If you are travelling with children, hiring a self-contained apartment helps to make your holiday easier, as it provides you and your family with a comfortable place to call "home" temporarily as well as convenient cooking facilities. However, if you have little ones in tow, you may want to childproof your self-contained apartment.

Before arriving at the self-contained apartment, call the manager, and ask if they can babyproof your flat. Some facilities are able to put a bassinet in the apartment and do some basic childproofing. However, if they are not able to do that, make sure you pack the following essentials in your luggage:

1. Swim Noodles

Swim noodles are high-density foam swimming aids, and they can be fun for kids to play with in pools. However, they can also be a useful childproofing tool. Pack a couple in your luggage, and if the self-contained apartment has any tabletops or fireplaces with sharp edges, you can fit the noodles over them.

Simply cut a slit lengthwise down the noodle and fit the noodle over any edges that are worrying you.

2. Washcloth

While noodles work great for long straight edges, they aren't the most effective for corners. To prevent your little one from falling and banging his or her head on a sharp corner, cushion it with a washcloth.

Simply wrap the washcloth over the corner and tape it in place with masking tape or packaging tape.

3. Tape

Tape can help you secure a washcloth over a corner, but that isn't its only use. You can use tape to secure power cords to the carpet of the self-contained apartment. This helps to prevent unwanted trips and spills. You can also use tape to secure blind cords -- simply wrap them into a bundle and tape them together out of reach of your child.

4. Pipe Cleaners

If you don't want to risk leaving a sticky residue with tape, consider packing a few pipe cleaners in your luggage. You can use pipe cleaners to secure blind cords.

Additionally, if you want to keep your child out of the apartment's cabinets, you can join several pipe cleaners together and then wrap them around cabinet pulls so they cannot be easily pulled open -- basically just bind two pulls together with the pipe cleaners.

5. Vinyl Tablecloths

You don't just want to protect your child. You also want to make sure you don't damage the self-contained apartment, and a vinyl tablecloth can help. If your child wets the bed frequently or if his nappy tends to "overfill" with liquid in the middle of the night, you can protect the mattress with a vinyl tablecloth. Just slip it under the sheets, and any moisture will bead up on it and not reach the mattress.

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