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Cabinet locks for apartment-dwellers

dmurriedmurrie member
in Babies: 3 - 6 Months

Hi!  We live in an apartment and are starting to get full-swing into the childproofing (baby just rolled over for the first time so we still have a little time, but with my husband's crazy work schedule, we better get to it sooner rather than later!).  Our main issue is the kitchen cabinets.  We're renting, so we can't do anything to mar the cabinets unless we want it to come out of our security deposit.  The cabinets do not have any knobs or handles, so no luck there.  There are a few lower cabinets, a couple of drawers, and 2 lazy-susan corner cabinet spinner things.

Has anyone used any of the cabinet locks that installs with adhesive tape?  If so, how did they work, and how easily and completely did the adhesive come off the cabinets when you didn't need them any more?  If they work well and come off easily, this seems like a great option!  If not, I guess we may just be better off drilling and installing cabinet locks and then when we leave using wood filler on the holes and hoping they don't notice.

If anyone has any other recommendations for securing apartment cabinets, we're open to suggestions! Thanks!

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Re: Cabinet locks for apartment-dwellers

  • franceshousemanfranceshouseman
    I am pretty sure they make cabinet locks with adhesive to secure them. Check at babies r us for sure. They always have a lot of that stuff.
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  • pitterpatter129pitterpatter129 member
    I think there might be some with magnets too?  Not completely sure on that, but thought I saw some once.  Not an apt person, so we went with the cheapest version.  You can also just get a locked storage box for chemicals/meds/etc.
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  • nosoup4unosoup4u member
    We just screwed holes into our cabinets, no one ever noticed when we moved out. And you could keep one cabinet open with baby-friendly stuff, so you'd have one less to mess with. The magnet ones would make me worry about the baby getting them in their mouth.
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  • dmurriedmurrie member
    Thanks:-)  I saw a couple of the adhesive locks at Babies R Us, but I wasn't sure how the adhesive would come off when it's time for us to go.  Is it like the 3M stuff that peels right off or would I be sitting there picking at it with a plastic butter knife for the entire last week?  It almost makes your head spin with how much childproofing stuff Babies R Us has!  For now, we're starting by securing the stand-alone cabinets that we brought with us and trying to research for the other cabinets.  We should have a while yet before she's crawling around.
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  • dmurriedmurrie member
    It looks like for most of the magnetic ones, you still have to drill, but Babies R Us has one type of magnetic lock that's adhesive.  There are only 2 reviews for it so far, and no one has mentioned what happens when it's time to take them down!  We went with the cheapo ones for the cabinets we brought us (a hutch, a china cabinet, and a microwave cart).  And we bought a better lock for the bar.  When she figures that one out, I'm thinking about getting a combination lock for it.  Maybe we'll leave it up all the way through college Angel  hahaha.  Anyways, we have so many heavy and or sharp objects in the kitchen that we'll have to do something to lock them up.  If we tried to move all those things to the upper cabinets, I think they would collapse!
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  • dmurriedmurrie member
    Thanks.  I'm not sure, we may end up doing the same thing.  The cabinets are pretty much the same color as wood filler, so we would probably be able to camouflage it pretty well.  If the adhesive doesn't come off (for the adhesive locks), I'm thinking it might be more difficult to try to hide that or peel it off the cabinets.  There are a couple spots we can see where someone had something else put up with adhesive strips and there's still gunk from them.  In the school where I worked the last couple of years, you could see evidence from some adhesive strips that were used years ago, too, and you could never get the gunk off.
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  • JoannaJesJoannaJes member

    I'm not sure if this would work for you, but we just don't have anything in our lower cabinets that could be dangerous to get into. Mostly, I keep tupperware, pot holders, and towels in all of our lower drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. So if DS wanted to get into those, NBD. I find this to be easier than fumbling with those crazy locks all of the time.

    I think it just depends on your child. You might want to wait until your LO is older and actually is requiring cabinet locks to see what you really need to babyproof. Not all babies require the same degree of babyproofing.

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