Creative safety gates?

[eternamariposa]

My daughter is about to be 1 year old and if I can't workout soon I will loose my mind!  I have an elliptical at home and we are trying to convert our garage into a play room but I need to figure out a safe and relatively cheap way to baracade the elliptical from explorers of the pre-toddler kind, lol.  Any suggestions?

[cowboyjunki]

Have you ever seen these?  They don't make them anymore but I bought mine on Craigslist.  I have 16 panels total and I have used them for so many things - right now 6 of them are blocking off my Christmas tree!  If I don't want to make a complete circle I can push a heavy toy against a panel or zip tie one to something (I have one zip tied to my sewing table leg now) to create a wall.  I use them now to block off my sewing area/son's Lego land in my playroom from my 18 month old. 

[DoopaMama]

 

we had one like this in a boy scout camp kitchen that i worked at a few years ago, it expanded like 8 feet and was connected to a wall such that we could barricade everyone out of the kitchen or just funnel non-kitchen staff through the edge of the kitchen without them being able to come in a get in the way.  the downside:  my MIL had something similar when her first 3 kids were little and came in one day to find one child's head through a space, him sitting on the floor, fiddling with it.  nobody got hurt but needless to say it wouldn't be good for any child who can't understand that sticking one's head through the gate is a bad idea.  or climbing: they're not very strong when hanging in the air.  but a easy-to use, flexible idea for "reminding" older children.  unless you covered the structure with a netting sleeve... that would eliminate the head-through-gate issue...

good luck!

[leighi123]

Originally Posted by DoopaMama 

 

we had one like this in a boy scout camp kitchen that i worked at a few years ago, it expanded like 8 feet and was connected to a wall such that we could barricade everyone out of the kitchen or just funnel non-kitchen staff through the edge of the kitchen without them being able to come in a get in the way.  the downside:  my MIL had something similar when her first 3 kids were little and came in one day to find one child's head through a space, him sitting on the floor, fiddling with it.  nobody got hurt but needless to say it wouldn't be good for any child who can't understand that sticking one's head through the gate is a bad idea.  or climbing: they're not very strong when hanging in the air.  but a easy-to use, flexible idea for "reminding" older children.  unless you covered the structure with a netting sleeve... that would eliminate the head-through-gate issue...

good luck!

What stops a kid from walking around the gate and up the stairs in the main pic there?  That gate seems pointless, other than for doorways!  

[chel]

i just got a circle gate from target for my christmas tree.  i thing a set or two should work for the op.

[Anastasiya]

I've always liked this particular play yard/room divider: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GQ4CL0?ie=UTF8&tag=babandkidshor-20&link_code=wql&camp=212361&creative=380601

It's listed as unavailable now, and I don't know if that means forever or just temporarily, but it is attractive, BIG, and looks sturdy.

[DoopaMama]

What stops a kid from walking around the gate and up the stairs in the main pic there?  That gate seems pointless, other than for doorways!  

I meant it as an illustration of the mechanism: the expanding gate.  Mounted on a corner or across a hallway it could be a multi-function gate.  That particular product, yes would be about useless.  The one that we used in that kitchen was merely a reminder to keep out rather than as a physical barrier anyway but it was mounted on a corner and could be connected to one of two other corners with minimal effort.  like I said: probably of use more for dogs and older children that better follow rules such as "don't open the gate" unless it was more structuraly sound and included a sleeve of some sort to keep little fingers and heads out of the openings.  more of a theoretical idea than anything else I guess.