Which cabinet and drawer locks are most user friendly?

[sparkeze]

I need to get some cabinet and drawer locks for the kitchen but there are a few cabinets and drawers that I go into so frequently that I'm afraid that if a lock is a hassle to use that I may not always lock it. Any suggestions? TIA!

[nohomama]

Here's my advice: babyproof as many of your cabinets as possible by removing anything dangerous or breakable and moving it to an inaccessible place. I'd do this especially if you think you're likely to not use the lock ALL the time. We only have one cabinet with safety locks on it. The rest are open season for Lola.

For the under sink cabinet we have locked, we used Tot Loks. Basically a piece of metal and a high powered magnet "key." They were a !@#$% to install but I highly recommend them anyway. Our sink is cast iron so we just leave the key stuck to the sink next to the dishsoap. It's important to get a spare key though. If you only have one and loose it, not only is baby not getting into the cabinet, neither are you.

HTH,

[egoldber]

We were very fortunate to buy a house with a full complement of TotLocks already installed on all the kitchen cabinets (complete with 4 keys). The prvious owners had an 18 month old.

They work very well. One thing I really like is that I can easily leave them "unlocked" if I need to get in and out of a cabinet several times within a few minutes.

HTH,

[suzska]

Just watchout that the TotLocks do not work on all cabinets. We have (fairly brand-new) Kraftmaid cabinets in our kitchen, and the TotLocks don't line-up right for us to install them (without possibly screwing through the door). So we haven't installed them. I haven't found anything else yet that works. For the most part we keep Evan out of the kitchen when we're not there or try to remove stuff from the drawers that he can get to.

For the sink cabinet we have one of those locks that goes through the handles--you have to squeeze and slide the one piece to open the cabinet.