Did you know that one child every month dies from window covering cord strangulation? And that’s not counting those who are injured or those injuries and close-calls that aren’t even reported. And did you know that these types of deaths are silent deaths? Even if it’s happening in the next room, you might not know until it’s too late, until the damage has already been done, until you’ve lost your child.
Take a moment and think. How many windows do you have in your house? And how many of those windows have some kind of covering on them?
My Own House
I live in a decent-sized house, and it sports 25 or so windows with coverings. I’d like to believe that I was involved in the decision-making process when choosing them, but really that just makes me feel better about the fact that I was only involved in the paying part.
When it was all said and done, my wife and I had a good mixture of treatments on our windows. Because my house wasn’t a new construction, we left some up that came with the house. And that’s when I started comparing corded versus cordless coverings for windows.
Out of 25 treatments, only 3 of them had a corded lift system – all of them roman shades. Two I intentionally designed that way and the other was from the stack of returns SelectBlinds.com had received. After all, I wanted something for my man cave, and my only criterion was the size of the treatment. And if you were to come to my house, you’d agree that it’s the ugliest shade in the whole house, by a long shot.
Needless to say, these are my least favorite treatments in the house. Not only are the dangling lift cords visually unappealing, but they’re also unsafe. Even though this shade and all the coverings for windows sold by my company, SelectBlinds.com, prior to April 1st, 2016 were CPSC compliant with safety regulations, you can see how they still posed a threat to young children. The cords are knotted every six or seven inches, which is meant to make it impossible for a child or pet to get entangled, but it can lead to strangulation or even suffocation.
Even though I have no small children in my house, these tangled cords remind me of a noose. And that’s exactly what it could become, and what it has become for many families over the years.
Making a Difference
The safety regulations are meant to keep kids safe, but obviously the current regulations aren’t the right ones. These corded shades are coming off of my window and they have come off of SelectBlinds.com as well.
We’ve known for a while that we needed to do more, and so we did:
1. We offer the most free cordless options in the industry.
2. Our free cord cleat program is open to everyone, not just customers. Cord cleats are small parts that window covering cords can be wrapped around. This keeps cords out of the reach of children and pets. After all, we understand that not everyone can upgrade their current coverings to cordless ones. People just have to request them through our site, and they’re sent free of charge, no strings attached. Even so, a cordless lift system is the only 100% safe option. No cords = safe children.
And yet, we still felt the need to make more of a difference, to save more lives. And so…
At Select Blinds, 2016 is the year of cordless.
So why do all this? Why do it when it will cost us a lot of money, time, and resources?
Because it’s the right thing to do. Simple as that.
We’ve cut the cord!
