Shelf Coverups

With Clara now fully mobile, Tara has found it increasingly frustrating pulling her out of, off of, and away from all of the things she is capable of injuring or being injured by. With a small apartment, we have limited ability to permanently remove furniture and other possessions from the living room, but one quick trick that has helped a lot is covering the lower parts of the shelves she has been getting into.

I had originally intended to get some nice hinges, clasps, and pieces of Lexan, but hadn’t had a chance to get out to Home Depot, so after a particularly exasperating day, went ahead and executed with what we had available: a big cardboard box, and some spare hardware left over from other projects.

This is what remains of a shelving unit I built back in 2007. It has served well in its various roles, but is probably bound for a future basement or rec-room, so I wasn’t too concerned about putting some holes in the front to fasten this piece on.

And it’s easy access to get at our games—just twist down the clasp at the bottom, and fold the whole thing up:

The other shelf is a flimsy, inexpensive unit from The Brick, but the shelves are nicely finished on the front, which I didn’t want to permanently ruin:

For this one, you untie the bow, and then pull off the cardboard to gain access.

The hooks are screwed to the underside of the second shelf, so will be easily removable in the future.

As Clara becomes older and cleverer, these simple measures will no longer stump her. But that is part of the excitement. The older she gets, the tougher she’ll be—there may well be a point sometime in the future where she has to pull over a pile of boardgames on herself in order to learn a real-world consequence of getting into stuff she knows she’s not supposed to be into.

For now, though, it’s easier and safer to just block her access.