Your home is the place where you spend most of your time. Therefore, it makes sense to make our homes safe to keep ourselves and our families away from accidents. The safety of both adults and children is a priority, but as adults are responsible, it is more important to make the house safe for children.
According to research conducted by Safe Kids Worldwide, most of the injuries happen to kids in their homes. The reason is that the guardians don’t take protective measures to make it a safe place.
Statistics show that almost 3 million kids go to the hospital emergency in a single year because of injuries that have happened at home. Another sad report shows that almost 2200 children die from unforeseen accidents that occur at home.
Protection of children and your loved ones at home does not mean that you do not allow them to do anything. Of course, they should live a normal life, but some cautionary measures should be taken to avoid unfortunate accidents.
With this view in mind, this article would guide you on how to make your home a safe place for your children, your family, and your friends with these top 10 Home Safety tips.
1. Get Safety Certificates For Your Home
Before moving to a new house, it is absolutely necessary to get the house safety certificates. The electricity and gas safety certificate is a mandatory requirement for Landlords in countries like UK and Ireland.
Even if you live in some other country, get a house inspection yourself to make sure that the electric fittings, appliances, and gas appliances in the house are safe for use. A gas safety certificate is obtained after an annual inspection of the house by a gas safe engineer.
The inspector ensures that all fittings and appliances in your new dwelling are working properly. Unsafe appliances can cause gas leaks which lead to Carbon Monoxide poisoning, fires, and explosions.
Ask the owner of the house to show you the safety record of the property or if they do not have it, you can always consult a safety engineer to conduct a safety check of the house before your family moves into the new house.
2. Make Sure Alarms Are In Working Condition
The alarm system of your home is important to warn you in case of something abnormal happening. Thanks to advancements in technology, there are multiple alarms present in the market, to make your home safe. These alarms are specifically designed to meet your safety needs. For example, the smoke alarm - when it detects abnormal levels of smoke, it beeps and warns you.
Similarly, motion sensors detect movement in the front and back of your house and notify you in case of disturbances. The carbon monoxide alarm is another great device as excessive release of this gas can be life-threatening if combined with fire or heat. It starts to beep when the level of carbon monoxide in the house exceeds the recommended percentage.
Today, many of the home alarms can also be linked with your smartphone, to make you easily reach your home and save your loved ones, in case of any disturbance. Security cameras are a good example as they let you know who has visited your home or anything abnormal happening outside or inside your dwelling. These alarms, when linked with a smartphone, can also let the owner call and inform the family, in case they are not home.
3. Design An Emergency Exit Plan
Unexpected situations and circumstances result in accidents. You must have witnessed the emergency exit plans in commercial buildings, but these are now important for your homes too.
A Home emergency plan makes you prepared for any kind of emergency and a safe evacuation. Designing an emergency plan should be an integral part of your home safety rules and it is crucial to make sure your children and other family members are safe all the time.
Besides an emergency plan, it is important to guide every member of the family, including the kids, on what to do in case of an emergency and how to evacuate. In case of any kind of emergency, the first thing to do is to react fast while avoiding panic- teach this to your family too.
Moreover, you must also have emergency equipment in your home. A first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, flashlight, and whistle are some of the gear that comes in handy during an emergency.
4. Keep Your Doors Closed and Locked
Always keep your main doors closed and locked, no matter how safe the area you are living in. Keeping your doors locked all the time becomes more important when you have little children at home.
Make a rule that kids can go outside after permission is granted from their parents. Make sure your children especially those below 5 years are not opening the door when the bell rings. Guide the child to always let an adult person open the door.
5. Keep Medicines In A Safe Cabinet
Never leave your medicines where children can reach them. Keep them in a safe and secure place, away from the reach of your children.
6. Keep The Floor Dry
A wet floor can be very dangerous. Most of the accidents happen on wet floors. So make sure to keep them dry all the time. Teach your children too, to make sure they do not spill water or drinks while eating.
7. Turn On Security Lights At Night
The best time for intruders to break into the house is nighttime. So make a habit to turn ON the security lights at night to make the visibility clear even for security cameras installed.
8. Keep The Laundry Room Locked
There are certain rooms in the house, like the laundry, the garage, and the attic, that need to be kept locked so that kids don’t get into dangerous objects. Make sure that you let your kids know that these places are out of bounds.
9. Babyproof Your Home
Do you have kids under 2 at your home? If yes, then baby-proof everything! Include the electric sockets, the cabinets, the furniture, the appliances, stairs, bathrooms, and window blinds. You must survey your home and identify areas that need baby-proofing.
10. Never Share Your Personal Information On The Internet
This is one of the most important safety tips for today. Keep your family and children safe by never sharing your personal information on the internet. You never what kind of criminals and creeps are lurking on the internet, so better be safe!
These ten tips are a great start to a home safety checklist. Make sure to go through each and check them off as you finish them. Stay safe!
Author Bio:
Shoaib provides ghostwriting and copywriting services. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for Gas Safety Certs.
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