We spent hours researching outlet covers, evaluating ease of installation, effectiveness, and durability. Our top pick, the Safety 1st Outlet Cover, prevents access to outlets and has a built-in cord shortener and a child-resistant design. Here are the best outlet covers for childproofing your home. There are a lot of great outlet covers out there. But Safety 1st’s Outlet Cover boasts a unique feature set that makes it one of the best buys around. The box-style cover is made up of two pieces: a low-profile wall plate and a somewhat bulky cover. The wall plate is designed to frame your sockets, while the cover is designed to fasten to that wall plate—keeping your outlets out of reach and view. Thanks to some clever design choices, the cover should be tough for little ones to remove, but easy for you to remove. (Simply press the buttons lining both sides of the cover, and pull.) Now, there’s no getting around it: Safety 1st’s Outlet Cover is bulky. But rather than being a total downside, the outlet cover’s bulk is something of an asset. For starters, the outlet cover can conceal your sockets, even when there’s something plugged into them. At the base of the cover, you’ll find two small holes. These are big enough to accommodate many cords, meaning you can childproof your outlets without making them unusable. The outlet cover is also equipped with two large brackets, which you use to store up to 4 feet of cord at a time. (Simply wrap the excess cord around the brackets, and shut the outlet cover.) This unique feature sets Safety 1st’s Outlet Cover apart from the rest, allowing you to childproof your home in two ways at once. Price at time of publish: $5 The plugs are designed to sit flush against your outlets, making them tough for little ones (and maybe even adults) to remove. And since they’re reusable, you can move them from room to room any time you need to. Also nice? Whereas many plug protectors are transparent, these are rendered in solid white. The opaque color should cover up your sockets, obscuring them from your little one’s view. And since white is a classic outlet color, the plugs should blend right in with most standard outlets. Price at time of publish: $5 The outlet cover looks a lot like a box. The back of the cover surrounds your sockets, securely sitting on top of them. The front of the cover can be opened any time you want to plug something in—and closed any time you want to protect your outlet. And because Commercial Electric knows that sometimes you want to protect your outlets while you have something plugged in, the cover is designed with a small hole at the base, which is big enough to accommodate most standard cords. The outlet cover is crafted from a UV-resistant polycarbonate material, so it should hold up to the wear and tear of the outdoors. The outlet cover should also be suitable for wet locations, so you shouldn’t have to worry about a rainy day ruining your find. Price at time of publish: $10 But Babepai’s Outlet Covers offer a clever way around this all-too-common problem. Each plug protector boasts a ribbed end, which lifts up to create a handle. Pull this handle, and your plug protector should slide right out of the socket. What’s nice? When unlifted, that ribbed end should blend in with the rest of the plug protector. So you shouldn’t have to worry about choosing between safety and convenience. Instead, you can simply have both. Each set of Babepai’s Outlet Covers comes with 38 outlet covers. And since they’re sold at such a reasonable price point, you should be able to stock up without breaking the bank. Plus, the outlet covers are easy to install (just slide them in) and completely reusable, so you can flexibly move them around your home as you see fit. Price at time of publish: $9 The outlet cover comes equipped with two narrow pegs, which are designed to slide inside the bottom holes on three-prong sockets. This design makes the outlet covers both easy to install and tough to remove, which is about all you can ask for from an outlet cover. What truly sets this outlet cover apart, though, is the fact that you can paint it to match your walls. Whereas many outlet covers come in a one-size-fits-all shade of glossy white, this one is designed to be painted a color of your choosing. Crafted from paintable plastic—and finished with a matte coating—the outlet cover should hold paint well. So you can enjoy an outlet cover that perfectly matches your walls, rather than one that simply approximates it. Price at time of publish: $9 This clever design makes it easy to childproof your home. And Safety Innovations’ Self-Closing Outlet Covers make it even easier. Since the outlet covers are also self-closing, they’ll automatically slide shut any time you unplug something from them. So they’ll either be open and in use or closed and out of use. This means you’ll never have to worry about whether you remembered to close the outlet covers—you can rest assured knowing the self-closing covers did the childproofing for you. Whereas some outlet covers are designed to plug the holes in your sockets, Safety Innovations’ Self-Closing Outlet Covers are designed to replace the outlets you already have. And since outlets come in a range of shapes and sizes, you can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to shopping. Thankfully, Safety Innovations offers both one-screw outlet covers and two-screw outlet covers. So take a look at the outlets in your home, and snag the set of covers that’s best suited to replace them. Price at time of publish: $20 KISKIZ’s Self-Closing Swivel Outlet Covers, on the other hand, look like classic plug protectors. They’re small, somewhat round, and easy to install. (They’re adhesive, so they stick directly onto your current outlets.) But when not in use, they swivel counter-clockwise to cover up the holes in your outlet. This clever design makes them doubly convenient: They’re as easy to install as standard plug protectors, and since they’re self-closing, you should never have to fret about whether you remembered to close the outlet covers. To make matters even better, the outlet covers come in sets of 38. So you can cover a lot of ground with just one set. The only downside? Since the outlet covers are backed by a strong adhesive, they may not be as flexible as other plug protectors (which typically slide into outlets the way a plug might). Price at time of publish: $17 Naturally, this makes box style outlet covers pretty bulky—and there’s really no getting around that. (Your plugs take up a fair amount of space, after all.) But with Safety Innovations’ Twin Door Outlet Covers, you can avoid one other common downside that tends to accompany box style outlet covers: Many box style outlet covers are inconvenient to open. But Safety Innovations’ Twin Door Outlet Covers is not. Most box style outlet covers are made up of two pieces: a wall plate and a cover. The wall plate surrounds your sockets, while the cover conceals them. And any time you want to unplug or plug in one of your devices, you have to take that cover off. Safety Innovations’ Twin Door Outlet Covers, on the other hand, is made up of just one piece. Instead of closing via a separate cover, it closes via a built-in cover. And that built-in cover splits down the middle, opening and shutting like a set of French doors. This makes it easy to add or remove plugs from your outlets—but not so easy that your little one could do it. To open the cover, you have to press buttons on the top and bottom at the same time. That’s the kind of feature that tends to be easy for adults to manage, but tough for kids to figure out—giving you safety and convenience in equal measure. Price at time of publish: $18 If you’re hoping to stock up on outlet covers on a budget, though, you might be better off with Safety 1st’s Plug Protectors. The outlet covers conveniently slide into your outlets (just like a plug would) to seal them off. This convenient design makes them easy to install, reuse, and move around—giving you the flexibility to adapt your childproofing set-up as your needs change. Of course, the outlet covers aren’t just convenient—they’re also budget-friendly. For less than $2, you can score 24 outlet covers. Depending on the size of your home, that may be enough to outfit every outlet in your space. And even if it isn’t, you shouldn’t need to buy too many sets to get the job done.
Color
Many outlet covers come in a versatile shade of white—one designed to mimic the look of classic switch plates. This is great if your switch plates (or your walls) are white. But if they aren’t, you may want to snag a set of outlet covers in a color that better suits your space. You can also keep an eye out for a set of paintable outlet covers, which you can paint to perfectly match your walls.
Ease of Install
Some outlet covers are incredibly easy to install: They slide directly into your outlet (the way a plug might), or they stick on top of it (via a strong adhesive). Others require a more involved install: They need to be screwed over your current outlet covers, or they’re designed to replace them entirely (meaning you have to remove your current switch plates and replace them with your just-bought outlet covers). Of course, convenience comes at a cost. Often, outlet covers that are easier to install are also easier to remove (by you or your little one). So be sure to weigh convenience against effectiveness as you settle on a set of outlet covers.
Special Features
When shopping for outlet covers, you may notice a range of special-feature-equipped outlet covers—like self-closing outlet covers, outlet covers that can conceal your outlets even when you have stuff plugged in, and outlet covers that are big enough to hold and conceal wrapped-up cords. While ultimately not necessary, these features can make childproofing your home even more convenient. So they’re worth considering while you shop.
Why Trust The Spruce?
When childproofing your home, you don’t want to take any chances on a bad product. So when researching products to include in this article, The Spruce contributor Lindsey Lanquist kept an eye out for a few things. First, she exclusively featured outlet covers that were well reviewed by those who’d tried them. And she made sure to clearly note downsides (quality control issues, reports of outlet covers being too easy to remove, etc.) wherever she found them. Second, she prioritized options that would blend in with most walls and sockets. Third, she sought to include a range of different outlet covers—some sleek, some self-closing, some easy to install, and some large enough to hold excess cords—so that you’d be more likely to find an outlet cover that meets your precise needs.
