Stay safe in the home: A home safety checklist

Everyone has been in a similar situation: you have left house wondering if you have unplugged the iron or turned off the electrical fire, and as a result you panic for the remainder of the time spent away from the home, often returning to find you hadn’t and had thus panicked unnecessarily. However, it does suggest that it is important to identify any safety problems in your home at an early stage, as maintaining safety in the home can help to reduce those domestic accidents for all family members.

Regardless of your home situation, safety in the home should always be considered: whether it is moving into a new house or there has been a new addition to the family, therefore forcing new changes, or perhaps recently realising the importance of analysing the home for making general changes to your safety. Overall, it is vitally important to prevent potential hazards around the house, despite the inhabitants, whether they are children, adults, physically or mentally impaired or OAPs, and so minimise the risk of serious injury or accident.

It can be costly to install safety measures for your home; therefore it may become a factor when looking for a new house to follow a general home safety checklist to prevent you from having to make any unnecessary future changes. However, regardless of the cost factor and situation involved with making any safety changes, this will prove more beneficial in the long term, particularly for those unforeseen circumstances in mind.

Each individual room in your home should be considered for its safety, particularly with young children in mind. The living room may not be viewed to be full of potential health hazards, but it is always a good idea to guard open coal fires, portable heaters, and electric and gas fires, not to mention fitting child proof covers on electrical sockets, just in case one day the children become curious.

The kitchen is always a prime location to include in any home safety check. That all important fire blanket comes in handy, particularly in the case of a chip pan going on fire. As young children run around the living room or indeed, household members wander in bare feet it is advised that all sharp objects are kept out of reach. Again considering the young children, bleach and other dangerous liquids and detergents should be locked in the cupboard to prevent any access to them, while sharp kitchen utensils should be kept out of easy reach of curious fingers.

Outdoor safety should also be on your safety list; it can be quite easy to forget the dangers of the contents of your garden, and therefore it’s important to ensure that none of the plants are poisonous, particularly with the children in mind. Once again, it is advisable that all sharp tools are locked away, whilst if your home is located near a busy road then a fence or wall can prevent young children wandering onto any roads.

There are of course many safety factors to consider with your home and while it often can’t guard against physical accidents, home insurance can often provide that extra piece of mind against other home threats such as fire or flood and can help allay panic around those unforeseen circumstances which may occur.

Giving your home a safety makeover should ensure you can leave your home safely, whilst at the same time leaving those worries at home too.

Paul McIndoe writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.