We love buying items for our homes, whether that’s a new accessory or the latest gadget. One area that you may be overlooking are the safety items that can make a real difference should there be an emergency. The following items are ones that you really should be splashing out on.
Smoke Alarms
You might already have these in your home, but do they work? Unless you’re testing them on a regular basis then you really don’t know if they’ll help you out should a fire break out. These can be hard wired into your electrics or battery powered, either way you should test them on a monthly basis.
Ensure that there are enough of these to alert you of a fire, regardless of which area of the home you are in. They should be in every room and linked to go off while other alarms are triggered. Smoke alarms that don’t work are behind a lot of preventable deaths in a fire.
To add to this, you can also purchase a fire extinguisher and blanket. Knowing where these are in the home will allow you to fetch them quickly when you need them.
First Aid Kit
A fully stocked first aid kit is important to have to hand. These need to have a range of equipment in them, so don’t be tempted just to go for the basic kits. Bandaids of different sizes and materials will allow you to deal with many injuries at home, you can check out this bandaid size chart to learn more about the options available.
These kits should have sterile gloves and scissors in them too, which you should replenish from time to time. Clean the scissors after each use and don’t use them for anything else in the home. This will reduce the risk of infection after treatment, which can be very dangerous.
A medicine area of the home that’s out of reach of children is a good way to keep yourself stocked up.
Emergency Contacts
We’re so accustomed to always having our mobile phones to hand that we can often forget the essential numbers we need in an emergency. If you don’t have these written down, then it can be very difficult to get in touch with the people that we need to when a disaster strikes. While it was common to keep these beside the phone many years ago, this has fallen out of fashion in recent years.
Keep a list of emergency contacts in the home and at work too. You should let those around you know where these are so that they can access them when needed. Teach your children how to use the home phone and about calling emergency services in the case they are needed. This will help them to get in touch when they need to.
Adding these items to your home won’t take you long or even cost much money. Don’t neglect the need for these items, put them on your shopping list and get them sorted.
