HGTV's Jen Todryk's Important Safety Tip For Your Freezer

Jenn Todryk, star of HGTV's "No Demo Reno," loves to share tidbits of her home life with fans on Instagram, especially all things design. Amateur design enthusiasts can learn a lot from Todryk's Instagram stories, but in one story about a new deep freezer chest, Todryk was the one who learned a valuable home care tip from a fan: use the lock on your deep freezer to keep your kids safe. 

The learning moment started with Todryk's comment on the freezer chest's child safety warning label, saying that she didn't think a toddler could fall into the deep freezer. Although Todryk was initially skeptical that this could happen, given the appliance's height and top-lid chest door design, she later passed along a reminder given to her by a follower, warning that a freezer door lock is actually an important precaution for curious kids who like to climb. Due to the horizontal layout of a deep freezer chest, as well as its heavy lid, a small child who goes inside could struggle to get out if the lid shuts on them. By keeping the freezer door locked, parents can prevent any dangerous accidents from taking place.

Since today's refrigerators open from the inside (thanks to the Refrigerator Safety Act), it's easy to forget about child safety for other appliances, specifically freezer chests with heavy lids. Modern refrigerators have lightweight magnetic doors, so any child who crawls inside can push the door back open. Unfortunately, deep freezer doors are much heavier than regular refrigerators, so a child getting stuck inside could be catastrophic. Per the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there have been multiple suffocation deaths involving children — mostly ages four to seven years old — going inside latch-style freezers and other similar appliances. This is where the door lock becomes essential. If your freezer chest doesn't come with a lock, you can buy a separate childproof lock, such as the Guardianite refrigerator door lock or the Ptmyxin refrigerator lock from Amazon. 

Keeping your freezer chest locked is especially important if you have children who like to climb furniture. As Todryk herself noted, she thought a tall freezer would be fine because she didn't consider that even small toddlers could still climb. With that in mind, if your kids are climbers, you may want to pull chairs and other shorter furniture away from the perimeter of the freezer to further lower the risk of an incident. A freezer chest is a useful addition to your home, and as long as you use the child lock, you can look forward to convenient, kid-friendly food storage with no worries about accidents.