Home Safety Checklist For Kingsport

Keeping safe in your residence should be your largest responsibility. But are you missing some big safety items? Use this home safety checklist for Kingsport and see where your home requires an update.

This guide starts with some whole-house safety items, and then we break it down to specific room ideas. Then, phone (423) 241-8746 or fill out the form below to talk to a security professional.

Whole Home Safety Checklist for Kingsport

While you may want to employ a room-by-room method for home safety, there are a few methods that work for the entire house approach. These items can sync to each other through a wireless hub, and oftentimes respond to other things. You can also control every one of your home safety components using a mobile app, like ADT Control:

Monitored Security System: All your doors and windows should have a sensor that warns you and your family to forced entry. When an alarm trips, your monitoring agent responds to the alert and quickly calls the police or fire department.

Smart Bulbs For Each Room: Of course, you can schedule your smart lighting so your house is more energy-efficient. But they can also allow you to stay safe in an emergency. Have your downstairs lights come on when a sensor triggers to scare off intruders or light the way out to a outside area.

Smart Thermostat: Likewise, a smart thermostat in Kingsport can save you up to 15% in energy costs. Also, it can start your exhaust fan during a fire.

Monitored Fire Detectors: At the very least, you will have a fire detector on each level of your house. You can increase your fire readiness by hanging a monitored fire alarm that detects both heat and smoke, and notifies your 24/7 monitoring team when it detects a fire.

Smart Lock For Every Door: Every entryway that needs a deadbolt can use a smart lock. Now you can preset key codes to each family member and receive texts to your phone when your locks are unlocked. Your doors can even automatically unlock, allowing you to quickly flee the house if you have an emergency.

Living Room/Family Room Safety Checklist For Kingsport

You’ll hang out most in your living room, so it’s the best place to start making your house safer. Highly sought after items, like a big screen or stereo system, probably sit in your living room, making it a tempting room for thieves. Begin with placing a motion sensor or indoor camera in your room, then try some of these ideas:

Motion Sensors: By installing motion sensors, you’ll get a loud alarm anytime they detect unusual movement within your family room. The best devices are motion sensors that ignore pet movements or you’ll see your sirens go off every time your pet roams by for a bite of food.
Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera puts an eye on your living room. Watch real-time streams of your room so you can find out what’s happening without leaving your bed. Or speak with family members in the family room with the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Outlet Maintenance: Protect those electronics and quit overloading your circuits with a surge protector. For extra convenience, install a smart plug with a surge protector built-in.
Entertainment Center Bolted To The Wall: If you have any small children, you’ll need to secure your entertainment center or other heavy furniture to a wall. This is especially important if your living room uses rugs or carpet that can make objects extra unbalanced.
Enhanced Locks For Glass Doors: If your family room uses a sliding glass door that opens to a patio, deck, or screened-in porch, you get that the door lock is pretty thin. Use a custom lock, like a bottom bar or small locks that bolt to the bottom and top of the opening.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Kingsport

Your kitchen has many items that can add comfort and safety to your house. Many of these things should be simple to add and should be purchased from the grocery store:

Fire Extinguisher: Fire can happen from a neglected pot or an errant grease splatter. Always have a fire extinguisher at the ready for any cooking mishaps.
Circuit Interrupter Box On Every Outlet: A GFCI outlet should be installed on outlets where there’s nearby water to ward off a deadly shock. That means the plug outlets around your sink and kitchen counter. For 30 years, it’s been required to have one GFCI per dedicated circuit. But if you don’t want all your outlets to go dead when one outlet flips, 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 range. If your gas burners malfunction, the carbon monoxide detector will play a loud noise and ping your monitoring expert.
Clorox Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety problem in the kitchen is actually bacteria and contamination from uncooked meat and dairy. Always keep disinfectant wipes or an antibacterial spray to clean your counters when cooking.
Freezer and Refrigerator Alarm: The items in the refrigerator need to stay at a constant temperature to stay ready to consume. If you leave the fridge or freezer door open, then a small beep will remind you to shut it securely. Some refrigerators come with a pre-installed alarm, older models won’t, and you’ll have to get a fridge alarm from the store.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Kingsport

Just because you don’t a bunch of space in your bathroom, you will still have safety hazards. From flood detectors to electric safety, here are a few safety tips for your bathroom:

Flood Sensors: A leaking toilet or tub can cause a whole lot of destruction. Get alerted early about leaks with a flood detector and save the time and money from water damage.
No-slip Shower Mats: A fall in the bathroom can be a painful occurrence, causing bumps, bruises, or sprained ankles. Make sure you avoid these problems with a non-slip bath mat for after your bath or shower.

Textured Bathtub Stickers: Like a tiled floor, a tub basin can be a slick surface to move in. Make sure each bathtub has some non-slip stickies so your feet have a bumpy patch to grip.

Medicine Door Latch: If you have little children or someone with memory difficulties, you should take additional precautions regarding prescribed medicine. Hide away your pills and syrups 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. These will shut off the electric current if water enters the outlet or you have an unusual spike from an electric razor or hair dryer.

Kid’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Kingsport

A child’s bedroom should pair safety with manageability. If their window treatments or other items are safe but hard to use, then your kids may perform unsafe methods -- like scale a bookshelf -- to touch them. Here are some straightforward, yet safe, ideas:

No Cord Window Treatments: Safety professionals have long called window treatment cords an unsuspecting hazard for kids and pets. Install motorized shades that you can easily manage via remote control. Or better yet, connect your motorized coverings to your ADT security system so they can raise without anyone’s help at dawn, and go down in the evening for added darkness.

Tableside Security Camera: A camera perched on your child’s desk can double as a high tech baby monitor that you can view with a smartphone. And when they need you, they can hit the two-way talk button that comes with the camera.

Outlet Covers: While every outlet should use protective covers on them to protect your young children, this is especially needed in their bedroom. It’s the main place in your house where your child will most likely be alone without constant additional supervision.

Window Fire Ladder: If you have bedrooms on above the first story, then you should put in a window safety ladder. These can help your children leave the house when the hallway or ground floor are on fire. Just remember to go over how to use them a few times a year.

Toy Chest Or Low Bookshelves: It’s strange to think about a toy box as a safety device, but you’ll see the light if you’ve ever walked on an action figure in your socked feet. A clutter-free floor gives your child a quick escape when there’s a safety or security event.

Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Kingsport

The master bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety items make you more responsive when you experience an emergency. After all, being jerked awake by a wailing siren can be quite a shock.

Smart Hub Touchscreen: Having a smart hub on your nightstand helps you know what’s what that noise was without getting out of bed. You could also log into your ADT mobile app. However, the HD touchscreen may be better to use when you’re coming out of sleep and finding your bearings.

Device Charging Area: We depend on our phones for so much now alarms, news readers, time wasters, and maybe even phones. However, an uncharged device can cut us off from communications if during an emergency. To make sure your phone always works, a charging station or cord is should be used nightly.

Smart Lights Or Nightlights: A small light can be a beacon when you’re bolted awake from an alarm or unexpected sounds. If you won’t drift off to sleep with a small nightlight, put in smart bulbs in your bedroom and hall. Then you can have light simply with a button push or voice direction.
Fireproof Safe: Stash your important papers like social security cards, passports, or banking information in a fireproof lockbox. This can be a bigger one that camps out in a corner or a small portable safe that you can carry on your way out during a fire or other emergency.

Heat Sensor: The problem with a master bedroom is that they might be too stuffy or be cold because they sit across the house from the thermostat. A heat sensor can talk to your smart thermostat so you will have a pleasant, restful sleep at a wonderful temperature.

Basement/Garage Safety Checklist For Kingsport

Most safety needs in the garage or basement are with your water or furnace. Finding hazards before they start can stop bigger disasters later on. So, as you look around your storage areas, pay attention to these crucial items:

Flood Detector Or Sump Pump Alarm: Putting a flood alarm in back of your water heater or sump pump drain can stop you from wading into a mess when you go into your garage or basement. It’s definitely better than rummaging through a bunch of soggy storage boxes.

CO Detector: It’s nice to have a carbon monoxide alarm in a place where a gas leak can happen. If you use gas heat, you’ll want to put a detector in the same area as your unit.
Wireless Water Shutoff Valve: If your water detector finds a plumbing leak or a busted pipe, then you will want to cap the main water line immediately. With a WiFi shutoff valve, you can block water flow from any mobile device. That’s nice when you’re visiting relatives and get a water leak alert on your mobile device.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage up leads to all sorts of problems. You can waste heat through that open door, and critters or thieves can just walk in. A remote sensor will notify you about a forgotten garage door and allow you to close it remotely.
Heat Sensor: A heat alarm in your garage or basement is handy if you worry about your pipes freezing. The temperature in these areas can be surprisingly different than your main rooms of the house, so you will need to keep a constant look on the temperature by using your mobile app.

Outside Safety Checklist for Kingsport

Your foliage, driveway, and front walk are just as important to defend as the rest of your home. Use this checklist to defend your perimeter:

Doorbell Camera: See who’s at the door before you open it and welcome visitors. Get a visual on package deliveries and review video clips if they vanish off the step.

Outdoor Security Camera: You can place outdoor cameras to alert you to late night lurkers in your back yard. These cameras come in handy in places where you may not have a view -- like around a cellar or by the garage.

Window Height Shrubs: Overgrown shrubs can give you some solitude, but they also block you seeing into the outside. Don’t give potential thieves a dark shadow to hide. Plus, tall bushes, shrubs or trees too close to your structure can clog gutters and bring in pests.
ADT Signs And Decals: One of the biggest deterrents for a break-in is telling would-be burglars that you use an updated security system. An ADT yard sign by the stoop and a window sticker will show people that they might want to move on to an unprotected target.

Motion Triggered Flood Light Fixtures: Light is the biggest deterrent to people who lurk in the unlit places. Motion-activated flood lights on your deck, patio, or garage can help scare possible intruders away. Lights also help you work the locks when you get to the house on those dark, winter nights.

Use Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help Complete Your Home Safety Checklist for Kingsport

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t deliver every item on your Kingsport home safety checklist, we can offer a powerful home security system. With everything from alarms to thermostats, we can customize the ideal system for your house’s needs. Simply call (423) 241-8746 to get started or send in the form below. Or personalize your own ADT system with our Security System Designer.