Safety should be a priority in your home. To keep family and friends protected from harm at your house, invest in these recommended home safety essentials.
Safety Essentials Every Home Should Have
First Aid Kit Stocked With Essential Items
A home’s first aid kit is important for handling medical situations. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises can happen at any time. Keep your first aid kit in a central location that’s easy to access.
A well-stocked first aid kit can help keep an injured person stable until paramedics arrive. Invest in a kit that already contains a wide range of first-aid items. Make it a habit to check the kit and restock as needed.
Smoke Detectors are Home Safety Essentials
If a fire breaks out in your home, smoke detectors are your first warning. They will sound early with the first signs of smoke, giving you time to get out of the house safely.
Install working fire alarms inside each bedroom, in the hallway outside bedrooms, and on every level of your home. Mark your calendar to test the alarms at least once a month and to change the batteries at least once a year.
Carbon Monoxide Detector
A carbon monoxide detector is one of the home safety essentials many people forget, especially if their home doesn’t have natural gas or propane. Because carbon monoxide is deadly, a detector should be in every home.
You can get combination devices with carbon monoxide and smoke detection in the same unit. This makes it easy to install, manage, and test the detector.
Fire Extinguishers are Essentials for Home Safety
A stove fire or flying ember off the fireplace can cause a household fire. Place accessible fire extinguishers in key areas throughout your home and teach family members how to use them.
Every floor of your home should have a fire extinguisher, as should your laundry room, kitchen, workshop, garage, and patio/grill area. Easy-to-reach extinguishers allow you to put the fire out as soon as possible. Household extinguishers should be rated ABC which means they can combat most types of house fires.
Fire Escape Ladders
Every room in your home should have two possible escapes in case of a fire. The door is an obvious exit, with a window being the second route.
Place collapsible emergency ladders by upper-level windows that are not on the ground floor. These ladders hook onto the window frame and offer an easy exit for the room’s occupants. For windows in the basement level, attach a ladder to the window so people can climb up and out as quickly as possible.
Disaster Kit
Disasters can happen anywhere, at any time. Putting together your own disaster kit allows you to stock this home safety essential with items your family will need in the event of an emergency.
Here’s a brief list of what to include:
- One gallon of water, per person, per day, with at least three days minimum
- Three days of nonperishable food
- Flashlights with plenty of batteries
- Hand-crank radio, or a battery-powered one with plenty of batteries
- Matches
- Cash
- Basic personal hygiene items
- Change of clothes
- Copies of important documents
- Three days or more of medication
- Food and water for pets
Manning Home Inspections provides home inspection services in the Palm Beach area. Contact us to request an inspection.