Babyproofing the living room: the TV, the bookcase, the coffee table and everything they pull up on

1. The TV and its stand

The flat-screen goes first because televisions were in nearly half the tip-over deaths the CPSC counted. Best is a rated wall bracket into studs; good is the TV strapped through its VESA holes to a stand that is itself anchored to a stud; the CPSC's fallback is a low stand, pushed back, cords out of reach. Safety 1st's three-way strap does TV to stand to wall in one run. Then nothing on top of the stand a child would climb for. The routes are in how to anchor a TV; the straps are ranked in best TV anti-tip straps.

2. The bookcase

A bookcase is a ladder with heavy things at the top. Anchor it into a stud with a strap or a cable kit, then move the heavy books to the bottom shelves and the things a toddler wants to the top. The STURDY rule covers new dressers, not bookcases, so this one is on you; see best furniture anchors. Same for the console table, the bar cart and the floor lamp with the heavy shade, which either gets a wide base or leaves the room.

3. The coffee table and the corners

A cruising toddler falls from standing onto the coffee table corner at forehead height a dozen times a week. Foam corners on wood, clear on glass; a glass table is worth replacing with a soft ottoman for a year. Then the end tables, the TV stand corners and the raised hearth. The picks are in best corner guards and the decision in foam vs clear corner guards.

4. The fireplace

Pad the hearth edge all year; gate the fireplace at a standoff when it is lit; treat a gas fireplace's glass as a stove top until it is cold. The CPSC says the glass can reach 500 to 1,000 degrees. The whole plan is how to babyproof a fireplace.

5. Cords and outlets

The living room has the power strip behind the TV, the lamp cords, the console cables and the blind cords. Box the strip, box the in-use outlets, shorten and route the rest, cut every blind-cord loop. Start at how to babyproof cords; for the outlets, are outlet covers necessary.

6. Doors and pinch points

Interior doors slam on fingers; a foam pinch guard on the door edge keeps it from closing fully, and it comes off when you need privacy. Hinges on the hinge side pinch too; a hinge-side guard or simply keeping the door fully open or fully closed handles it. Doorways you want to close off get a pressure gate with the wall cups screwed in, per best pressure-mounted baby gates.

7. What is on the shelves

Everything below 36 inches is the child's now. Remote controls with coin batteries, candles and lighters, the plant (check whether it is toxic), the vase, the picture frames with glass, the dish of keys, the houseplant's soil. Move it, or accept it will be handled. The AAP's poison rule applies to the living room as much as the kitchen: out of reach, out of sight. The room is one row of the babyproofing checklist; the stage that makes it urgent is babyproofing for a crawling baby.

The picks