The only thing we "baby proofed" was the cabinet under the sink. We used those zip-line contraptions that look like a bow and hook over both knobs.

For everything else, we just moved the breakable/dangerous stuff out of reach. Your son is very rapidly going to want to do everything you do. That includes all the mundane household chores like putting pots away, sweeping, dusting etc. Kitchen time will be a lot more enjoyable for everyone if you let him do some of those things and don't "babyproof" all the "fun" stuff.

Thank you! Good point.

Just another one of those things I need to get used to. It is mostly just tupperware and pots and pans, with the exception of the under the sink one.

Anyone else care to share what they did?

I don't have any advice for you about babyproofing cabinets, either, except to say, rearrange your cabinets so the dangerous stuff is up high and out of reach, and everything they can reach is safe. Everything in my low cabinets and drawers is baby safe. I also keep the kids dishware, cups, utensils, etc, in a low cabinet so they can reach it all themselves. My cleaning supplies are up high in my pantry. And to be honest, they are limited and pretty child-safe anyway.

Your 6-month old will delight in opening the cabinets and playing with the pots and pans while you cook. Your 1 year old will love getting his own cup or bowl for cereal. It's easier to keep them busy with things they can play with than to try to keep everything locked up, in my opinion. And I do have kids, 4 of them, including 2-year old twins, so I do get it :)

My DD had these plastic things that were mounted on the top of the cabinet or drawer opening, and prevented the door/drawer from opening all the way. To open it, there was just enough room to stick your finger in to push down and release the latch. She had a 17 month old little girl when she had twin boys, so she had her hands full for awhile.

Here is a link that might be useful: Child proof latch

I'll echo what billl said. We put babyproof locks on all our kitchen cabinets, but usually keep the one with mostly plastic containers open and let our 17 month old play with that stuff while we're in the kitchen. He loves it! I had a friend that did this same thing and had a special kids cabinet with some old pots/pans that they let their kids play with and taught them how to put them back.

That being said, I'm not sure having inset cabinets would change what options you have. Any of the doorknob type locks would likely still work. Any of the hidden drawer pull type locks would also work but you'd have to get the kind that let you pull the door/drawer out further so you could "unlock" it. If you're familiar with child locks that should make sense. Just go to your local baby store and look at all the options they have. Buy a few you think might work and play with them.

If I had to do it all over again I would buy different cabinet locks. We bought ones that are actually hard to open for adults and I'd much prefer simpler ones I could open without wanting to just break the stupid thing off the door. Again, buying one or two and playing with them first before buying enough for my whole kitchen would've helped me here.

The cheapie plastic things you screw on the inside will likely work just fine. You might need to be creative but it's doable. I agree you probably want to minimize the stuff you need to lock but there's no reason you can't keep some things where they go.

We have frameless cabinets, not inset, but I'm pretty sure that what we have will work on any cabinets. Frameless and full overlay framed may be the hardest to get something that works on because if the latch requires opening part way and reaching in to push the latch, the drawer or door needs to pull open past the drawer or counter above. Most of the latches, including some that said that they work on frameless, don't have enough length to allow that. The one that we found that did was too bulky.

In the end, we went with the magnetic latches and I think that they would work well on any door or drawer. We were concerned that it would be hard to keep track of where the magnet "keys" were, but it hasn't been and we really like them now. We keep two keys on the sides of our fridge. The stainless front isn't magnetic but the sides are. We keep another on our expresso machine.

We put them on more than bill, but sparingly - the under sink cabinet, the cabinet with heavy appliances some of which have blades, a cabinet with pullouts for bottled items (broken glass). We thought about baby proofing the drawers that have sharp knives, but decided to wait and see if the baby showed an interest in them since they were all top drawers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Magnetic latches like we used

Thank you to all who responded. I'm a little confused after looking at some pictures that are showing them mounted on the partial overlay. I guess we'll just buy a couple of different kinds and see what works. DH is pretty handy.

Cloud- the magnetic one sounds interesting...and I see that they have an adhesive version that wouldn't involve any holes in the doors...wonder how well that would hold up?

I wonder whether the tot lok ones could be mounted without the receiver and just catch on the frame of the cabinet itself. Otherwise you'd need to screw a piece of wood onto the back of the face frame in order to attach the receiver.

Gregincal, if necessary, a small would block can be screwed to the inside of the frame and the receiver can be attached to that.

Angel, we have the screw in ones so I don't know how well the magnetic one works. The screws are pretty small so the holes won't be very noticeable when they are removed and the holes are all on insides of things.

The magnetic latches have a little lever that can be set to hold them in the unlocked position - we do that when the grandkids aren't visiting, but it sometimes flips back to let the door lock so when you don't need them any more you might want to remove them.

We tried a number of other latches first because we didn't want to have to have to keep track of the unlocking magnet but finally gave in when nothing else was working. While the stainless fridge doors aren't magnetic, the sides of the fridge are and so we keep one on each side. We keep a third one on the espresso machine - that puts them in easy reach from any part of the kitchen and I like them a lot now.

I didn't have inset but the only cabinets we baby proofed were the sink base and the pantry. I used the hook latches over the knobs of the sink base and the magnetic latch on the pantry.

Then, I just made sure that things like sippy cups, tupperware, placemats, pots/pans, and especially the salad spinner were all in the cabinets within reach and I let them have at it. Messy, but much better than cooking with a baby on your hip :-)

There is no law that says you have to have toxins under the sink. My sister always had all her cleaning supplies in an upper cabinet, and unbreakables like plasticware in the lower cabinets.

The large under-sink cabinet was used for storing really big thins like the tamale steamer.

The children would occasionally pull everything out to play with, but it was not a big hassle. They quickly learned to put it all back.

The plastic ones like Joyce linked, with a little finesse, can hook directly onto the actual cabinet box frame and you don't need to use the receiver at all. They just snag the uhhhhh stiles. (Cabinet lingo escaping me...) It's easier than frameless.

Thanks everyone for your help. I'm a first time mom who is also TKO, so I'm just realizing that I'm going to have to let my kitchen be messy sometimes!

I am always grateful for the shared experiences and advice!