If you’re one of the millions of Americans working from home, you know how challenging it is to separate your personal life from your professional responsibilities. If you have kids, achieving a work-life balance is even harder. How are you supposed to get any work done when your littles are sticking their hands in the paperclip jar and playing with pens? One word: childproofing.

Keep your kids safe and maintain your focus by childproofing your home office. Use these tips to secure cables, drawers, cabinets, corners and more. 

1. Get a Cable Management Box

Keeping all of your devices juiced up and running requires lots of cords and cables. Maybe you even have a surge protector to keep your printer or paper shredder from overloading your circuit board and frying electronics. Either way, that giant tangle of wires beneath your desk can look awfully enticing to your toddler. Sadly, the consequences of them doing so can be deadly.  

Each year, approximately 2,400 children stick items into electrical outlets and suffer severe shocks and burns. Six to 12 of them die from the trauma. Unfortunately, outlet covers can’t prevent these incidents because they’re easy enough for kids to remove. That’s why you need a cable management box. This handy container childproofs surge protectors and outlets to keep kids safe and your electronics working. 

2. Use Corner Covers

You don’t realize how many sharp corners your home has until you have kids. Then, suddenly you’re aware of every rough edge that could poke, pinch or cut your baby. What if they stumble and hit their head on the corner of your work desk or filing cabinet. 

Protect your little one from serious injury by covering these sharp edges with corner covers. Most are made of silicone that won’t crumble or cause concern if your little one chews on them. Plus, there are plenty of colors to choose from, so you’re sure to find ones that blend in with your walls and furniture. 

3. Periodically Test Garage Door Sensors

Perhaps your home office is in the garage. If you’ve been working in there since the start of the pandemic, you likely already have a comfortable setup, but is it safe? Aside from keeping all power tools out of reach and covering the outlets, you should pay special attention to the garage door. 

That heavy piece of metal can easily crush anything below it, should the electronics fail. What if your little one comes in and decides to play beneath the open door? It’s vital that you periodically inspect and test the sensors to ensure the door doesn’t close when something — or someone — is in the way. As long as you’re vigilant and take all necessary precautions, the space should be safe for both you and your kids. 

4. Install Cabinet Locks

Whether you have a lock on your office door or use a baby gate to keep the little ones out, it’s crucial that you secure your cabinets and their contents. Just think of the dangers your child might face if they managed to get in and rummage through your desk drawers. Scissors, staplers and letter openers pose obvious threats, as do small items like paper clips, thumbtacks and coins. 

Installing locks on office drawers and cabinets is the easiest way to keep curious kids out and prevent any mishaps. Look for ones that are affordable, discreet and easy to install. Whether you choose magnetic locks or adhesive ones, they’re sure to keep your baby safe. If nothing else, they’ll discourage your littles from rearranging filing cabinets and shredding important documents while you’re away.

5. Put Up a Playpen

Perhaps you’ve secured every nook and cranny of your home office because you want to supervise your little one while you work. Even then, you risk accidentally dropping something and having your child put it in their mouth. With choking being the fourth leading cause of death in toddlers, it’s crucial that you safeguard against such incidents. 

Instead of letting them crawl around the floor, put your child in a playpen. This way you can completely control their environment and keep them within arm’s reach at all times. Whether you put them in a traditional playpen or a play space with a bassinet, they’re sure to be safe and happy traipsing around inside while you type away at your desk. 

Work Hard, Play Hard

Childproofing your home office is one of the best ways to keep both you and your children safe. That way you both can work hard and play hard all in the same space.