Home Safety Checklist For Boulder

Being safe in your house should be your largest responsibility. But are you missing a few useful safety components? Take this home safety checklist for Boulder and see where your house can use some work.

We give you some whole-home safety ideas, and then we delve down room-by-room. Then, phone (303) 479-3788 or complete the form below for additional information.

Basic Home Safety Checklist for Boulder

While you should use a room-to-room approach to home safety in Boulder, there are some items that work for all of your rooms. These components can sync to each other through a smart hub, and can even work off one another. You might also manage each of your home safety components through a mobile app, like ADT Control:

Monitored Security System: Each one of your windows and doors should use a sensor that warns your family to intrusion. After the alarm triggers, your monitoring expert answers the alert and immediately calls a first responder.

Smart Bulbs For Most Rooms: Of course, you can program your smart lighting to become more efficient. But smart lights can also allow you to stay safe during an emergency. Have your smart bulbs come on when an alarm trips to scare off robbers or brighten a path to a outside place.

Smart Thermostat: Like your smart lights, a smart thermostat in Boulder could save you between 10%-15% in gas and electric spending. It also can turn on the exhaust fan during a fire.

Monitored Fire Detectors: At the very least, you have a smoke detector on every floor. You can improve your fire readiness by installing a monitored fire detector that detects both heat and smoke, and alerts your 24-hour monitoring agents when it thinks that there’s a fire.

Smart Lock For Every Door: Every doorway that utilizes a deadbolt can be made safer with a smart door lock. Now you may set numbered codes to each family member and get texts to your smartphone when the locks are activated. Your smart lock can even automatically unlock, helping you to quickly leave during a fire or dangerous situation.

Family Room Safety Checklist For Boulder

You’ll spend a lot of time in the living room, so it may be the most reasonable place to improve your home safety. Highly sought after items, like a TV or video game console, probably reside in your living room, making it a popular area for burglars. Start with hanging a motion sensor or security camera in your room, then try the following ideas:

Motion Detectors: By putting in motion sensors, you’ll get a shrieking noise anytime they sense unusual movement within your living room. The best devices are motion detectors that ignore pet movements or you’ll have a tripped alarm each time your cat passes through for a drink of water.
Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera offers a constant watch on your living room. Get constant streams of the area so you can see what’s happening from the mobile app. Or chat with family members in the room with the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Cord Maintenance: Make sure you protect expensive electronics and quit overloading your electric system with a surge protector. For additional energy-efficiency, set up a smart plug with anti-surge functionality built-in.
Entertainment Center Bolted To The Wall: If you have curious kids, you’ll want to attach your bookshelves and entertainment center to a wall. This is extra crucial if your family room uses carpet that could make objects extra unstable.
Enhanced Locks For Sliding Glass Doors: If your living room has a sliding door that opens to a deck, patio, or outside porch, you already get that the latch is pretty thin. Use a custom lock, like a bottom bar or locks that bolt to the bottom and top of the frame.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Boulder

The kitchen has many items that can add safety to your house. Most of these objects should be easy to add and can be bought from 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 kitchen mishaps.
GFCI Box On Every Outlet: A circuit interrupter outlet should be installed anywhere they’re by water to prevent an electric shock. That includes the plugs by your kitchen counter and sink. For 30 years, it’s been standard to have one GFCI per dedicated circuit. But for simplicity’s sake, try to have an unchained GFCI for every outlet.

Monitored CO Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is recommended for kitchens that employ natural gas for the oven and range. If your gas lines leak, the carbon monoxide detector will cause a loud sound and contact your monitoring professional.
Disinfectant Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety problem in the kitchen is actually bacteria and cross-contamination from blood from meat and vegetables. Always store cleaning wipes or spray to clean your counters when making a meal.
Refrigerator/Freezer Alarm: The milk, meat, and perishables in the refrigerator need to stay at a constant temperature to stay safe to use. If you leave the freezer or refrigerator door ajar, then a small beep will tell you to shut it securely. Some refrigerators already have a pre-installed alarm, some won’t, and you’ll have to buy an external alarm from online.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Boulder

Just because there’s not a lot of square footage in your bathroom, you will still have safety concerns. From flood detectors to electric safety, here are five safety tips for your bathroom:

Flood Sensors: A leaking sink or bathtub can create an expensive amount of destruction. Deal with leaks early with a flood detector and save hundreds to thousands of dollars from damage.
Non-slip Bathroom Mats: A fall in the bathroom can be painful, causing bumps, sore joints, or sprained ankles. Or prevent these problems with a non-slip bathroom mat for while you towel off.

Textured Bathtub Stickies: Likewise, a bathtub can be a slick place to be on. Make sure every bathtub has some textured strips so your feet and toes have a bumpy patch to grip.

Medicine Door Latch: If you have curious kids or a family member with memory lapses, you have to take additional precautions regarding prescribed medicine. Safeguard your pills and syrups by using a medicine cabinet with a child-proof lock.

GFCI Circuits: While installing better outlets in the kitchen, you need to also install a surge protecting GFCI outlet on each bathroom outlet. These will stop the flow of the current if water enters the outlet or there’s a sudden spike from a hair dryer or curling iron.

Children’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Boulder

A child’s bedroom should pair safety with simplicity. If their window treatments or other things are safe but tricky to use, then your children may try risky activities -- like climb a dresser -- to use them. Try these easy, yet safe, ideas:

Cord-Free Window Treatments: Safety agencies have designated corded window treatments an unsuspecting hazard for kids and pets. Use motorized blinds or shades that you can easily open and close through a remote. Or better yet, connect your shades to your ADT smart hub so they can raise on a schedule at dawn, and go down in the evening for extra privacy.

Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera sitting on your child’s desk or dresser can behave just like a high tech baby monitor that you can view with a smartphone. And when they need you, they can push the intercom talk feature on the camera.

Plug Covers: While every outlet should have protective covers on them for your little children, this is doubly needed in their bedroom. It’s the main place in your house where your child will most likely hang out solo without additional supervision.

Window Safety Ladder: If you have bedrooms on above the first story, then you will want to have a window safety ladder. These should help your children escape in case the hallway or ground floor are engulfed in smoke and fire. Remember to practice how to use the ladder at least twice a year.

Toy Chest Or Low Bookshelves: It’s weird to think about a toy box as a safety device, but you’ll see the light if you’ve ever stepped on a building block in your stocking feet. A clutter-free floor gives your child a quick retreat during a safety or security event.

Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Boulder

Your bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety components give you peace of mind when there's an emergency. After all, being wrenched awake by a high-decibel buzzer can be quite a shock.

Security System Touchscreen: Having a smart hub on your bedside table helps you know what’s happening without getting out of bed. You could always turn on your ADT smartphone app but, the touchscreen is often easier to use to use when you’re coming out of sleep and disoriented.

Phone Charging Station: We use our phones for so much now GPS, web browsers, game machines, and sometimes even phones. However, a depleted cell in the middle of the night cuts us off from the outside world if something goes wrong. To keep it nice and ready, a charging station or cord becomes an important part of your nightstand.

Smart Lights Or Nightlights: A plug-in light helps ground you when you’re startled awake from a fire alarm or other loud sounds. If you have trouble falling asleep with a nightlight, use smart lights in your fixtures. Then you can have light anytime with a mobile device or vocal command.
Fireproof Safe: Stash your important paperwork like insurance cards, medical information, or a bankbook in a fireproof safe. Your safe can be a large one that camps out in a corner or a small handheld safe that you can carry when you leave during an emergency event.

Heat Sensor: The problem with a master bedroom is that they can run too warm or be frigid since they are across the house from the thermostat. A heat sensor can talk to your smart thermostat so you will have a pleasant, restful sleep at the perfect climate.

Garage/Basement Safety Checklist For Boulder

Most safety needs in the garage or basement deal with your water or HVAC system. Finding hazards early can stop larger emergencies later on. So, as you walk around your garage or basement, pay attention to these critical items:

Flood Sensor Or Sump Pump Alarm: Placing a flood alarm next to your water heater and sump pump drain can save you from wading into a lake when you go into your garage or basement. The last you need is to waste the weekend bailing out water and going through all those storage boxes.

Carbon Monoxide Alarm: It’s beneficial to have a carbon monoxide alarm in areas where a natural gas leak can happen. If you have gas heating, try to hang an alarm in the same place as your unit.
Wireless Water Shutoff Valve: If your flood detector finds a hot water leak or a broken pipe, then you will have to cut off the primary water valve immediately. With a WiFi shutoff valve, you can turn off your water flow from your phone. That’s perfect when you’re out of town and see an emergency leak text on your phone.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage open causes all sorts of issues. You can lose HVAC energy through that open door, and critters or intruders can just saunder in. A remote sensor will text you about a forgotten garage door and allow you to close it through the app.
Heat Sensor: A temperature alarm in your garage or basement is handy if you fret about freezing pipes. The heat in these areas can be wildly different than your main rooms of the home, so you will need to keep a constant look on them with your mobile app.

Outside Safety Checklist for Boulder

Your landscaping, drive, and front step are just as imperative to secure as the inside of your home. Try the items on this checklist to make your outside safe:

Doorbell Security Camera: See who’s knocking on the the front step before you answer it and welcome guests. Get a visual on package deliveries and record video clips if they are stolen.

Outdoor Security Camera: You can hang outdoor security cameras to guard against late night lurkers in your back yard. These devices are nice in places where you might not have a window -- like around a cellar or by the garage.

Window Height Shrubbery: Overgrown bushes can create some serenity, but they also block you seeing into the outside. Don’t provide potential intruders a place to hide. Plus, large bushes, shrubs or greenery too close to your home can clog gutters and summon pests.
ADT Yard Signs: One of the most popular discouragements for a break-in is alerting potential rogues that you have a monitored ADT security system. An ADT sign by the front door and a window sticker will tell people that they should keep walking to an unprotected target.

Motion Controlled Flood Lights: Light is the biggest enemy to people who skulk in the shadows. Motion-controlled lights on your deck, porch, or garage can frighten lurkers away. Flood lights also help you work the locks when you come to the house late at night.

Contact Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help You With Your Home Safety Checklist for Boulder

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t help you with every item on your Boulder home safety checklist, we can offer a state-of-the-art home security. With easy-to-use devices and ADT monitoring, we can personalize the ideal system for your family’s needs. Just phone (303) 479-3788 for more information or fill out the form below. Or personalize your own ADT system with our Security System Designer.