How do I begin babyproofing?

A brief list of starting points:

• Stairgates. (We have friends who never bothered, but we stuck with them for quite a while.)
• Socket covers
• Fridge/cupboard locks (it probably won't be long before he can open them more easily than you can, but they're temporarily useful)
• Drawer catches for kitchen drawers with sharp knives etc
• Tidy up any cables etc on the floor - we bought a "media unit" for the TV/hifi/etc mere days before our eldest learned to crawl :)
• Move easily breakable things to high shelves, bearing in mind that if he's not pulling himself up on shelves, he will be soon

It's also useful to have somewhere that you can safely leave him for a few minutes if you need to answer the door or whatever. Obviously you'll be with him most of the time, but just occasionally you'll need to be able to put him somewhere and be happy that he's not going to get into trouble. This may mean making his own room "extra safe" for example. There are baby pens, but I can't say how well they work as we've never tried them.

Posture yourself so your face is no more than ~6 inches off of the floor. Go everywhere in your house and see what you can see from that vantage point.

A friend gave me this advice and it blew my mind. The whole world looked completely different from there, even before I started unlearning some of my preconceived notions that no toddler has.

• If it can fit in their mouth, it will go there. (Including bugs)
• If something (ESPECIALLY food and body parts) can fit into it, it'll be put there (you do have vents on the floor? You'd be amazed what can be forced between those openings).
• If they can reach it with their arms they will. This includes under couches and in fireplaces (the more ash, the better)
• If they can't reach it, they might anyway (this is only a contradictory statement until the 1st time you witness it for yourself and say, "how did they reach that?!").
• If they can pull on it (like a table cloth or electrical cord) and make things fall, they will.

The above starts getting really scary when you factor low reachable cabinets with cleaning chemicals + if it can fit in their mouth. Like wise for fitting anything small into electrical sockets and toilets. These are all cliches for a reason.

Edit: we have a lot of house plants which 1 can be easily tipped and knocked over if you don't put them in the right place. But more importantly can be unexpectedly toxic. Find a resource you trust and LOOK THESE UP. Most resources I found about this had to do with pets this may be good enough but I sure don't feel so for us. Find a resource you trust (like this one) and ALWAYS have your poison control number easily visible. In fact, that's good advice for all people always but especially with children.

Consumer Reports has a fairly extensive section on childproofing. Truthfully, it seems a little overwhelming to me. We also need to start childproofing . . .

My answer to a similar question, in a nutshell:

Secure to the wall dressers, shelves, or any other furniture that might topple.

For details: http://moms4mom.com/questions/1472/how-far-should-child-proofing-go/1483#1483

This may seem like a cop out, but we hired someone to do it for us. He showed up with all of the gates and latches in his truck and ran around the house and had it all installed in 2 hours. Considering how much it costs to buy the supplies anyway, and how much time it would have taken my husband to do it all himself, it seems worth it.

Borrow a goat :)