Home Safety:

How to Build Safety Into Your Home

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Many safety precautions take place due to concern for children. However, the parents have accidents almost as frequently as their children. To avoid accidents in the home, consider these simply safety features.

Steps

1. Set your hot water heater to a temperature of 110 to 120 degrees. Scalding from hot water can be severe. You will save energy, too.
   
2. Store your liquor, chemicals, cleaners, and medicines in cabinets (out of the sight of children) and put locks on the doors.
   
3. Put locks on cabinets where you store plastic garbage bags.
   
4. Eliminate (or cover) sharp corners on countertops, tables, and hearths.
   
5. Put safety stops on your drawers.
   
6. Install a GFI (ground fault interrupt) outlet on any outlets within 6 feet of a sink.
   
7. Put outlet covers in other outlets that small children can reach.
   
8. Have fire extinguishers fully charged and handy (especially near the kitchen). The laundry area is another good place to keep a fire extinguisher. Remember to check your extinguishers about annually.
   
9. Install smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Test them and replace their batteries regularly.
   
10. Use night lights. Night lights are available that use only a few cents' worth of electricity per year.
    
11. Choose a kitchen range with controls on top, not on the front.
    
12. Make sure the flooring near tubs, shower, and sinks is slip-resistant. If it is not as slip-resistant as it should be, put down mats or rugs to help absorb water and resist slipping. Use bath mats or stick-on grips in tubs and showers as necessary to prevent slipping.
    
13. Select hardware for bathroom doors that can be opened from both sides. This applies to children’s bedrooms as well. Many privacy locks allow entry with a simple pin or other tool. This allows access in an emergency but keeps people from wandering in uninvited.
    
14. Make sure any glass at shower or tub enclosures is safety glass, or acrylic.
    
15. Install grab bars in the tub and shower.
    
16. Use recessed soap dishes in tubs and showers so elbows or heads don’t bump into them.
    
17. Post emergency numbers, including the National Poison Control Hotline (1-800-222-1222) by each phone.
    
18. Keep a stocked first aid kit near the kitchen and workbench areas.
    
19. When working outdoors, use the heavy duty, UL rated extension cords; make sure your ladder is stable before using it; and wear safety glasses when using weed- whackers, hedge clippers, or other tools which will throw debris in all directions.
    

Tips

• There’s a report that is issued every year called the State of Home Safety in America report. It stipulates that more than 300,000 emergency room admissions each year are the result of injuries at home. Be diligent about home safety, and protect your loved ones from serious injuries.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Use an Emergency Shower
  
• How to Build Your Own Emergency Disaster Kit
  
• How to Act When You Find Gas Leaking in the Kitchen (USA)
  
• How to Evacuate a Building in an Emergency
  
• How to Create a Home First Aid Kit
  
• How to Master Do It Yourself Electrical Safety
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Build Safety Into Your Home. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Please Visit Our Family Website!

Join Us On Twitter!