5 Window Covering Safety Tips You Should Know

Keeping your family safe and happy in your home is important. When it comes to child safety, many people know to cover outlets and anchor furniture. Often, however, your window coverings might get overlooked while child-proofing your home. 

Did you know that corded window treatments can be very dangerous to young children and pets?  In fact, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission names corded window treatments as one of the top five hidden hazards in American homes.  Knowing the facts about the safest window coverings can help with your peace-of-mind. After all, you want to spend more time with your family and less time worrying. 

These five tips will ensure your window coverings are safe for children and pets, so you can enjoy time at home while protecting your loved ones.  

#1: Go Cordless 

The safest solutions for window coverings that are child and pet-safe are cordless window treatments. The Window Covering Safety Council, which promotes window covering safety all year long but especially in the month of October for National Window Covering Safety Month, suggests cordless treatments as the safest option.  

In fact, a recent safety standard adopted by the window covering industry has committed to making sure most window coverings sold in the US will be cordless or have inaccessible or short cords. This standard, which went into effect in December 2018, means most new window coverings will be safer for children.  

Cordless window treatments are the safest option for children and pets because there are no cords in which to become entangled. Somfy motorized shades and blinds are cordless, making them a safe option for families. Instead of fighting with long, dangerous cords to open and close window treatments, parents can now control window treatments at the press of a button. Voice control makes it even simpler for parents or pet owners to control motorized window coverings safely and without cords.  

"Motorized is revolutionizing the industry," Linda Kaiser, president of Parents for Window Blind Safety, told NPR.  

#2: Move Furniture and Cribs Away from Windows 

It’s important to keep cribs and other furniture away from windows. Children can crawl up onto furniture near windows and become tangled in cords. Move cribs and other children’s furniture to walls away from windows so they can enjoy natural light without danger. 

After all, natural light is an essential part of wellness, and windows are an important fixture in any child’s room. Natural light impacts everything from boosting Vitamin D and improving mood to impacting your child’s circadian rhythm, which impacts their sleep schedule.  

While it’s wise to keep furniture away from windows, investing in a window covering you’ll remember to open and close is also important. For instance, you can schedule your motorized shades to raise in the afternoon while your child reads or plays in their room, and then close at night so they can focus on getting quality rest. All of this can be done from your smartphone with app control for motorized shades, so you can set a schedule and then go about the rest of your day.  

#3: Start by Replacing the Most Important Window Coverings  

Perhaps you don’t have the resources to replace all the window coverings in your home with cordless alternatives all at once. Start by prioritizing the rooms your children spend the most time in, especially unsupervised. This means swapping to cordless options for bedrooms and playrooms.  

As you go along, you can also change to cordless treatments in other rooms of the house. But if your resources are limited, make sure the rooms your children spend the most time in have the safest window treatments.  

#4: Keep Cords out of Reach 

For those corded window treatments that you can’t swap out immediately, make sure to tie cords up and out of the reach of curious babies and toddlers. The higher up you can tie cords, the better. There are products like blind cord safety tassels and cleats that will make it simpler to keep dangerous cords out of reach.    

But keep in mind that tying up cords is not a perfect alternative to replacing with cordless options. After all, many corded blinds have cords between the blind slats that children can still become stuck in.  

#5: Look for the Best for Kids Label 

If you’re not sure if the window covering you’re considering is safe for your family, you can always search for the Best for Kids certification. This certification is open to all window covering manufacturers in the United States and is the industry’s first third-party certification program designed to help consumers and retailers identify window covering products that are best suited for use in homes with young children. 

When in doubt, you can always look for the Best for Kids label to see if the window covering has been certified. Because motorized blinds and shades are cordless, motorized treatments are always a safe option for children’s rooms, nurseries, and playrooms.  

Now that you know the hidden dangers corded window treatments can pose to your family, you can follow the tips above to keep children and pets safe.  

Click here to learn more about National Window Covering Safety Month.