys and acessories is the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They have the most comprehensive list of recalls on the internet.
• Secure your furniture to the wall. Often times this is overlooked by people outside earthquake prone areas. Strapping furniture to the wall is part of earthquake safety codes in some states. But children, especially toddlers, like to explore new areas and open drawers can make an inviting ladder to climb. But tall dressers can become unstable with a 25lb child on them, causing them to fall over onto your child, resulting in serious injury or even death. Wall straps (shown right) are an essential part of kids furniture safety. They are inexpensive to purchase and easy to install. A few minutes of prep could save your child's life.
• Install outlet covers. Kids like to explore inside things too and an open outlet makes for a mysterious place to try and stick things. Be sure to get some that are tensioned right. Some outlet covers have to be pried off and some are too easy to remove. Outlet covers need to have a mechanism to help you gain purchase to pull them out or release their tension.
• Use gates instead of doors. Doors separate you from your children. Gates allow your children to still see and hear some of what is going on while keeping them in or out of an area.