Home Safety Checklist For Florence

Being safe and secure in your residence should be your topmost concern. But are you overlooking some key safety components? Use this home safety checklist for Florence and discover where your living space can use some work.

This guide begins with a few whole-house safety techniques, and then we delve down to specific room ideas. Then, phone (843) 310-4058 or fill out the form below to get your house ready.

General Home Safety Checklist for Florence

While you should take a room-to-room method for home safety in Florence, there are a few things that work for the whole-house approach. These devices can sync with one another through a smart hub, and can even respond to other things. You might also control every one of your home safety devices using a smartphone app, like ADT Control:

Monitored Security System: Each one of your entryways should use a sensor that notifies your family to forced entry. When the alarm trips, your monitoring expert answers the call and quickly calls the police or fire department.

Smart Lighting For Each Room: Of course, you can program your smart lights to become more energy-efficient. But smart lights can also allow you to stay safe in an emergency. Have your downstairs lights flip on when an alarm triggers to frighten off intruders or light your way to a secure place.

Smart Thermostat: Likewise, a smart thermostat in Florence can save you up to 15% in utility spending. But it also can turn on your exhaust fan when your alarms senses a fire.

Monitored Fire Alarms: At the very least, you have a fire alarm on every level. You can improve your fire game by utilizing a monitored fire alarm that detects excessive smoke and heat, and pings your round-the-clock monitoring agents when it detects a fire.

Smart Door Locks: Every doorway that needs a keyed lock can upgrade to a smart lock. Now you may set key codes to family and friends and receive notifications to your smartphone when your locks are activated. Your smart lock can even automatically unlock, letting you quickly get out when you have a fire or dangerous situation.

Family Room/Living Room Safety Checklist For Florence

You’ll spend most of your time in your living room, so it may be the most reasonable room to start making your house safer. Highly sought after items, like a TV or stereo system, usually are located in your family room, making it an alluring room for thieves. Start with placing a motion detector or indoor security camera in there, then take a look at all these safety protocols:

Motion Detectors: By hanging motion detectors, you’ll hear a loud alarm whenever they sense unusual motion within your living room. You’ll want motion sensors that ignore pets or you’ll get your sirens go off each time your pet roams by for a drink of water.
Security Camera: An indoor security camera gives you a constant watch on your family room. Watch real-time feeds of the area so you can see what’s happening from the mobile app. Or speak with your kids in the family room using the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Cord Maintenance: Protect expensive electronics and quit overburdening your outlets with a surge protector. For extra comfort, use a smart plug with surge protection included.
Entertainment Center Bolted To The Wall: If you have any small children, you’ll want to bolt your entertainment center or other heavy furniture to a wall. This is especially crucial if your living room uses carpet that can make objects extra unbalanced.
Special Locks For Sliding Glass Doors: If your living room has a sliding glass door that opens to a patio, deck, or outside porch, you know that the door lock is fairly flimsy. Put in a special lock, like a metal bar or small locks that secures the door to the bottom and top of the door frame.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Florence

The kitchen has many items that should bring comfort and safety to your house. Some of these items should be simple to add and can be bought from the a retail store:

Fire Extinguisher: A fire can happen from an overfilled skillet or a faulty burner. Always keep a fire extinguisher at the ready for any kitchen mishaps.
Circuit Interrupter Box On Each Outlet: A circuit interrupter outlet should be standard on outlets where they’re close to water to ward off a deadly shock. That means the outlets by your sink and kitchen counter. For 30 years, it’s been code to have one circuit interrupter outlet per dedicated circuit. But if you don’t want all your outlets to go dead when one outlet flips, try to have a separate GFCI per outlet.

Monitored Carbon Monoxide Detector: A CO detector is recommended for kitchens that have a gas stove and oven. If your gas burners leak, the carbon monoxide detector will emit a loud noise and ping your monitoring center.
Clorox Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety issue in the kitchen is the viruses, bacteria, and cross-contamination that comes with uncooked meat and vegetables. Always have cleaning wipes or an antibacterial spray to clean your area before and after preparing food.
Refrigerator Alarm: The milk, meat, and perishables in the refrigerator have to remain at a constant temperature to be safe to use. If you leave the refrigerator door open too long, then a small beep will let you know so you can shut it securely. Some refrigerators come with this installed, others don’t, and you’ll have to buy a fridge alarm from online.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Florence

Just because there’s not a bunch of space in your bathroom, you will still have safety issues. From water problems to medicine care, here are a few safety improvements for your bathroom:

Flood Detectors: A leaking sink or shower can create extensive destruction. Find out early about leaks with a flood detector and save yourself from redoing the whole bathroom.
Non-slip Bath Mats: A slip and fall in the bathroom can be painful, causing pulled muscles, gashed heads, or sprained ankles. You can prevent these hazards with a textured bathroom mat for after your bath or shower.

Textured Bathtub Strips: Another water hazard, a tub can be a slick surface to be on. Make sure each has some textured stickies so your feet have a textured patch for stability.

Medicine Door Latch: If you have curious children or someone with memory difficulties, you need to take additional care regarding medicine. Safeguard your bottles by using a medicine cabinet with a latch that locks.

Circuit Interrupter Outlet: Just like the kitchen, you will have to also use a grounded circuit interrupter outlet on every bathroom outlet. This will shut off the electric current if water enters the outlet or there’s a sudden spike from an electric razor or hair dryer.

Child’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Florence

A child’s bedroom should counterbalance safety with accessibility. If their window shades or other things are safe but hard to manage, then your kids may perform dangerous activities -- like shimmying up a chest of drawers -- to open them. Try these simple, yet safe, ideas:

Cordless Window Treatments: Safety professionals have identified cords from shades and blinds a hidden problem for children and animals. Put in motorized blinds or shades that kids can easily open and close with a remote. Or better yet, connect your motorized coverings to your security system so they rise without anyone’s help when the sun comes up, and go down in the evening for extra privacy.

Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera sitting on your toddler’s desk or dresser can double as a baby monitor that you can watch from a smartphone. And if they want something, they can use the 2-way talk feature that comes with the camera.

Plug Covers: While each outlet should have protective covers on them for your small children, this is doubly important in a child’s bedroom. It’s the main place in your house where your children will most likely play solo without constant parental supervision.

Window Fire Ladder: If you use bedrooms on an upper level, then you will want to install a window safety ladder. These should help a young one get out of their room when the stairs or ground floor are blocked off with fire. Remember to rehearse how to unfurl them a few times a year.

Toy Chest Or Low Bookshelves: It’s weird to view a toy chest as a safety device, but you’ll see the light if you’ve ever walked on a Lego in your bare feet. A uncluttered floor gives your child a quick escape if there’s a fire or break-in.

Master Bedroom Safety Checklist For Florence

The master bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety items give you peace of mind when there's an emergency event. After all, being wrenched awake by a loud buzzer can be confusing.

Security System Touchscreen: Having a smart hub on your bedside table gives you a sense of what’s going on without getting out of bed. You could also use your ADT smartphone app. However, the large touchscreen is often better to use when you’re coming out of sleep and finding your bearings.

Device Charging Stand: We use our cell phones for so much now alarm clocks, news readers, social media, and --legend has it-- even phones. But, an uncharged device will cut us off from reaching help if something goes wrong. To keep it nice and ready, a an easy-to-use charging station is should be used nightly.

Smart Lights Or Nightlights: A plug-in light helps ground you when you’re bolted awake from an alarm or other loud sounds. If you can’t fall asleep with a nightlight, use a smart bulb in your bedroom. Then you can have light on-demand with a button push or voice command.
Fireproof Lockbox: Store your vital papers like insurance cards, stock certificates, or banking information in a fireproof lockbox. Your safe can be a big one that camps out out of the way or a smaller portable safe that you can grab on your way out during a fire or break-in.

Temperature Sensor: The issue with a master bedroom is that they tend to be too stuffy or be chilly since they are across the house from the thermostat. A temperature sensor will communicate to your smart thermostat so you should have a pleasant, peaceful sleep at just the right climate.

Garage/Basement Safety Checklist For Florence

Most safety needs in the garage or basement have to do with your water heater or furnace. Finding problems before they start can prevent more devastating problems in the future. So, as you take a look around your garage or basement, check over these safety items:

Flood Detector Or Sump Pump Alarm: Placing a flood alarm by your water heater or sump pump can prevent you from wading into a pond when you walk into your garage or basement. Do you really want to lose your day getting rid of standing water?

CO Detector: It’s smart to have a carbon monoxide detector in a place where a natural gas leak can occur. If you use a gas furnace, you’ll want to hang an alarm in the same room as your HVAC unit.
Remote Water Shutoff Valve: If your water detector detects a hot water heater leak or a burst pipe, then you will want to cut off the main water valve immediately. With a WiFi shutoff valve, you can block water flow from your phone. That’s perfect when you’re visiting relatives and get an emergency leak notification on your mobile device.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage door open causes all sorts of issues. You can lose HVAC energy through that open door, and rodents or lurkers can just walk in. A remote sensor will alert you to a neglected garage door and allow you to close it through the app.
Temperature Sensor: A temperature sensor in your garage or basement is handy if you fret about freezing pipes. The heat in these areas can be surprisingly different than your main rooms of the home, so you may want to have a closer eye on them with your mobile app.

Outside Perimeter Safety Checklist for Florence

Your yard, driveway, and front step are just as crucial to defend as the rest of your house. Try this checklist to defend your perimeter:

Doorbell Camera: See who’s arrived at the the front step before you answer it and chat with visitors. Get a visual on deliveries and review video clips if they disappear.

Outdoor Security Camera: You can hang outdoor security cameras to notify you about late night activity in your yard. These security cameras are especially useful in places where you may not have a window installed -- like a side yard or by the driveway.

Low Shrubbery: Overgrown bushes can create some privacy, but they also hinder your line of sight of the yard. Don’t provide potential burglars an area to hide. Plus, large shrubs or trees too close to your house can jam up gutters and bring in ants and termites.
ADT Signs And Decals: One of the most popular disincentives for a thief is advertising to would-be burglars that you have an updated ADT security system. An ADT sign by the main walk and a window decal will tell people that they ought to shove off to an less prepared score.

Motion Activated Porch Light Fixtures: Light is the biggest obstacle to people who skulk in the dark. Motion-controlled lights on your deck, porch, or garage can shoo lurkers away. Lights also help you work the locks when you get to the house late after work.

Contact Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help Complete Your Home Safety Checklist for Florence

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t help you with each household item on your Florence home safety checklist, we can offer a powerful home security. With easy-to-use devices and ADT monitoring, we can customize the perfect system for your family’s needs. Just call (843) 310-4058 and talk to a professional or send in the form below. Or personalize your own solution with our Security System Designer.