Babyproofing the kitchen: walk it at knee height, in the order a crawler finds things

1. Under the sink

Dish soap, drain cleaner, dishwasher pods, bleach, the sponge. This is the most dangerous cabinet in the house and the one at the exact height of a sitting baby. The AAP's advice for poisons is out of reach, out of sight and locked up if possible; do all three. Move what you can to a high cabinet, and lock what is left with a magnetic lock, which hides inside and needs a key, or a double-lock strap if the door is metal or you rent. Dishwasher pods go high no matter what; they look like candy and they are concentrated. The lock ranking is best cabinet locks for babyproofing.

2. The drawers

The knife drawer, the junk drawer (scissors, batteries, matches, rubber bands), and any drawer with plastic bags. Drawers get yanked with a child's whole weight, so use a lock with screws or a strap rather than a plain adhesive latch, per best drawer locks. Then give the child one drawer: plastic containers, wooden spoons, dish towels. A drawer they are allowed to empty is the cheapest lock on the rest.

3. The stove and oven

Front-mounted knobs get covers; rear-mounted ones do not need them. The oven door gets an adhesive lock, re-locked after every use, or the factory control lock if your oven has one. Back burners first, pot handles turned in, nothing hot at the front edge of the counter. If a standing toddler can reach the cooktop, a stove guard is the third layer. All three products are compared in best stove knob covers, oven locks and stove guards.

4. The trash and the island

The trash can is a bin of small hard objects, plastic, and whatever you just threw away, at floor level. Either a strap lock across a lidded can, or a pull-out trash cabinet with a magnetic lock on it. An island is a set of cabinets reachable from every side, often with a stool beside it; lock the island cabinets like any other and move the stool. If the island has an overhang, a corner guard on each corner; the corner ranking is in the windows, doors and fireplace hub.

5. Dishwasher, fridge and small appliances

A dishwasher door drops open to a rack of knives pointing up; a strap lock across the door, and load knives point-down. The fridge is a strap lock if the child can open it, which most can by 18 months. Small appliances live at the back of the counter with the cords wrapped, because a cord hanging over the edge is a handle for pulling a kettle onto a head. The stand mixer and the air fryer are the heavy ones; they go against the wall.

6. Outlets and cords

Kitchen outlets are the busy ones, with things plugged in most of the day, so a plug insert is the wrong cover: an in-use box cover lets the coffee maker stay plugged in behind a locked lid. Check first whether your outlets are tamper-resistant already (the TR mark on the face), which post-2008 kitchens usually are. The in-use covers are ranked in best outlet covers for plugs in use.

7. The doorway

The easiest kitchen babyproofing is a gate across the entrance while you cook. Kitchen openings are usually wide, so start with best extra-wide baby gates; a standard doorway gets a gate from best pressure-mounted baby gates. Screw the wall cups in. The kitchen is one row of the whole-house babyproofing checklist.

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