Home-Safety Checklist

Handle Appliances with Care

Provides protection against: Electrical shock
Sandwich makers, toaster ovens, and microwaves are staples of today’s kitchen. As they are also electric, these appliances aren’t meant to stay keep plugged in around the clock or at a close distance to water. Protect yourself from an electric shock by keeping them unplugged if they are not in use and ensuring they are dry and away from water at all times. When it’s time to use them, don’t direct them all to the same set of outlets. Be strategic with how you use them so that one set of outlets isn’t stuck with an unusually high amount of electricity.

Add Grab Bars and Strips to Bathrooms

Provides protection against: Falls
Falling in the bathroom might be funny in the movies, but it can be painful and dangerous when it happens in real life -- especially if you or a family member is very young or fragile. You can prevent this kind of mishap from happening in your shower by covering the floor with strips and adding grab bars close to the shower and the toilet for good measure. The use of bathroom mats with no skid potential is another bathroom safety essential, as is regular bathroom cleaning to ensure that nothing slippery is lurking to cause a disaster.

Keep Stairs Safe and Easy to Use

Provides protection against: Falls
The less that you consider the dangers of your home stairs, the more dangerous they could be, especially when someone leaves something on the stairs and forgets about it, only to stumble on it later. The pain isn’t worth it. Besides taking extra care to keep your stairwell free of unwanted objects, you can also make a point of using handrails at all times or installing them on both sides if they aren’t already present. For added protection, safety gates are useful for children while painting the bottom step a different color offers an extra layer of visibility and safety.

Safeguard Your Pool Area

Provides protection against: Drowning
Your home pool should be a place for a relaxing swim, a family gathering or a wild pool party. No matter what your primary use for it is, you should still be prepared against water accidents which can happen to even the most experienced of swimmers. Stay ahead of any potential water dangers by keeping rescue supplies nearby, instructions for first aid procedures and a waterproof phone that’s fully charged with emergency phone numbers locked in. For families, a fence is another must-have, as is a locked gate to keep prying eyes away from both access and accidents.

Practice Protective Cooking

Provides protection against: Burns
No one wants to get burned while cooking, whether you’re cooking for yourself or a date. So ignore the unflattering look and feel of oven mitts and make a habit of wearing them a lot around the kitchen. Of course the oven is a mandatory match for mitts, but so is the microwave as any extended cooking times will leave plates and bowls at burn-worthy temperatures. When you’re sticking to traditional pot-and-pan preparation, you’re better off turning handles away from the front of the stove and mainly using the back burners to reduce the likelihood of a front-burner injury.

Restrict Hot Water Temperature

Provides protection against: Scald burns
Scald burns are painful reminders that our skin will never win against very hot steam and liquids. While mitts and clothing can protect against cooking splashes, the solutions for dealing with hot water tap temperatures are refreshingly simple. Besides keeping a thermometer on hand to measure exactly what temperature you’re dealing with, you can reduce the temperature of your hot water heater to 120°F -- thus minimizing your chances for an unpleasant scald burn. In the shower, the installation of a heat-sensing shower head adds further safety by swiftly shutting off water if it reaches a threatening temperature.

Watch Your Cooking Distance

Provides protection against: Burns, Fire
When it comes to protecting your kitchen or grill area from fire dangers, one of the most important factors is your proximity to the cooking area. Regardless of where you happen to be preparing food, you must not leave anything unattended – not just for keeping an eye on what you’re making but to ensure that no children or pets get too close. If you’re specifically cooking outside, then there should be a minimum of at least ten feet between the grill and any objects -- including your home -- to ensure that your grilling experience will be about food and not fire.

Organize Your Garage

Provides protection against: Falls, injuries
It only seems natural to associate a garage with the tools we keep inside it rather than the ways in which they are organized. In fact, organization should be the prime focus where safety is concerned. Items should be kept off the floor and not stacked too high. In other words, if something could fall and cause a serious injury, it’s too high. As for specific items, ladders should specifically be arranged in a horizontal fashion while safety tools should never be too far away from the other items that they are to be used with.

Maintain Functioning Smoke Alarms and Water Protection

Provides protection against: Fire
Fires can be quick and catastrophic to human life and your home. You can never be too prepared for one. Having an extinguisher on hand is a no-brainer but the most important fire prevention tool is a series of smoke alarms throughout your home. Ideally they should be situated on every floor and individually tested each month. Smoke alarms are vital to warning us of potential fire dangers, but to really nip a fire in the bud, the installation of a home sprinkler system will put you to the front of the line when it comes to home safety preparedness.

Light Up Your House at Night

Provides protection against: Falls
Using a nightlight doesn’t make you afraid of the dark. Instead, it makes you smart for protecting yourself against things that go bump in the night -- like someone unexpectedly taking a tumble onto the floor or, worse, down the stairs. While keeping your standard evening lights on through the night is bad energy etiquette and definitely not conducive to sleep, you can create a happy medium. Choose a series of soft nightlights to help navigate you and your family through stairs, hallways and bathrooms without any cause for nocturnal concern.