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9.27.2012

Quick Fix for Uneven Baby Gate

When Phee made the move to a toddler bed last year, we bought a baby gate to use at night.  The last thing I need is a toddler wandering the house in the dark at 3:00 am.  The gate was great, except for the fact that our house is old and nothing is straight or level.

I didn't need any sort of special gate so I just got the cheap wood gate with the plastic lattice.  It has the notched bar so that you can adjust the length of the gate.  I found the right notch for our doorway, and it worked well, except for one corner that didn't quite catch.  With one corner loose, the whole thing could be pushed right out of the doorway in a toddler tantrum.

{pre-fix, the gate pushed out of the doorway since one corner didn't fit snugly}
I didn't want a different gate.  This one was easy to step over half-asleep and groggy at 2:00 am.  It stowed away in Phee's room well during the day.  Plus, I'd already tossed the receipt and packaging.  Time to figure out how to fix it.

My quick fix?  Super glue and large rubber bumpers (those little adhesive rubber feet that are for protecting furniture from scratches).  Just glue one of the flat rubber bumpers onto the rubber foot of the baby gate to get the little bit of extra length you need to make the gate stick.  One of the large, flat round bumpers was the perfect size for the rubber foot of the baby gate.  Without super glue, the bumper only lasted a few nights.  With super glue, one bumper has lasted about five months.

{rubber bumper glued to round rubber gate foot}
This quick fix has lasted much longer than I expected it to.  I have stash of bumpers for when I lose one, but I've only had to replace the super glued bumper once so far.  Works for me!

{the bumper adds just the little bit of length needed to make the gate fit snugly and securely}

*Obviously, this fix won't work for all gates and all families.  Use common sense and only use this fix if you can do so safely.

Amazon affiliate links are used in this post.


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