How to Create a Safe Play Space

Thank you Munchkin for sponsoring this post! Regardless all thoughts and opinions are my own and I only feature products I truly love.

Moms of young kids know the dilemma. Babies and toddlers need an area that they can play, and where parents don’t have to be on top of them monitoring them to know that they are safe. For me this is usually so that I can finish washing dishes, or work on a blog post. And these pictures are real life how my play room looks most of the time. It’s a mess. Good news is we keep the mess contained in this room which is part of the beauty of having a designated play room.

-Secure the room. Our play room attaches to the kitchen and the entryway of our home. The side to the kitchen has a door that closes and latches that so far neither of the kids has found a way to open, and the other side is just a door opening. Therefore it was really important to me to find a way to close off that opening so that neither of the kids could get out of the play room. For us the Munchkin Luna gate works perfectly. My hesitation for not having a gate up in this space yet was that we have to walk through there to get to the kitchen, and the thought of running into the gate on a late night water trip wasn’t appealing to me. But the Munchkin Luna gate features a motion-activated LED light that reminds us it’s there so no one runs into it. The gate swings open and closed easily, and was a breeze to install because of its innovative turnkey mounts and because it comes fully assembled. I also love the design of the gate and how it fits into our home. Our house came with baby gates already installed on the stairs but I love this gate so much I am going to replace them with Munchkin Luna’s!

-Mark off any danger areas. For us a problem with the play room was that there is a fireplace in the room with bricks that we didn’t want either kid getting hurt on. We used a play gate to mark off that area so that neither kid can get back there and find a way to bust their head on the bricks.

-For younger babies cover hardwoods. Babies teeter and totter and need a soft area to play on. We actually have one not pictured here because our toddler tore it apart recently and now that Tripp is a pro at sitting up and crawling it’s not as big of a need in our play room.

-Cover outlets. And not just with the plugs that both of my kids seem drawn to try to take out. Cover them strategically with furniture. That may mean a bookcase, toy kitchen, couch, or teepee, in front of the plugs so that kids don’t get into them.

-Tie up blind cords if within children’s reach. Tie cords too low to the ground become a strangulation hazard so tie them up out of children’s reach to eliminate that risk.

-Tether any furniture to the wall. Babies love to find ways to pull up on furniture, and my nightmare is a piece of furniture, even if a small playroom bookcase, falling on one of my children. Most furniture comes with a way to tether it to the wall and if not create your own!

And here’s real life what a mess our play room is:

Having a safe baby play space means that my kids can play happily together with me in the room to supervise, but that I can also work on my computer to make sure deadlines are met. I am seriously so thankful for the Munchkin Luna gate and think it is the perfect new addition to our play room. What does play space look like in your home? I’d love to hear about it below!