Home Safety & Security

Home safety & security could be a top priority for you. If you're like me and my family, you want to know that any threat that could harm you or your possessions is minimal. When you're safe and secure, your stress level is low, and you can have a much higher quality of life.

Home security safety is not too hard to achieve. It's a broad topic that extends all the way from storing products and possessions in a safe manner to having sophisticated home-security systems that can alert you and others in the event of an emergency.

For example, if you have a pyromaniac in your family like I was as a child, then you want to store flammable liquids and matches in a locked metal cabinet. This sounds extreme, but if you would have seen the fire I started in my parents garage one day, you'd have that cabinet installed so fast you wouldn't believe it.

When you really start to think about home safety and security, it's easy to get overwhelmed. If you have little children, you're concerned about anything that's a threat to them. This could be a simple bottle of cleaning solution. You wouldn't drink it, but a toddler surely would like to sample it. Any heavy objects that can fall on a child are serious threats. Hot objects, regular wall outlets, even a partially filled bucket of water. Thousands of children are injured or killed each year in senseless accidents where obvious threats were not dealt with.

As you get older, home safety tends to gravitate to threats from intruders, fire, carbon monoxide, water leaks, etc. All of these things can be monitored by installing a home-security system. I've had one in my own home for years, and I can tell you they allow me to relax both when I'm home and when I'm away. I know the electronic sentry is going to alert police and fire departments in the event something goes wrong.

I've seen all sorts of issues at homes I've visited and worked in through the years. I've also been inside homes that have been ravaged by fire, so I know what to avoid if you want to minimize fires at your home. This is a very limited list of home security safety tips that just may protect you and your loved ones from danger:

• Avoid storing flammable objects near furnaces or water heaters
• Schedule a free inspection from your local crime and fire-prevention officers
• Never place objects on stairs
• Structural failures of foundation walls and wood rot can stress electric cables leading to fires
• Consider installing motion-detecting exterior lights that deter trespassers
• Be sure overhead garage doors are in perfect working order
• Install secure locks on all windows and doors
• Extension cords can be very dangerous - use them with great care
• Never use flammable liquids indoors or in garages where open flames or pilot lights exist
• Purchase gun locks or gun safes and use them
• Consider a home-security system that alerts you to all dangers
• Install grab bars in shower areas
• Obey all building and electrical codes if you're a do-it-yourselfer

With more thought and help from other contributors, the above list could be miles long. You can see that home safety & security covers so many things, it's nearly impossible to name all the things you need to worry about.

Many are common sense, but you'd be surprised how that commodity is in short supply in many households. Mother Nature deals with this issue daily in the real world. Animals that make mistakes become someone's dinner. Don't let it happen to you.

Column QA