Before your first baby arrives, parents often start looking at their home in a new way. You start noticing all the dangers. In the kitchen alone there are cleaners under the sink, cords and stove knobs within reach of toddler hands, and sharp tools and gadgets. You can install locks and safety devices, move things to a less accessible spot, and teach your young ones that some things are off-limits. This may seem overwhelming, but there are many means of making your home safe.
There are many potentially hazardous items in your house. Keeping everyone safe from sharp objects is an ongoing process, but it’s practical with storage changes and a little education. The following are some ways to keep sharp objects, especially, from causing harm.
Store Out of the Residence
As you create a home, you will accumulate a lot of dangerous items. And if you have small children, there is always a risk. But finding somewhere to put sharp things can be tricky. You might not have access to an attic or basement, and storage can be limited. However, one of the best ways of ensuring safety is to store some of these things outside the home. I’m not recommending you keep your chef’s knife outside of the home, but not everything needs to be kept in the living space. For example, a garage is excellent for safely locking away dangerous equipment. And custom built sheds let you stow away all your potentially fatal gardening supplies like your lawnmower, shears, and power tools. This also helps to keep tools where they are used – specialized storage near the workspace is one of my favorite organizing methods.
Keep them Out of Reach
Medication, cleaning products, and of course, knives should always be kept in a safe place. Kitchen drawers are the clear choice for knives and other cutting tools. However, magnetic hanging strips are excellent when placed inside a designated cupboard – with a lock if possible. Locked containers help, but always ensure you can safely reach these without stretching, or they may fall out if you tip the box. Additionally, storing knives together can cause injury if you need to dig around. And blades knocking together will blunt them, which can also be dangerous when chopping food.
There are so many options to add secure storage inside your cabinets. You might already have a good knife drawer, but it isn’t secured. You can easily add a lock to this drawer if you need to keep curious fingers out. You could get a locking box designed for knife storage, a cabinet door-mounted knife safe, or an under-cabinet knife block. Keeping your knives where you can access them when you need them is key in continuing to use these safety features.
Don’t Mix with Blunt Objects
Further to blunt objects, try not to mix sharp objects and blunt objects together. This is likely to cause harm to an unsuspecting person. For instance, your partner could place their hands into a container with mostly blunt items like spoons, only to be injured by a sharp knife. And this extends to other uses such as food preparation. For example, never place chopping knives into the kitchen sink when washing cutlery or used plates. You cannot see into the soapy water and are more likely to cut yourself when fishing around for items to clean after eating. Once washed and dried (preferably by hand), put the knife directly away to minimize accidents.
Cover Sharp Edges
Foam padding or heavy-duty cardboard is excellent for large items such as gardening spades and lawnmower blades. Also, good-quality items such as Global kitchen knives usually come with safety covers and boxes to avoid accidents in storage. However, you can purchase plastic knife covers that keep your blades sharp and protect your hands when not in use. This makes it easier to travel with your favorite kitchen knives, too. Safe and secure for RV use or for picnics and roadtrips.
Educate About Safe Handling
Of course, all the safety features in the world are useless if you don’t educate your family about the dangers. While you don’t want to give your children sharp objects, early education will prevent serious injuries. For example, show your kids how to handle scissors when moving them by holding them over the blades. It’s also helpful to begin teaching them how to chop food, safely handle a kitchen knife and how to sharpen them when they are young. An unsharpened knife is more dangerous because it will slip. Often, this results in injury to the other hand.
Summary
Hazards are everywhere. But sharp objects cause the most injuries. You can reduce this by storing correctly, keeping it out of reach, and educating your family on using them. We teach our children from an early age about knife safety. When our children are included in our daily life, this sort of training comes about naturally.