5 Important Safety Checks You Should Do At Your Home Regularly

"Home's where you go when you run out of homes."

- John le Carré

A home is a place you fill with love, hope, dreams, and all the positivity in the world. But there's another aspect we've all come to understand as a basic necessity: safety. The feeling of safety we feel in our homes lets us enjoy and be at peace.

You may think you've made your home quite safe, but things wear down over time. So, it's not such a bad idea to check some critical parts of your home after short intervals. Otherwise, these things can pile up, resulting in serious injuries and even worse.

To tackle this, you can do some important safety checks regularly. These checks will confirm the optimal protection of your home if everything's okay and will let you know the particular area that needs some fixing up.

Prevention is always better than cure. So do these checks, and you'll always keep your property protected.

1. Cleaning up

Cleaning up key parts of your home should be the first thing you should do to keep up the safety levels of your home.

Clean out all the filters every month as dirty filters can stop appliances from working at optimum levels and cause them to overload and cause damage.

Check the filters in your air conditioners and heaters. Switch off the HVAC system, and clean the filters of your air purifiers.

Regularly clean the filters within your furnace as well. This will considerably reduce the risk of a fire. Clean out the filters of the clothes dryer, if you have any.

Properly clean the air and heating ducts at least once yearly to avoid fire hazards.

Dust off the lights inside your home. These can gather dust gradually, and some dust particles can catch fire.

2. Check electricals

Checking the electrical outlets and wires is essential to ensure the safety of your house. In the modern lifestyle, almost everything is operated through electricity. But they can be fatal if the problems go unnoticed.

Repair or change the wires that are frayed or in loose condition. Follow the cords and clear their way to outlets if they're pressed under rugs and carpets.

If you have babies or young children in your home, always cover the unused outlets, and check their condition regularly, rather than using extension cords, place outlets where you need them.

Check for defective outlets and plugs around the house. Touch the outlets, and if they feel unnaturally warm, consider calling up an electrician to have a look. If you are residing in Melbourne, then you can always give a call to an emergency electrician melbourne, in case of any electrical emergency.

3. Checking alarms and detectors

You should always install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors on every floor of your house so that they cover all the sleeping areas.

But just installing them is not enough. You must test these alarms and detectors every month and replace them after 10 years of use. Replace the batteries once every year and immediately if the alarm starts chirping.

Clean every detector thoroughly and vacuum the grilles. Let your family members know the different sounds of each detector. And always keep the fire department's number handy if anything goes wrong.

4. Check fire extinguishers

Follow a specific strategy for placing your fire extinguishers. For example, keep one in the kitchen always, and keep one of them on every floor if possible. Learn to use them beforehand, or they may not come to your rescue in an emergency.

Replace the extinguishers as and when they expire. Also, replace them immediately if they get damaged.

Ensure that they are filled correctly. You can see the gauge on them to know the status of the charge inside. If you're not sure, get a professional to check.

5. Checking security systems

Check all the locks on every door. And keep a good deadbolt one on the main entrance.

If any of your rooms have bars in the windows, one of them should be the quick-release one at a minimum. If you feel it's too much hassle, replace them or get a retrofit.

Check if the motion-sensing flood lights are working well or not.

Examine the landscape regularly. Trim the nearby trees and shrubs that can be dangerous during storms and become great spots for burglars to sneak in.

Also, check all the windows for cracks or broken ones. If found, replace them as soon as you can.

CONCLUSION

These safety checks should not be underestimated. They can be the point of difference between your happy life and an unwelcome or unforeseen circumstance.