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How to Baby Proof Your Home Office or Computer Space
by Cheyanne Conner
Editor of OrganizeaHome.com
Many people have a room or area in their home where they house their computer, printer, fax machine, filing cabinet and the like. One could simply refer to this as their home office or computer space. This sort of room or area often is not the safest place for a curious baby who recently has learned how to crawl or an ambitious toddler who can not wait to get their hands on mom's or dad's computer keyboard or into their filing cabinet. However there are times when you are at your computer and it is in the main living space where your baby or toddler is at play, or sometimes you need to watch your children while you are working in your home office. When there is a chance that a little child can get onto a computer or any other expensive electronics baby proofing is necessary. Baby proofing your home office or computer space is not hard and can be done fairly quickly and for fairly cheap.
The first that you will have to do if you have not already is have the layout of your home office or computer space so there is minimal cords showing. This means that rather than having an outlet that houses two surge protectors next to your computer desk, have the desk placed in front of the outlet to deter young hands from pulling on any cords. If you have to have many cords exposed there are several options that you have to keep things safer and proofed for your toddler or baby.
* You can get cord clips to group multiple cords together to prevent curious hands from pulling and tugging on the various cords that run from your computer to your printer, to your fax machine and to the wall.
* You can get a cord control system or cord zipper, which is a long hollow tube to group your cables and cords and to baby proof the cords in your office. In addition to protecting your cables from your child a cord zipper will also keep your cables dust free and organised.
* You also have the option of using cord mangers or cord shorteners, items that can shorten the length of your cables to make them less of a trip hazard and not as out in the open.
No matter what option to decide to go with or combination of options to baby proof your cables and cords from your computer and in your home office keeping your children away from them is key. Cables are not the only thing that you have to worry about in your home office, nor are they the only thing that you have to worry about baby proofing from your computer. A main thing that your baby or toddler is going to be quick to become interested in is your computer keyboard, computer tower, printer, fax machine, etc. There are several options that you have for preventing your baby or toddler from getting on your computer, printer etc.
* Preventing your child from reaching your monitor can easily be accomplished by pushing it far back enough that your little one can not reach it when it is not in use. Thankfully if your baby or toddler manages to start pressing buttons on your monitor what they do can be undone, such as change color and brightness settings or turning it on or off.
* You can buy a PC tower guard to baby proof your computer tower. This will prevent your child from opening and closing the CD drive and prevent them from turning on your computer when it is off and turning it off when it is on.
* Position your fax machine or printer so your little one can not reach the buttons on it. If you can keep your printer unplugged while it is not in use this will prevent your little one from turning it off and on and from pushing a combination of buttons that would cause an error, thus baby proofing it.
* Baby proofing your computer keyboard is very easy to do and you can usually do it for free. One option is to place your keyboard out of reach when it is not in use, such as on top of the computer tower or behind the computer monitor. If this is not an option there is an array of free downloadable keyboard baby-proofing software. The software will range in what it does but essentially it allows you to put on a program that your baby can not exit, and not reach any programs or files from. To get out of baby proofing software usually you just have to type in a password. You may already have the option of placing a password on your screen saver settings and you can skip downloading anything new all together.
Another main thing that you find near when one keeps their computer and in their home office is a filing cabinet. It can be difficult keeping files in line and anything else that you keep in your filing cabinet if your baby or toddler is constantly getting into the drawers. Again, like so many other "problems" that you run into when having your computer space around your baby or toddler or having your toddler or baby around your home office, children in the filing cabinet can easily be fixed.
* One thing that you can do to baby proof your filing cabinet is to use locks. You can either get a new filing cabinet that has built in locks or install locks to the existing filing cabinet that you have to baby proof it.
* There is always comprising when it comes to your baby or toddler and your filing cabinet. One thing that can keep you children out of the important files and items that you keep in your filing cabinet is to delegate the bottom drawer for kid friendly items. This can still be computer and office related things, just things that would not be harmed or harm your child if your toddler or baby had them. You can even compromise and give the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet to your child and keep some books or toys in it. This kind of baby proofing will deter your children from exploring the upper drawers, if they can reach them, where you can house files and such.
* Another option that you might have is to place your filing cabinet in a closet near your computer work space or in the room where your home office is. This way you don't have to worry about locking your filing cabinet because it is behind closed doors and to get something out of it is easy enough if you just open the closet door. If the closet has no door you can put a baby gate up in front of the closet. This will create a wonderful space in generate storage for anything that you need in the room but out of reach of your child.
As a final step to baby proofing your work space you will want to make sure to put plug covers in any unused outlets. If you have exposed surge protects you can get power strip outlet covers and baby proof the entire surge protector. Use corner guards on your desk and any other pieces of furniture that has corners that your baby or toddler could bump their heads on.
With proper baby proofing you can rest assure that your little one will not be harmed in your home office or around your computer.
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BABY PROOF YOUR HOME OFFICE
Baby Proof you Office TAGS:
baby proof
baby proof your home office
baby proof your computer
surge protectors
cord clips
cord control system
cord shorteners
cord zipper
cord managers
baby proofing
plug covers
strip outlet covers
baby safe
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