As the holiday season quickly approaches, now is an ideal time to start proactively thinking about home safety and security. With friends and family coming into your space, you want to be sure that you’re doing everything you can to not only keep them happy with a tasty home cooked meal and great company, but that you’re also keeping them safe.
With October highlighting National Crime Prevention Month, below are six home safety and security features to focus on this month to improve each room of your home before hosting:
Mudroom
For many homeowners, the main point of entry used for holiday gatherings will be their mudroom. With space for everyone to leave their winter coats and jackets, it’s a perfect place for your guests to enter without making too much of a mess. However, you’ll want to be sure that you’re keeping all unwanted guests out of the party. With easy instructions and installation, NIGHTLOCK door barricades upgrade your home security in minutes on ceramic, marble or concrete floors. With options for inward or outward swinging doors, there’s a solution available for any entryway.
Kitchen
With holiday cooking and baking, the kitchen is an equally important place to start when looking at home safety. Appliances can quickly become dangerous if they’re outdated or old. For countertop appliances, make sure to use smart plugs and power strips, allowing you to turn them off right from a mobile device so you can avoid accidents. Additionally, if not cared for and maintained properly, larger appliances such as stoves or refrigerators can cause mass damage like fires. To ensure that you’re keeping your house in good hands, a home warranty can cover hefty repairs or replacement expenses that are unplanned on these large appliances.
Dining Room
For your dining room, extra childproofing is a crucial step, especially if you don’t have children but your guests do. With sharp silverware or risky glass, all cabinets and spaces where these items are kept should be locked up. Even if these spaces seem out of reach to children, larger furniture may offer surfaces for them to climb on. With more options in 2021 than ever before, smart childproof locks allow drawers and cabinets to be controlled with a Bluetooth app to prevent little ones from getting into trouble.
Living Room
While a fireplace is a great gathering spot for families celebrating a chilly holiday, they can be dangerous if proper precautions are not taken. All carbon monoxide detectors should be checked. Whoever is responsible for starting and managing the fire should be comfortable using fireplace tools to prevent burning themselves and keeping flames under control. Perhaps one of the most important tools are smart lighters, some of which even come with childproof locks and adjustable necks.
Basement
During the holidays, basements offer the perfect solution for housing more guests than you may have separate bedrooms for. Before offering up this space for your friends or family, be sure to check on the air quality in this space. Smart air purifiers can improve air quality during their stay by removing harmful or toxic dust, dirt and dander from the space. These smart devices can even be paired with Amazon Alexa, Wi-Fi and smartphones to make for effective maintenance.
Office
Although you may not be working during the holidays, your home office still presents an opportunity to improve home safety. Home safes offer a great way to keep important paperwork and valuables safe for both you and your guests. For example, with guests flying to your home, a safe is a worry-free place for them to store their passport in the meantime before their upcoming flight. Before purchasing a safe, think about what size and lock would be best and if it needs to be light enough to carry.
With these simple home safety features you can spend this holiday season enjoying the company of your loved ones. And even after the holidays, these security tips can give your family peace of mind as you head into spring.
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