I'm looking for a recommendation in childproofing our cabinets and drawers. A friend highly recommended TOT LOCKS but it involves drilling deep into cabinets and their costly. My friend warned that they drilled too far, and she's heard it happening with others, and ruined their custom cabinets. There's also some problems with faulty keys to unlock the cabinets.
Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Adhesive Mount Magnetic Cabinet Lock - we love it! ordered it from one step ahead - but have also seen it at Babies R Us - no drilling - it has a magnet key for you to open - so cabinets do not open a little for the fingers to get pinched - SO easy to install... must say we LOVE them! best of luck.
We used totlocs on some of our cabinets. They really get the job done! Unfortunatley, they are pricey and they were a SUPREME pain in the neck to install with much drilling (we have one cabinet with a visible hole due to a drilling snafu!). So after we struggled with the totlocs, we went with a cabinet lock that is an internal latch...then you use your finger to push the latch open from the inside. You still have to drill, but they were much cheaper and easier to install. We used them on kitchen drawers as well. I am not a fan of the external locks and latches. I just don't like the look/some of them require 2 hands to open/some of my cabinets are single doors so they wouldn't work anyway. I'm pretty sure the ones we used were either the Parents brand (available at Target) or Kidsafe. Good luck & happy babyproofing!
We have used three different forms of locks on cabinets. One is shaped in a rectangle with a button in the middle (top does not meet). It worked well if the knobs are perfectly that distance apart, but all have been broken after about a year.
Another has a square on it's side and two loops of notched plastic (looks like a zip tie). Those have not broken for us but are a bit of a pain to open (must hold down two buttons and pull loop). they work on any distance of knobs. Initially we leave them loose enough to pull off one knob, until the child figures that out.
Tot Locks: to prevent drilling too far, my husband put a piece of tape on the drill at the distance he wanted to drill (the ends touched each other like a flag). If you measure your cabinet and the screw and use the tape, there is no reason you should drill through the cabinet. We liked this on our custom cabinets because we did not want knobs (part of a bookcase).
If Tot Locks are too expensive, move stuff around in other cabinets, buy one set ($20 for four) and use it.
Good luck!!
Is there really anything in you cabinet that could her hurt your baby? With my first child I went crazy with baby locks etc. With my second I placed everything I felt was a danger up high where she couldn't reach. She had a blast pulling out my pots and pans of course it got a little annoying but certainly not dangerous. That phase lasted only about 6 months and now if I tell her to stay out of the cabinets she usually does. Do what it takes to keep your baby safe but a little playing in your cabinets isn't worth all of the time and money wasted locking her out. Just by all means move all of your cleaners and hazardous utensils!
We have the TOT LOCKS with the magnetic keys and have never had a problem with them. They work really well and have a setting on them for when you no longer need the lock so you don't have to leave a hole in your cabinet.
My mom found a quick fix - she had some leftover elastic from her sewing supplies and just tied it around the knobs. Although our little one might be able to slightly open the cabinets there's so way she can open them up all the way. And she getting frustrated so she hardly even tries to open them anymore. So no expensive locks and no holes! Plus, it's easy enough for adults to open the cabinets.
