Cut Your Losses: Screening the Floor Vents

The vent screened with pink tulle.

Yesterday, I heard screams coming from my daughters' room. This isn't really a surprise. When people talk about boys being loud, I always wonder how girls ended up with better publicists in that department.

So, as the cries didn't indicate blood loss or actual fear, I ambled back to see what was the matter.

My girls were playing with poker chips (a favorite toy at our house) and the baby inserted one in the floor vent- to her utter delight and the complete irritation of sister Scout.

Now, I've known for years that their floor vent was a gaping maw hungry for toys and tidbits. It's one of the few floor vents that the previous residents didn't cover with window screen.

When I went to recover the chip, it was gone. It made it past the initial flat land and rolled somewhere toward the basement. For all I know it's now sitting on the electric coils of our furnace. Since they got past my arm's reach, this was no tea set spoon scenario; this situation required action.

I grabbed some very pink tulle and cut it about 5 inches larger than the floor register. This register fits pretty snugly into the floor, so I didn't bother duct taping the tulle around the boxy underfloor part of the register (as the previous residents had on the other vents). The next vacuuming may prove that to be a strategic error, but for now, it's keeping all the chips out of the furnace and the girls like their pinker floor vent.

***Baby Toolkit is the slapdash meanderings of a couple geek parents raising three active kids. When we're not searching floor vents for lost treasure, we're sometimes discussing board games at Great Big Table (mmm, delicious podcasts!). We're Amazon affiliates, so clicking through our relevant links and purchases increases the Jones' coffers. We don't have any vested financial interest in tulle, floor registers or poker chips. Do you?