Keep Your Home Safe With This Checklist

As you think about home improvement projects for the new year, don’t forget about making changes to your home to guard against potential safety problems. Use the following home safety checklist to make sure you and your family enjoy a happy and healthy year.

Keep Your Property Well-Lit

Having plenty of lighting in your home and outside it helps lower the risk of falls and deters intruders. Consider installing motion-activated lights outside to help keep intruders away. This type of lighting makes your property brighter when it’s dark out, which discourages burglars and gives you and your family more light to see by at night.

Improve Door and Window Security

One of the most important aspects of home safety is ensuring that doors and windows are as secure as possible. These can provide easy entry points for burglars. You can improve this by putting safety bars on ground-floor windows if you live in an area where break-ins are known to occur. You can also discourage intruders by having a metal bar in sliding glass door tracks to make them harder to open. When you leave your home, always make sure your doors and windows are locked.

Lower the Risk of Electrical Hazards

Electrical hazards put you and your family in danger by raising the risk of house fires. There are several ways to reduce these hazards in your home, such as replacing any cords that show signs of wear and tear. Other ways to improve electrical safety in your home include having an electrician check any outlets or plugs that feel warm, only using one high-wattage electronic item or appliance per outlet and moving electrical cords that run under carpeting.