If you have parts of your home you need gated off from crawlers or little walkers, KidCo's safety gates are about the best being made, and normally they come with a premium price tag. The company has a great safety record and segments are connected with hinges so you can angle and block almost any kind of area. We started with a five-piece set that blocked off access to the back half of our house, and broke it down to a half-hexagon shielding our water dispenser when she had grown a bit more. We got ours used through Craigslist, and later sold it the same way - these things are built to last. Who knows how many people have now used the set we did!

For some reason, KidCo safety gate components are on sale in Amazon's Friday Sale today for 75% off, making individual segments about $25 apiece instead of $100 apiece. The value for the price is there even at the regular price - KidCo gates are worlds away from the wooden, ratcheted Evenflo gate that can block off a hallway and that's it. You might wish they offered more than black or white - bare aluminum or a brushed chrome would be a nice option in keeping with the product's simple design - but it's hard to argue with their convenience or effectiveness. They do make a beechwood version, but it's harder to find.

The off-putting product shots that are, or look, 30 years old actually have a deeper meaning. If you use the CPSC's handy search-by-company recall-finding tool for KidCo, you won't find it, because as far as we can tell, this company has never had to recall a product since it was formed in 1992.

Some locations are obviously in need of barriers - open stairways, etc. - but there are others where you might not need any if you play your babyproofing cards right. Make sure to check out Elise's great post on proactive babyproofing with style before you buy so you know just what you might need, and what you can get away without if you're willing to "think like a curious child." If and when you know what you really need to block access to, take measurements, keeping in mind that longer paths might have sections positioned at angles rather than running straight across a space.

To find the KidCo sale items, head to Amazon's Friday Sale, click on "Baby" in the lefthand column, and then scroll down and click on the "70% off or more." You'll see the KidCo gate components starting midway down the page.