Home Safety Checklist For Ithaca

Keeping safe in your house should be your largest concern. But are you forgetting one or two useful safety components? Use this home safety checklist for Ithaca and find out where your living space needs some work.

This guide begins with a few whole-house safety ideas, and then we break it down room-by-room. Then, contact (607) 204-9053 or fill out the form below to get your home ready.

Whole Home Safety Checklist for Ithaca

While you should use a room-by-room approach to home safety in Ithaca, there are some methods that work for all of your rooms. These devices can sync together through a touchscreen hub, and often can react to one another. You can also manage every one of your home safety components through a smartphone app, like ADT Control:

Monitored Security System: Each one of your doors and windows should have a sensor that alerts you and your family to a break-in. After the alarm triggers, your monitoring center picks up the alert and sends emergency personnel.

Smart Lighting For Every Major Room: Of course, you can schedule your smart bulbs to become more eco-conscience. But smart lights can also help you stay safe during an emergency. Have your smart bulbs come on when a security alarm goes off to scare off robbers or brighten your way to a outside location.

Smart Thermostat: Likewise, a smart thermostat in Ithaca should save you up to 15% in utility costs. It also can start your exhaust fan when your alarms senses a fire.

Monitored Fire Alarms: At the very least, you should have a smoke detector on each floor. You can increase your fire preparedness by installing a monitored fire detector that detects unusual smoke and heat, and alerts your 24/7 monitoring agents when it detects a fire.

Smart Door Locks: Every entryway that uses a deadbolt can be made safer with a smart door lock. Now you can set codes to friends and family and get alerts to your smartphone when they are activated. Your smart lock can even automatically open, letting you quickly get out during a fire or dangerous situation.

Living Room/Family Room Safety Checklist For Ithaca

You’ll hang out most in the family room, so it may be the perfect place to start your home safety renovation. Electronics, like a TV or video games, usually reside in your family room, making it a tempting area for burglars. Begin with placing a motion sensor or indoor security camera in your room, then take a look at the following suggestions:

Motion Detectors: By hanging motion detectors, you’ll get a loud noise anytime they detect suspicious movement in your family room. You’ll want motion sensors that aren’t set off by a dog or cat or you’ll have an alert each time your pet roams by for a bite of food.
Security Camera: An indoor security camera offers a visual on your family room. Watch constant streams of everything so you can see what’s going on from the mobile app. Or speak with your family in the room with the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Outlet Maintenance: Safeguard expensive electronics and stop overtaxing your outlets with a surge protector. For additional comfort, set up a smart plug with anti-surge functionality built-in.
Furniture Secured To The Wall: If you have any small children, you’ll need to secure your heavy furniture and entertainment center to the wall. This is extra important if your living room uses carpeting that can make furniture extra unbalanced.
Special Locks For Glass Doors: If your living room uses a sliding door that opens to a deck, patio, or outside porch, you get that the door lock is usually worthless. Install an enhanced lock, like a cross bar or small locks that bolt to the bottom and top of the opening.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Ithaca

The kitchen has many items that should add safety to your house. Some of these things should be simple to add and should be found in the Target or Walmart:

Fire Extinguisher: Fire can come from from an unwatched frying pan or a towel that’s too close to a burner. Always store a fire extinguisher at the ready for any stove or oven mishaps.
GFCI Box On Each Outlet: A GFCI outlet should be installed everywhere they’re close to water to prevent a deadly shock. That means the plugs close to your kitchen counter and sink. For 30 years, it’s been code to have one circuit interrupter outlet per circuit. But each one of your plugs will go dead if one outlet detects a surge, so try to install a single GFCI on each outlet.

Monitored Carbon Monoxide Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is needed in the kitchen if you employ natural gas for the stove and oven. If your gas appliances leak, the CO detector will play a loud, buzzing sound and call your monitoring professional.
Disinfectant Wipes Or Spray: The biggest safety issue in the kitchen is the invisible bacteria and cross-contamination that comes with uncooked meat and vegetables. Always keep cleaning wipes or a bleach spray to clean your counters when making a meal.
Refrigerator Alarm: The items in your fridge have to stay at a chilly temperature to be healthy to consume. If you accidently leave the freezer or refrigerator door open too long, then an alarm beep will tell you to check the seal. Some refrigerators come with a pre-installed alarm, others won’t, and you’ll have to buy an external alarm from online.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Ithaca

Just because there’s not a bunch of space in your bathroom there’s still safety issues. From flood prevention to electric safety, here are some safety ideas for your bathroom:

Flood Sensors: A leaking toilet or bathtub can lead to extensive water damage. Discover pooling water early with a flood detector and save yourself from redoing the entire bathroom.
Textured Bathroom Mats: A fall in the bathroom can be painful, causing cuts, sore joints, or sprained ankles. Or steer clear from these issues with a non-slip bathroom mat for while you towel off.

Textured Bathtub Stickers: Like a tiled floor, a bathtub can be a slick surface to be on. Make sure every tub has some no-slip stickers so your feet have a textured patch for stability.

Medicine Door Latch: If you have little toddlers or anyone with memory difficulties, you should take additional care regarding prescription medicine. Safeguard your bottles by installing a medicine cabinet with a locking latch.

Circuit Interrupter Outlet: While installing better outlets in the kitchen, you need to also install a safer GFCI outlet on every bathroom receptacle. This will stop the flow of the electric current if they ever get wet or you have a sudden surge from a curling iron or hair dryer.

Kid’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Ithaca

Your kid’s bedroom should pair safety with simplicity. If their window shades or other items are safe but hard to operate, then your child may try unsafe activities -- like climb a bookshelf -- to use them. Try these simple, yet safe, ideas:

No Cord Window Treatments: Safety experts have long called cords from shades and blinds a secret problem for children and animals. Put in motorized blinds or shades that your child can easily manage with a remote. Or go state-of-the-art and link your motorized treatments to your security system so they open without anyone’s help when the sun comes up, and lower at bedtime for added darkness.

Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera perched on your toddler’s desk or dresser can behave just like a baby monitor that you can watch with a mobile device. And if they need you, they can push the two-way talk feature that comes with the camera.

Plug Covers: While each outlet should use outlet safety caps on them when you have young children, this is doubly needed in their bedroom. It’s the main place in your home where your children will most likely be alone without consistent additional supervision.

Window Escape Ladder: If you have bedrooms on above the first story, then you should put in a window safety ladder. These should help your children get out of their room even if the hallway or lower levels are blocked off with fire. Remember to practice how to employ the ladder at least twice a year.

Toy Box Or Low Bookshelves: It’s interesting to look at a toy chest as a safety item, but you’ll get it if you’ve ever walked on a building block in your bare feet. A clutter-free floor let your child have a quick escape if there’s an emergency.

Master Bedroom Safety Checklist For Ithaca

Your bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety devices make life easier when you have an emergency. After all, being jerked awake by a wailing siren can be quite a shock.

Home Security Touchscreen: Having a smart hub on your dresser gives you a sense of what’s going on without jumping out of bed. You could always use your ADT phone app but, the touchscreen can be faster to use when you’re coming out of sleep and confused.

Personal Charging Area: We depend on our phones for so many things now alarms, web browsers, time wasters, and --legend has it-- even phones. The only problem is that a dead cell in the middle of the night cuts us off from reaching help if there’s a problem. To make sure your phone always works, a charging station or cord is an essential.

Smart Lights Or Nightlights: A plug-in light helps ground you when you’re startled awake from an alarm or other loud noises. If you won’t drift off to sleep with an outlet light, install smart lights in your fixtures. Then you can have light on-demand with a push of a button or vocal command.
Fireproof Lockbox: Store your essential paperwork like social security cards, medical information, or banking information in a fireproof safe. Your lockbox can be a big one that sits in a corner or a slender handheld safe that you can grab on your way out during a fire or other emergency.

Temperature Sensor: The drawback with bedrooms is that they tend to feel too stuffy or be chilly because they are across the house from the thermostat. A temperature sensor can talk to your smart thermostat so you can have a comfortable, restful sleep at the perfect climate.

Garage/Basement Safety Checklist For Ithaca

Most safety issues in the garage or basement deal with your water or furnace. Finding problems before they start can stop larger disasters later on. So, as you walk around your basement or garage, pay attention to these safety items:

Flood Detector Or Sump Pump Alarm: Placing a flood sensor in back of your water heater or sump pump drain can prevent you from discovering a pond when you walk into your basement or garage. The last you need is to waste the weekend bailing out water and going through all those soggy boxes.

CO Alarm: It’s smart to hang a carbon monoxide alarm in a place where a gas leak can happen. If you employ gas heating, try to put an alarm in the same area as your inbound pipes.
Wireless Water Shutoff Valve: If your flood detector finds a hot water heater leak or a burst pipe, then you need to cut off the primary water valve immediately. With a remote shutoff valve, you can stop water flow from any mobile device. That’s perfect when you’re out of town and get a water leak alert on your phone.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage up leads to all types of problems. You can lose HVAC energy through that large opening, and all sorts of animals or intruders can just walk in. A remote sensor will alert you to a neglected garage door and lets you close it with your phone.
Temperature Sensor: A heat sensor in your basement or garage is a definite if you fret about frozen pipes. The temperature in these areas can be wildly different than your main rooms of the house, so you will want to keep a closer eye on them with your mobile app.

Outside Perimeter Safety Checklist for Ithaca

Your front yard, drive, and front step are just as important to defend as the rest of your house. Use this checklist to defend your perimeter:

Doorbell Camera: See who’s arrived at the front door before you open it and chat with guests. See deliveries and look at video clips if they vanish off the step.

Outdoor Camera: You can hang outdoor security cameras to alert you to unusual activity in your yard. These security cameras are nice in places where you might not have a window -- like a side yard or by the garage.

Low Shrubbery: Overgrown bushes can give you some serenity, but they also block you seeing into the yard. Don’t provide potential thieves an area to hide. Plus, high shrubs or trees too close to your structure can jam up gutters and invite bugs.
ADT Signs And Decals: One of the largest disincentives for a break-in is telling potential intruders that you have an updated security system. An ADT sign by the main walk and a window cling will show lurkers that they should keep walking to an unprotected score.

Motion Controlled Outside Light Fixtures: Light is the greatest obstacle to people who lurk in the unlit places. Motion-triggered flood lights on your deck, porch, or garage can shoo possible intruders away. They also help you see the walk when you get to the house late after work.

Call Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help Complete Your Home Safety Checklist for Ithaca

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t install every item on your Ithaca home safety checklist, we can bring you a powerful home security system. With alarms, security cameras, and home automation, we can install the best system for your family’s needs. Just phone (607) 204-9053 for more information or fill out the form below. Or personalize your own system with our Security System Designer.