a piece of wire mesh in place of drawer liner? Would be more heat resistant & stiffer material to stay in place better & not slip into air duct pipe. BTW, I was just thinking it’s a good thing your littles haven’t discover how fun it is to drop things into toilet! 😆

@KW I know!! I have caught one once washing his hands in the toilet water but thankfully nothing has been flushed... yet 🤪 I can look for wire mesh. Anything specific to look for when shopping for it? Or is it a "one size fits most" type product? Thank you!!

I’m thinking garden type mesh on a roll found at box box stores. Various weights & tightness of mesh. But that won’t stop them from taking the vent cover off as I now think I understand they’re doing to drop things into Vent. Also, if the mesh isn’t somehow secured or stapled to inside of vent under the cover so it cannot be pulled out, they could do some serious damage to themselves with the sharp pointy edges of cut mesh. Maybe look at inside of vent under cover to see how / if mesh can be affixed to square opening. I’m sure you’d know to make sure littles are no where around to witness you doing this! Such ideas!

thank you so much!

How about getting an air vent deflector and put your couch completely over the vent? The deflector will guide the air to flow under the couch.

Tara, Thought about suggesting the air vent deflector too but looked at OP’s couch skirt & thought that it wouldn’t work well unless couch had legs only. It’d be warm under couch but nowhere else!

If this is a return then I suggest using a three legged skirted side table. You can either cut the back of the skirt or pin it so that air can flow from the back. The wall from the right and the couch on the left can hide to opening. Move the sofa a few inches from the wall so there is enough of a gap for air to enter. You could also insert an eyelet hook into the table and secure it to the wall in case you are worried one of the children might pull on the skirt and cause it to fall over.

I agree with mike-home. If this IS a return and not a vent, I could just place the couch over it, and then pin up the skirt on the couch. In a few years this will be a non issue.

How about another end table there...wooden one with a low shelf that sits above the return vent...You know........Out of sight, out of mind for little ones. Table should be heavy enough that they can't move it but still cover the vent. You know how much fun little ones have dropping things and making them disappear,,,,

thank you, mike_home. it is a return. I never considered hooking the table to the wall, but I think that is super smart, especially since so many of the tables I've seen online seem very "tippable"

thank you, ptreckel!

thank you, partim! with the leg only on the corner, they've still managed to pick it up just enough to get little fingers underneath :( I think my only concern about the stuff dropping in would be damage to the stuff (pipe? idk the terminology for the silver crinkly tube down there, lol!) I love your joke and can totally appreciate it! 😆

Scoot the couch over and pull it away from the wall. It’s too tight to the wall anyway.

"Pulling the sofa slightly away from the wall (about 6 – 8 inches) will do all sorts of wonderful things for your room – it will make your room feel bigger, cozier (strangely enough) and help to avoid that formal, Waiting Room appearance."

thank you erinsean! and yes, it's like peekaboo, solo style!!

The way I see it, Jennifer....your return will be the object of delight to future home owners when they renovate and discover the things your children have “deposited” there. Seriously! You cannot believe the interesting things we found in the air returns of our 19th century home. Some of them...I put on display! Little metal cars, toy soldiers, etc. Don’t worry. No one is judging you. We are amused! 😉

I had 2 little boys long-ago. Lift the entire back skirt of the couch, the wall will hold it up, then slide the whole couch over the vent. Will still be able to draw air, out-of-sight, and be sure to take out that shelf lining first bc it can mess up the way your system works. (Yes, that is the technical

explanation) ;)

thank you JudyG Designs!: I'll pull it away from the wall a little (though I may call you over to retrieve any toys - or boys - that end up back there hahaha)

ptreckel, I love that and I do hope we leave our home better and happier than we found it!

great advice Beth Allen, thank you so much!

I raised two boys. I understand.

My first thought was to get a framed window screen to lay over it. Arrange it so that the sofa leg on that corner sets right on it so the kiddos can’t move the screen.

You could just fasten the cover down with a long screw into the wood underlying the carpet. Use a piece of metal with a hole in one end.

A return grill is an important element to the function of the HVAC system. I would do nothing to compromise it. The drawer liner you've put in it appears to reduce the air passage way by nearly 50 percent and putting a skirted couch over it would do that more so. You've reduced the functioning of this return pretty significantly and besides compromising the functioning of the system, doing so can also damage the blower motor because you're causing resistance in the intake side.

Unless there are several other return grills of adequate size elsewhere in the house, I wouldn't take these steps at all. At best, I would try to find a non-skirted couch that you can scoot over to the right (when looking at the image) to more fully block access. Or, limit the small toys the children have to play with (which should be done anyway) and don't allow those items in this room.

I have to tell a story about my little boy....his socks kept missing and I asked him if he knw where they were. He said "Mom, look on top of the bookcase in my room...I have been taking them off at night and kicking them to see how high they would go" Yep...found at least three pair of socks up there, So I do know how little boys like to hide things, whether toys or clothes.

At one point we couldn't understand why my husbands change that he set in a little change dish every night went missing.

My little boy used the DVR as a piggy bank lol

My childhood house had those grates. There were 4 of us kids and a series of cats -- lots of things got dropped down (one memorable time: the *cat* got into one of them), even though my parents were very strict. ;) I wouldn't worry about it, honestly. If your kids are anything like me, the grate will be an indelible part of their childhood memories. :D

Listen only to partim and Fudd.

Children are now called "littles"?

No ideas. Just wanted to send you hugs for working at home and taking care of kiddos!

This is a couple of weeks old, and isn't one of the issues I had with four girls.

But just 1/4" gap metal screen, or even window screen, would offer little obstruction.

You could also drill to add screws to hold it down (although this could turn into an arms race).

Or (my little boy showing) rig it with something that pops out and scares the daylights out of them if they remove the grate . . .

my oldest wanted to taste my beer as a toddler. I waited until I I had made a particularly strong stout, and let her try . . . that bought well over a decade before she asked again . . .

Be glad you don’t have a laundry chute. Just saying! 😂

now that you mention it . . . and knowing how they behaved . . . my grandmother had one in SF, and it's kind of surprising that my gather never sent my uncle down it . . .

hmm, now that I think of it, I wonder if it *did* happen, and it simply isn't one of the stories I've heard yet . . .

Jennifer, I’m at the ready. I have daily practice on my hands and knees retrieving toys, socks, shoes, eyeglasses, computer mouse, mouse pad….what’s a couple of kids? Piece of cake.