Home Safety Boulder Summer 2013

Top 10 Home Safety Tips

1. Remove any flammable materials stored near your furnace.  Paper and boxes and clothing are all easily combustible items and frequently stored too close to furnaces.   Double check your furnace and while you are at it, replace the filter.  This home safety tip is frequently suggested by Home Inspectors.
2. Protect small children: store medications in secure child-proof containers in high places out of reach of children.
3. Have a first aid kit in your home. Store it in a space everyone knows and keep medications up to date for effectiveness.
   
4. Post emergency numbers including poison control, animal control and non-emergency police near the phones in your house.    Of course, this may be a dated home safety tip as many home owners these days only have mobile phones.
5. Home safety is about prevention.  Purchase fire extinguishers; store one in the pantry as well as one on each level of the house.
6. Have a home safety professional clean the vent on your dryer and the chimney on your fireplace. Flash fires can occur from lint building up and chimney tar is quite flammable.  Call me for a recommended contractor.
7. Have flashlights handy, with fresh batteries, at key places in your home. There is a functioning flashlight under the kitchen range in our house.  I store a  flashlight in the glove compartment of my car – you just never know when you are going to be stuck without power.  There is even an App for a flashlight on cell phones!
8. Eliminate tripping hazards such as power cords and toys. A large number of avoidable injuries occur every year from home owners or their guests tripping.
9. Change the batteries in your smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors and alarm clock annually.  Not so much a home safety tip — this is more like a good way to avoid that annoying beeping from a dead battery in a smoke detector (common in vacant houses).
10. General home safety: Lock outside doors and windows including the one to the garage. Many thefts are merely crimes of opportunity. Locked doors are an easy deterrent to would be thieves.