Babyproofing on a budget: half of this job is free, and the paid half has an order

The free half, first

This is the part the shopping lists skip, and it is where the best return is.

Move things up. Poison Control's national data has household cleaning substances and medicines at the top of the under-six exposure list year after year, and height beats latches. A cupboard above shoulder height with the bleach in it is safer than a low cupboard with a lock on it, because the lock can fail and the shelf cannot. Do the dishwasher pods, the laundry pods, the vitamins and the weekly pill organiser, which is not child-resistant at all.

Deal with cords. Looped window-covering cords are a strangulation hazard the CPSC has treated as a substantial product hazard, and tying a loop up out of reach costs nothing tonight. The same goes for the slack on lamp and monitor cables.

Turn the water down. The American Academy of Pediatrics puts the water heater at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and it is a dial on an appliance you already own.

Move the climbing aids. Most gate and window failures involve furniture: a toy box next to the gate, a chair under the window, a stool by the counter. Clearing a three-foot radius is free and it is often the whole fix.

The spending order

Spend by the severity of the outcome rather than by the number of hazards you can tick off. That gives a clear order.

First: one furniture anchor. The cheapest serious safety product in the house. A steel bracket-and-cable kit with a published load rating costs about the same as a takeout meal, and it addresses tip-over, which the CPSC's reporting treats as one of the most serious hazards in a child's bedroom. Do the dresser in the room where your child sleeps.

Second: one gate, if you have stairs. A certified pressure gate at the bottom of the stairs, or a hardware gate at the top. This is the biggest single line in a budget babyproofing plan, and it is not optional in a two-story house. The full argument about which gate goes where is on best baby gates for stairs.

Third: the one cupboard that matters. Not twelve locks: one good lock on the cupboard that still holds chemicals after you have moved what you can. Locking the pan cupboard is tidy rather than safe.

Fourth: plug inserts. Cheap, quick, and genuinely useful in an older house without tamper-resistant outlets - and largely unnecessary in a new build where the receptacles already have internal shutters, which is explained on tamper-resistant outlets vs outlet covers.

Fifth: everything else. Corner guards, door knob covers, the remaining cabinet locks. These make a house feel babyproofed and they are the last of the money, not the first.

Where cheap is genuinely fine

Three categories where the budget version does the same job as the premium one.

Plug inserts. A plug insert is a piece of moulded plastic. Thirty-six for a few dollars is the right buy for outlets nobody unplugs; the only upgrade worth paying for is a sliding plate on the outlet where a plug comes and goes daily.

Corner and edge guards. Foam is foam. The expensive ones look better on a nice coffee table and protect identically.

Handle locks for cabinets with knobs. A rigid loop over two knobs has no adhesive to fail and no mechanism to wear, so there is very little for a premium version to improve. It is also the cheapest lock per door in this whole category.

The two places it never is

Gates. Buy a gate whose manufacturer states a certification - Baby Safety Alliance, JPMA, or compliance with ASTM F1004 under 16 CFR part 1239. Uncertified gates exist at every price point and the saving is twenty dollars on the product that prevents a fall down a full flight of stairs. The budget move here is to buy one certified gate rather than two cheap ones, and if you only have money for one, see best baby gates under $50.

Furniture anchors. Specifically, do not buy an adhesive-only anchor to save a few dollars if you are able to drill. The cheap steel cable kits publish load ratings; the adhesive straps do not, and adhesive is the failure mode. Screws into a stud at both ends is the cheap option as well as the strong one.

The budget shortlist

Four products, in the spending order above. Between them they cover tip-over, falls, poisoning and shock, which is the whole of the serious hazard list for a crawling baby - and the first and the last of them cost very little.

Secondhand and borrowed gear

Hand-me-down babyproofing is mostly a good idea, with clear exceptions.

Fine secondhand: corner guards, plug inserts if unused, cabinet locks with their keys, cord covers, a gate with every part present and its manual available online. Check a used gate for the full set of wall cups and extensions, because those are what go missing, and look up the model to confirm it was not recalled.

Not worth it secondhand: anything held on by adhesive, because the tape is the product and it is spent. And anything you cannot identify, since a gate without a model number cannot be checked against a recall list or a certification claim.

Finally, resist buying a kit as a shortcut. A forty-piece box is good value for the small stuff and contains neither a gate nor, usually, an anchor - which are the two things this page tells you to buy first. The full comparison is on babyproofing kit vs buying separately, and the room-by-room list to work through as the money allows is on the babyproofing checklist.