Home Safety Checklist For Oklahoma City
Being safe in your house should be your number one responsibility. But are you missing some big safety items? Look over this home safety checklist for Oklahoma City and discover where your living space needs some work.
This guide starts with five whole-house safety items, and then we break it down room-by-room. Then, phone (405) 347-5898 or send in the form below to get your home safe and secure.
Whole Home Safety Checklist for Oklahoma City
While you should take a individual room approach to home safety, there are some things that work for the whole-house approach. These items can talk together through a wireless hub, and often can react to other components. You can also manage each of your home safety components with a mobile security app, like ADT Control:
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Monitored Security System: Each one of your windows and doors should have a sensor that notifies your family to forced entry. As your alarm goes off, your monitoring center responds to the call and quickly sends the police or fire department.
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Smart Lighting For Each Room: Sure, you can set your smart lighting so your home is more efficient. But they can also allow you to stay safe in an emergency. Make your smart bulbs come on when a security alarm trips to frighten off burglars or light your way to a safe location.
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Smart Thermostat: Likewise, a smart thermostat in Oklahoma City can save you 10%-15% in gas and electric spending. But it also can flip on the exhaust fan if you have a fire.
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Monitored Fire Detectors: At the very least, you will have a fire alarm on each floor. You can improve your fire preparedness by installing a monitored fire alarm that senses unusual smoke and heat, and notifies your 24/7 monitoring agents when it senses a fire.
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Smart Door Locks: Every doorway that needs a keyed lock can use a smart lock. Now you may program numbered codes to each family member and receive notifications to your mobile device when your locks are unlocked. Your locks can even automatically turn off, allowing you to quickly get out when you have a fire or dangerous situation.
Family Room Safety Checklist For Oklahoma City
You’ll spend most of your time in the living room, so it’s the perfect area to improve your home safety. Highly sought after items, like a big screen or video game console, usually sit in your living room, making it a tempting space for burglars. Start with hanging a motion sensor or security camera in there, then continue on with the following safety protocols:
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Motion Detectors: By installing motion detectors, you’ll get a shrieking alarm if they sense suspicious movement within your living room. The best devices are motion sensors that filter out a dog or cat or you’ll have an alert every time your cat roams by for a bite of food.
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Indoor Camera: An indoor security camera gives you an eye on your family room. Get live feeds of everything so you can see what’s downstairs through the mobile app. Or speak with family members in the room using the two-way talk feature.
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Surge Protector/Cord Maintenance: Safeguard all your electronics and stop overtaxing your outlets with a surge protector. For additional convenience, set up a smart plug with surge protection built-in.
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Entertainment Center Bolted To The Wall: If you have curious kids, you’ll need to secure your heavy furniture and entertainment center to your wall. This is especially important if your living room has carpet that could make furniture extra wobbly.
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Enhanced Locks For Sliding Glass Doors: If your family room has a glass door that slides out to a backyard, deck, or porch, you already can see that the lock is fairly flimsy. Put in a special lock, like a cross bar or small locks that are located on the top and bottom of the frame.
Kitchen Safety Checklist For Oklahoma City
The kitchen has many items that should add safety to your house. Many of these objects are also a snap to add and should be purchased from the grocery store:
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Fire Extinguisher: A fire can spring up from an overfilled skillet or an errant grease splatter. Always store a fire extinguisher at hand for any stove or oven mishaps.
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Circuit Interrupter Box On Every Outlet: A GFCI outlet should be used on outlets where there’s nearby water to lessen the chance of electrocution. That includes the outlets close to your sink and kitchen counter. For 30 years, it’s been standard to have one GFCI per dedicated circuit. But all your outlets will go if any outlet senses a surge, so you’re going to want to have a single GFCI for every outlet.
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Monitored CO Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is needed in kitchens that have gas for the stove and oven. If your gas burners spring a leak, the CO detector will emit a high-decibel siren and ping your monitoring professional.
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Clorox Wipes Or Spray: The biggest safety issue in the kitchen is actually bacteria and cross-contamination from blood from meat and other foods. Always keep cleaning wipes or an antibacterial spray to scrub off your area when making a meal.
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Refrigerator/Freezer Alarm: The items in your fridge have to stay at a constant temperature to be safe to consume. If you accidently leave the refrigerator door ajar, then a small beep will remind you to check the seal. Some fridges already have this installed, older models won’t, and you’ll have to pick up a fridge alarm from the store.
Bathroom Safety Checklist For Oklahoma City
Just because you don’t a lot of square footage in your bathroom doesn’t mean that there aren’t safety issues. From flood detectors to anti-surge outlets, here are a few safety tips for your bathroom:
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Flood Detectors: A leaking toilet or bathtub can create extensive damage. Deal with a leak with a flood detector and save hundreds to thousands of dollars from water damage.
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Textured Bath Mats: A slip and fall in the bathroom can be a painful occurrence, causing bumps, sore joints, or trips to the hospital. Or steer clear from these issues with a no-slip bathroom mat for your wet feet.
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Textured Bathtub Strips: Another water hazard, a tub can be a slick surface to be on. Make sure each bathtub has some no-slip stickers so your toes have a rough patch for stability.
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Medicine Door Latch: If you have little children or someone with memory lapses, you have to take additional care regarding prescription medicine. Secure your bottles by using a medicine cabinet with a locking latch.
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Circuit Interrupter Outlet: Just like the kitchen, you will have to also use a safer circuit interrupter outlet on every bathroom receptacle. This will shut off the electricity if water enters the outlet or there’s an unusual spike from an electric razor or hair dryer.
Kid’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Oklahoma City
Your kid’s bedroom should counterbalance safety with simplicity. If their window treatments or other items are safe but hard to manage, then your child may try risky methods -- like scale a bookshelf -- to touch them. Here are 5 simple, yet safe, ideas:
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Cord-Free Window Coverings: Safety experts have long called window treatment cords an unsuspecting problem for both children and pets. Use motorized treatments that you can easily control through a remote control. Or go state-of-the-art and link your shades to your ADT smart hub so they rise without anyone’s help at dawn, and close in the evening for extra privacy.
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Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera perched on your child’s dresser can act as a baby monitor that you can view with a smartphone. And if they need you, they can use the 2-way talk feature on the camera.
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Plug Covers: While every outlet should have outlet safety caps on them to protect your small children, this is especially needed in a child’s bedroom. It’s the one room in your house where your children will most likely play solo without consistent parental supervision.
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Window Escape Ladder: If you have bedrooms on an upper floor, then you will want to put in a window escape ladder. These will help a young one escape in case the stairway or ground floor are blocked off with fire. Remember to practice how to use the ladder a few times a year.
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Toy Box Or Low Shelves: It’s interesting to view a toy box as a safety item, but you’ll understand if you’ve ever tramped on a building block in your socked feet. A clean floor let your child have a quick retreat during a safety or security event.
Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Oklahoma City
Your master bedroom should be an oasis, so let your safety components give you peace of mind when you experience an emergency. After all, being wrenched awake by a high-decibel buzzer can be disorienting.
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Home Security Touchscreen: Having a smart hub on your dresser lets you see what’s what that noise was without getting out of bed. You could alternatively use your ADT phone app. However, the large touchscreen may be faster to use when you’re bleary-eyed and finding your bearings.
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Device Charging Station: We rely on our smartphones for almost everything now GPS, internet searches, social media, and maybe even phones. However, a dead phone will cut us off from communications if there’s a problem. So, a charging station or cord is an important part of your nightstand.
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Nightlight/Smart Lights: A small light can calm you when you’re startled awake from a fire alarm or other loud noises. If you won’t drift off to sleep with a nightlight, put in smart lights in your bedroom. Then you can control light simply with a mobile device or voice command.
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Fireproof Safe: Stash your vital documents like insurance cards, passports, or a spare checkbook in a fireproof safe. Your safe can be a big one that sits out of the way or a smaller portable lockbox that you can grab as you escape during a fire or break-in.
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Temperature Sensor: The drawback with a master bedroom is that they might feel too warm or be cold because they are located across the house from the thermostat. A heat sensor can talk to your smart thermostat so you can have a comfortable, relaxing sleep at the perfect temperature.
Basement/Garage Safety Checklist For Oklahoma City
Most safety problems in the basement or garage deal with your water or heating system. Finding issues at the source can stop bigger problems later on. So, as you take a look around your basement or garage, pay attention to these crucial items:
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Water Sensor Or Sump Pump Alarm: Placing a flood alarm in back of your water heater or sump pump drain can save you from wading into a mess when you go into your garage or basement. The last you need is to spend the weekend drying your floor and sorting through all those ruined boxes.
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Carbon Monoxide Alarm: It’s smart to install a CO alarm in areas where a natural gas leak can spring up. If you use a gas furnace, you’ll want to install a detector in the same room as your HVAC unit.
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Wireless Water Shutoff Valve: If your flood alarm detects a hot water leak or a burst pipe, then you will have to cap the main water line quickly. With a WiFi shutoff valve, you can turn off your water flow from anywhere in the world. That’s nice when you’re visiting relatives and get a water leak notification on your phone.
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Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage open leads to all sorts of headaches. You can waste heat through that large opening, and rodents or lurkers can just saunder in. A sensor will text you about a forgotten garage door and lets you close it with your phone.
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Temperature Sensor: A heat alarm in your basement or garage is a definite if you worry about freezing pipes. The heat in these rooms can be drastically different than the rest of the house, so you will need to have a close look on the temperature by using your security mobile app.
Outside Safety Checklist for Oklahoma City
Your yard, driveway, and front step are just as important to make safe as the interior of your home. Try the items on this checklist to create a safe outside:
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Doorbell Security Camera: See who’s knocking on the front door before you answer it and welcome guests. View package deliveries and record video clips if they vanish off the step.
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Outdoor Security Camera: You can install outdoor security cameras to guard against unusual activity in your yard. These cameras are nice in places where you may not have a view -- like around a cellar or by the garage door.
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Low Shrubbery: High foliage can offer some solitude, but they also hinder your line of sight of the outside. Don’t give potential burglars a place to hide. Plus, high shrubs or trees too close to your home can clog gutters and summon bugs.
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ADT Signage: One of the most popular deterrents for home intrusion is advertising to would-be burglars that you use a state-of-the-art ADT security system. An ADT yard sign by the front door and a window sticker will tell lurkers that they should keep walking to an easier target.
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Motion Activated Porch Lighting: Light is the greatest deterrent to people who lurk in the unlit places. Motion-activated lighting on your deck, patio, or garage can frighten possible intruders away. They also help you work the locks when you come to the house on those dark, winter nights.
Call Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help You With Your Home Safety Checklist for Oklahoma City
While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t deliver every item on your Oklahoma City home safety checklist, we can bring you a state-of-the-art home security system. With everything from alarms to thermostats, we can install the best system for your family’s needs. Simply call (405) 347-5898 for more information or fill out the form below. Or customize your own system with our Security System Designer.