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Home Safety Checklist For Greenville

Keeping safe in your home should be your topmost responsibility. But are you missing some useful safety components? Use this home safety checklist for Greenville and see where your home can use greater attention.

We give you some whole-house safety techniques, and then we break it down room-by-room. Then, call (864) 362-5081 or complete the form below to speak to a security agent.

Whole Home Safety Checklist

Basic Home Safety Checklist for Greenville

While you may want to employ a room-by-room method for home safety, there are some methods that work for the whole-house approach. These devices can sync with one another through a touchscreen hub, and can even work off other components. You might also control each of your home safety equipment using a smartphone app, such as ADT Control:

  • Monitored Home Security System: Each one of your doors and windows should employ a sensor that notifies you to forced entry. As an alarm trips, your monitoring agent answers the alert and immediately sends a first responder.

  • Smart Bulbs For Every Major Room: Sure, you can program your smart lights so your home is more eco-conscience. But smart lights can also allow you to stay safe throughout an emergency. Have your smart bulbs flash on when a sensor goes off to frighten off robbers or brighten your way to a secure location.

  • Smart Thermostat: Like your smart lights, a smart thermostat in Greenville could save you between 10%-15% in gas and electric costs. Also, it can start an exhaust fan during a fire.

  • Monitored Smoke Detectors: At the very least, you need to have a fire alarm on each level of your house. You can improve your fire game by utilizing a monitored fire detector that looks for unusual heat and smoke, and notifies your 24-hour monitoring agents when it senses a fire.

  • Smart Lock For Every Door: Every door that utilizes a keyed lock can upgrade to a smart lock. Now you may preset key codes to family and friends and get notifications to your phone when the locks are activated. Your doors can even automatically unlock, letting you quickly leave during a fire or other emergency.

Family Room Safety Checklist

Family Room/Living Room Safety Checklist For Greenville

You’ll spend a lot of time in your family room, so it can be the best place to start making your house more secure. Highly sought after items, like a big screen or stereo system, typically sit in your family room, making it an alluring area for thieves. Begin with installing a motion detector or indoor security camera by the doorway, then try some of these safety protocols:

  • Motion Sensors: By hanging motion sensors, you’ll hear a high-decibel siren whenever they detect unusual motion within your family room. Look for motion sensors that filter out a dog or cat or you’ll have your sirens go off each time your dog roams by for a midnight stroll.

  • Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera offers a visual on your living room. Get constant feeds of everything so you can know what’s happening without leaving your bed. Or speak with your kids in the room by using the two-way talk feature.

  • Surge Protector/Cord Maintenance: Safeguard those electronics and quit overtaxing your electric system with a surge protector. For extra comfort, use a smart plug with a surge protector in the unit.

  • Heavy Furniture Secured To The Wall: If you have babies or toddlers, you’ll want to attach your heavy furniture and entertainment center to your wall. This is especially crucial if your family room has rugs or carpet that might make heavy objects extra unstable.

  • Enhanced Locks For Sliding Glass Doors: If your living room uses a sliding door that opens to a backyard, deck, or screened-in porch, you can see that the latch is pretty flimsy. Install a custom lock, like a cross bar or small locks that secures the door to the bottom and top of the door frame.

Kitchen Safety Checklist

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Greenville

The kitchen has plenty of items that can provide safety to your home. Many of these things are also a snap to add and can be bought from the a retail store:

  • Fire Extinguisher: A fire can spring up from an unwatched frying pan or an errant grease splatter. Always keep a fire extinguisher in close reach for any stove or oven mishaps.

  • GFCI Box On Each Outlet: A GFCI outlet should be used anywhere there’s nearby running water to prevent a deadly shock. That means the plug outlets around your kitchen counter and sink. Since the late ‘80s, it’s been required to have one GFCI per dedicated circuit. But for simplicity’s sake, you’re going to want to install a separate GFCI for every outlet.

  • Monitored Carbon Monoxide Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is advised for kitchens that have a gas oven and stove. If your gas burners spring a leak, the CO detector will play a high-decibel noise and call your monitoring professional.

  • Clorox Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety issue in the kitchen is the invisible bacteria and contamination from uncooked meat and other foods. Always store cleaning wipes or spray to scrub off your counters after preparing food.

  • Refrigerator Alarm: The items in the fridge should remain at a constant temperature to stay healthy to consume. If you leave the freezer or refrigerator door ajar, then a constant beep will let you know so you can close the door. Some fridges come with a pre-installed alarm, others won’t, and you’ll have to get a fridge alarm from the store.

Bathroom Safety Checklist

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Greenville

Just because there’s not a lot of square footage in your bathroom, you will still have safety concerns. From water problems to electric safety, here are some safety ideas for your bathroom:

  • Flood Sensors: A leaking sink or shower can lead to an expensive amount of damage. Discover water problems early with a flood detector and save yourself from renovating the entire bathroom.

  • No-slip Bathroom Mats: A slip in the bathroom can be devastating, causing bumps, gashed heads, or trips to the hospital. Make sure you steer clear from these issues with a no-slip bathroom mat for after your bath or shower.

  • Non-slip Bathtub Strips: Like a tiled floor, a tub basin can be a slippery surface to move in. Make sure every has some no-slip stickies so your feet have a textured patch to grip.

  • Medicine Door Latch: If you have curious children or someone with memory lapses, you should take extra care regarding prescription medicine. Secure your pills and syrups by installing a medicine cabinet with a latch that locks.

  • Circuit Interrupter Outlet: Similarly to the kitchen, you will have to also put in a grounded GFCI outlet on every bathroom receptacle. These will cut the electric current if water splashes on them or there’s an unusual spike from a hair dryer or curling iron.

Child's Bedroom Safety Checklist

Child’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Greenville

Your child’s bedroom should pair safety with manageability. If their window coverings or other items are safe but tricky to operate, then your kids may try unsafe activities -- like climb a bookshelf -- to use them. Here are some straightforward, and safe, ideas:

  • Cord-Free Window Treatments: Safety experts have designated corded window treatments a secret danger for kids and pets. Use motorized blinds or shades that you can easily control through a remote control. Or better yet, pair your motorized coverings to your ADT smart hub so they open on a schedule when it’s time to get up, and lower at night for added darkness.

  • Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera sitting on your child’s desk can double as a baby monitor that you can view from a mobile device. And when they want your help, they can use the two-way talk feature included on the camera.

  • Outlet Plug Covers: While every outlet should have outlet safety caps on them to protect your young children, this is doubly urgent in a child’s bedroom. It’s the one place in your house where your child will most likely hang out alone without consistent parental supervision.

  • Window Safety Ladder: If you have bedrooms on an upper story, then you should have a window fire ladder. These can let a young one get out of their room in case the stairway or lower levels are engulfed in smoke and fire. Just remember to rehearse how to unfurl them a few times a year.

  • Toy Chest Or Low Shelves: It’s weird to look at a toy chest as a safety component, but you’ll get it if you’ve ever walked on a building block in your stocking feet. A clean floor let your child have a quick way out when there’s a fire or break-in.

Master Bedroom Safety Checklist

Master Bedroom Safety Checklist For Greenville

Your master bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety components give you peace of mind if you have an emergency. After all, being startled awake by a loud alarm can be disorienting.

  • Security System Touchscreen: Having a smart hub on your nightstand helps you know what’s happening without leaving your bed. You could also log into your ADT mobile app. However, the touchscreen is often faster to use when you’re bleary-eyed and disoriented.

  • Device Charging Station: We depend on our phones for so many things now alarms, internet searches, games, and --legend has it-- even phones. However, a dead cell can cut us off from communications if during an emergency. To make sure your phone always works, a charging station or cord is an essential.

  • Nightlight/Smart Lights: A plug-in light can calm you when you’re bolted awake from a fire alarm or unexpected noises. If you won’t drift off to sleep with a small nightlight, install smart bulbs in your bedroom. Then you can control light anytime with a mobile device or voice command.

  • Fireproof Safe: Keep your vital papers like birth certificates, medical information, or a spare checkbook in a fireproof lockbox. Your lockbox can be a bigger one that sits out of the way or a slender portable safe that you can snatch as you escape during an emergency event.

  • Heat Sensor: The drawback with bedrooms is that they tend to feel too hot or be cold because they sit far away from the thermostat. A heat sensor can communicate to your smart thermostat so you can have a comfortable, restful sleep at the perfect temperature.

Garage Safety Checklist

Garage/Basement Safety Checklist For Greenville

Most safety problems in the basement or garage have to do with your pipes or HVAC system. Finding hazards before they start can stop bigger emergencies later on. So, as you walk around your storage areas, pay attention to these critical items:

  • Flood Detector Or Sump Pump Alarm: Installing a flood alarm by your water heater and sump pump can prevent you from discovering a mess when you walk into your garage or basement. The last you need is to spend the weekend drying your floor and sorting through all those ruined boxes.

  • CO Alarm: It’s nice to hang a carbon monoxide alarm in a place where a CO leak can spring up. If you use gas heating, you should hang an alarm in the same area as your inbound pipes.

  • WiFi Water Shutoff Valve: If your flood sensor detects a hot water leak or a burst pipe, then you need to shut off the primary water valve quickly. With a remote shutoff valve, you can stop water flow from your phone. That’s perfect when you’re out of town and receive a flood sensor notification on your mobile device.

  • Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage door up causes all types of headaches. You can lose heat or air through that gaping hole, and critters or intruders can just wander in. A remote sensor will notify you about a neglected garage door and lets you close it remotely.

  • Temperature Sensor: A heat alarm in your basement or garage is essential if you fret about freezing pipes. The temperature in these rooms can be drastically different than your main rooms of the home, so you will want to maintain a closer eye on them through your mobile app.

Outside perimeter checklist

Outside Safety Checklist for Greenville

Your landscaping, drive, and front porch are just as imperative to defend as the rest of your house. Try the items on this checklist to create a safe outside:

  • Outdoor Camera: You can install outdoor cameras to alert you to unusual movement in your back yard. These devices are especially useful in places where you might not have a view -- like around a cellar or by the driveway.

  • Low Shrubs: High shrubs can create some solitude, but they also obscure your line of sight of the outside. Don’t provide potential burglars an area to hide. Plus, high bushes, shrubs or trees against your house can obstruct gutters and summon pests.

  • ADT Signs And Decals: One of the largest deterrents for a break-in is advertising to would-be rogues that you own an updated ADT security system. An ADT yard stick by the stoop and a window sticker will tell ne'er-do-wells that they ought to keep walking to an less prepared house.

  • Motion Activated Outside Lighting: Light is the largest obstacle to those who skulk in the shadows. Motion-controlled flood lights on your porch, garage, or deck can help scare lurkers away. They also help you get inside when you come to the house late after work.

Contact Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help You Finish Your Home Safety Checklist for Greenville

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t help you with each household item on your Greenville home safety checklist, we can discuss a powerful security system. With alarms, security cameras, and home automation, we can install the perfect system for your home’s needs. Just contact (864) 362-5081 and talk to a professional or complete the form below. Or customize your own ADT system with our Security System Designer.