Mess Free Interiors (baby-and-toddler-proof your home)

If you’re planning on making some ‘baby-safe’ updates to your interiors, you’ll have no doubt read-up on how to make your home as child friendly as possible. The internet is awash with all the typical advice. Choose soft furnishings. Make sure all cables are tied and tidy. Dispose of any choking hazards such as potpourri and decorative plant or water features containing small stones. Open fire place? You’re going to need a grill. Large family dog? You might want to install a gate. Et cetera.

But what about mess? What can we do to help us to deal with those regular spills, scuffs, and splatters, not to mention the piles of junk mail and other accumulated jumble that little hands love to scatter around the home? Let’s take a look at how to ‘baby-and-toddler-proof’ your home against any avoidable mayhem.

Wipe Clean Skirting Boards

There’s nothing worse than the bottom of your well-chosen wallpaper showing signs of mucky hands and dirty shoes. What you need is an easy-to-install skirting board that’s wipe-clean and fits with your colour palette. Ovolo skirting board options give you exactly that. The simple traditional design – in clean white – is popular among the trade for its ability to blend in with any feature wall, neutral wall, and flooring of any type.

Create a ‘De-Clutter Zone’ at the Entrance

This is much easier if you have a porch or hallway at the entrance to your home. Although a de-clutter zone may sound obvious, there’s more to it than meets the eye. For instance, not only can you instantly declutter your home and keep your floors and furnishings free from wet/muddy shoes or pram wheels by allowing yourself to keep that one entrance point as a bulging cloakroom, you can also use the space as a mail room. Mail gets everywhere. Coffee tables, kitchen worktops – leave an ironing board standing long enough and soon white and brown envelopes will appear as if by magic. Keep separate in-trays for quick and easy sorting and also keep a waste basket to hand for junk mail. Quick, easy, and no bits of paper lying around the living room that can be ripped up, scrawled on, and tossed around by junior. Simple.

Establish an “Art” Drawer or Cupboard

Speaking of the dishevelled look that loose papers create when mixed with small prolific artists, there’s no quicker and simpler way to keep the colourful scribbles from clogging up your coffee table than creating a positive impression around ‘the drawer’ that only ‘the best’ artworks are chosen for. Start with a pinboard or fridge magnets if you wish. But sooner or later your walls and your fridge door will become overwhelmed. ‘The drawer’ is the perfect answer. Tidy away all scribbly artworks into the drawer, and occasionally empty it into the recycling. They’ll never know.