Here are a few of my tips on how to identify health hazards throughout your home—even if you think your home is completely safe, it’s always good to be sure.
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When you live in your home for a while, it’s easy to get used to it. After some time, you stop paying attention to certain things. However, just as people can become nose-blind to odors in their home, it is also easy to become blind to more serious issues within your property, including certain health hazards. Today I’ll give you some tips for checking your home to make sure it is safe for you and your family.
1. Clear out your dryer vent. Hopefully, you already clean out your dryer filters regularly, but you also need to check the dryer vent for backups of lint. I’ve seen homes where the dryer doesn’t even vent to the outside; some have vented the line into a crawlspace or into the attic. Failing to properly clear out the vent, especially if it doesn’t lead to the outdoors, can cause your machine to run less efficiently and also put your home at risk of a dryer fire.
2. Fix or remove items that may cause you to trip and fall. It doesn’t matter what age you are—there are always ways that you can injure yourself by falling. Unstable handrails, cracked walkways, and poorly spaced stairs are all ways that you can inadvertently put yourself at risk of a fall.
3. Ensure your blinds are safe and your windows are treated. After some research, I learned that injuries caused by the cords on window blinds send two children to the emergency room every day. Getting cordless blinds or changing your window coverings altogether can make your home even safer.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas, so poisoning caused by leaks will be difficult to detect without a working CO detector.
4. Regularly maintain your smoke detectors. First, you need to make sure you even have these detectors in your home. Second, check them out each season to make sure their batteries are still good and that the units themselves are in working order.
5. Keep your oven clean to avoid fires. If your oven is dirty while you’re cooking, that increases the risk of your home catching fire. If you’re like a lot of people who don’t regularly clean their ovens, go ahead and get that cleaned out. Most ovens have some sort of cleaning feature, so it’s wise to make use of that feature.
6. Be sure to have a working carbon monoxide (CO) detector. Through the years, I’ve sold homes for people who have told me about mysterious headaches they’ve had, only to find out that their heating and air system was leaking carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas, so poisoning caused by leaks will be difficult to detect without a working CO detector. Like smoke detectors, check these regularly to ensure they’re still in good condition.
If you’d like a list of things to think about regarding safety features in your home, or if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Charlotte Mabry Team. I’d be glad to send a list your way and provide any answers I can give. Hope to hear from you soon!
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