How to make your garage a safe place for the kids

You don’t usually think of the garage as somewhere children should be left unsupervised, and that’s not wrong. But, with a little bit of TLC, you can transform your garage into a safe place for your children to play.

Of course, if you store dangerous objects in your garage, or use it for DIY projects, you will need to have a tidy up and put these things out of reach. After all, your goal is to make your garage a safe place for your kids.

It’s not difficult, it just takes a bit of common sense

• Store toxic and flammable products in closed cabinets

  Or if you can, lock them up. Like the old saying goes, out of sight out of mind, so anything that might hurt your children should be kept out of reach, including sharp objects.

• Don’t leave electricals plugged in

  Unsupervised children might become curious as to what that power tool does… Something you definitely don’t want to happen. In fact, you should store your electricals out of their reach, and make sure they can’t pull on the cords to get them down!

• Lock car doors

  If you have a double garage and leave one car in there while the kids are playing, make sure the doors are locked, you don’t want your kids to slam their fingers in the doors, or worse… start the car!

• Keep anything that can be climbed on out of reach

  We don’t call children little monkeys for no reason, if they can find something to climb on, they will! Make sure your ladders are securely attached to the wall so they can’t climb on them. And also, make sure there aren’t any low hanging ropes within their reach.

• Give your children a crash course in garage door safety

  Explain to them not to use the wall control panel (which should be installed out of their reach) unsupervised. Explain to them that they should never, under any circumstances, climb on the reinforcement struts (if you have them).

  Finally, always make sure that you operate the garage door safely when in their presence: make sure they stand well back, and teach them never to use the joints between the sections to close the door.

• Whatever you do, keep an eye on them!

  No matter how safe a place you make your garage you should always be able to see your children, just like when they’re playing in the garden. Make sure you leave the garage door open so you can see, hear, and react quickly if something happens.

If you’re not sure your garage door is safe enough for your children…

Get in touch with us right away at 515-276-3700. We’ll be more than happy to carry out our tune-up service and ensure that your garage door does not pose a danger to your children. Also, let us know if you’re thinking about changing your garage door, we can send you a detailed quote via email or even make a house call to assess the situation.

Finally, we recommend using our design center tool to “try on” a garage door for size, or if you’re a bit pressed for time, have a quick look through our image gallery where you’re bound to find tons of ideas.