Being safe in your house should be your largest concern. But are you forgetting a few key safety components? Use this home safety checklist for Milwaukee and find out where your home requires some work.
This guide begins with a few whole-home safety items, and then we break it down on a room level. Then, you can call (414) 376-0805 or send in the form below to talk to a security expert.
General Home Safety Checklist for Milwaukee
While you should take a room-to-room method for home safety in Milwaukee, there are some methods that work for the entire house approach. These items can talk to each other through a smart hub, and often can react to one another. You can also control all your home safety components using a mobile security app, like ADT Control:
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Monitored Fire Alarms: At the very least, you need to have a smoke detector on every level. You can increase your fire preparedness by utilizing a monitored fire detector that detects excessive smoke and heat, and alerts your round-the-clock monitoring agents when it thinks that there’s a fire.
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Smart Lock For Every Door: Every doorway that uses a deadbolt can upgrade to a smart door lock. Now you can preset key codes to friends and family and get alerts to your smartphone when the locks are activated. Your smart lock can even automatically open, letting you quickly flee the house if you have an emergency.
Family Room/Living Room Safety Checklist For Milwaukee
You’ll hang out most in your living room, so it’s the best area to improve your home safety. Highly sought after items, like a big screen or video game console, typically are located in your family room, making it a tempting space for thieves. Start with placing a motion sensor or indoor camera in there, then continue on with the following ideas:
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Motion Detectors: By hanging motion sensors, you’ll hear a loud siren if they detect unexpected motion in your living room. The best devices are motion sensors that ignore a dog or cat or you’ll have your sirens go off each time your pet passes through for a midnight stroll.
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Security Camera: An indoor security camera gives you a constant watch on your living room. View real-time feeds of your room so you can see what’s happening from the mobile app. Or talk with your kids in the family room using the two-way talk feature.
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Surge Protector/Outlet Maintenance: Safeguard expensive electronics and stop overloading your outlets with a surge protector. For extra comfort, set up a smart plug with anti-surge functionality built-in.
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Furniture Secured To The Wall: If you have curious kids, you’ll want to secure your heavy furniture and entertainment center to the wall. This is extra important if your family room has rugs or carpet that can make heavy objects extra unbalanced.
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Special Locks For Glass Doors: If your living room uses a glass door that opens to a patio, deck, or screened-in porch, you get that the latch is pretty flimsy. Install a special lock, like a metal bar or small locks that are located on the bottom and top of the frame.
Kitchen Safety Checklist For Milwaukee
Your kitchen has many items that can provide safety and security to your house. Many of these things are also simple to add and can be purchased from the grocery store:
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Fire Extinguisher: Fire can come from from an unwatched frying pan or a towel that’s too close to a burner. Always have a fire extinguisher in close reach for any kitchen mishaps.
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Circuit Interrupter Box On Every Outlet: A GFCI outlet should be used anywhere they’re close to water to prevent electrocution. That includes the plugs by your kitchen counter and sink. For 30 years, it’s been standard to have one GFCI per circuit. But if you don’t want every outlet to go dead when one outlet trips, you’ll want to install a separate GFCI on each outlet.
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Monitored CO Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is recommended for kitchens that use natural gas for the oven and stove. If your gas appliances malfunction, the carbon monoxide detector will play a high-decibel sound and ping your monitoring center.
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Cleaning Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety issue in the kitchen is the viruses, bacteria, and contamination from uncooked meat and dairy. Always have disinfectant wipes or spray to scrub off your surfaces before and after cooking.
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Refrigerator Alarm: The milk, meat, and perishables in your fridge have to stay at a constant temperature to be healthy to use. If you accidently leave the refrigerator door open too long, then a small beep will tell you to shut it securely. Some fridges already have an alarm, older models won’t, and you’ll have to get a refrigerator alarm from online.
Bathroom Safety Checklist For Milwaukee
Just because there’s not a lot of square footage in your bathroom, you will still have safety issues. From water problems to medicine care, here are five safety ideas for your bathroom:
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Flood Detectors: A leaking toilet or shower can create an expensive amount of destruction. Deal with water problems early with a flood detector and save yourself from redoing the entire bathroom.
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Textured Bathroom Mats: A slip in the bathroom can be a painful occurrence, causing pulled muscles, gashed heads, or trips to the hospital. You can steer clear from these problems with a non-slip bath mat for your wet feet.
Kid’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Milwaukee
A child’s bedroom should counterbalance safety with simplicity. If their window treatments or other items are safe but tricky to operate, then your child may get around the device with unsafe methods -- like shimmying up a dresser -- to use them. Here are some straightforward, and safe, ideas:
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No Cord Window Coverings: Safety agencies have long called corded window treatments a hidden hazard for children and animals. Use motorized treatments that you can easily manage via remote control. Or go state-of-the-art and connect your motorized treatments to your security system so they can raise automatically when the sun comes up, and close in the evening for added darkness.
Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Milwaukee
The bedroom should be your calm space, so let your safety devices give you peace of mind when there's an emergency event. After all, being startled awake by a high-decibel buzzer can be disorienting.
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Phone Charging Area: We depend on our smartphones for almost everything now alarm clocks, web browsers, time wasters, and --legend has it-- even phones. The only problem is that an uncharged cell in the middle of the night cuts us off from communications if during an emergency. So, a an easy-to-use charging station is an essential.
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Smart Lights Or Nightlights: A small light helps ground you when you’re jolted awake from a fire alarm or unexpected sounds. If you can’t fall asleep with a nightlight, put in smart lights in your bedroom. Then you can control light on-demand with a push of a button or vocal command.
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Fireproof Safe: Stash your important papers like insurance cards, stock certificates, or a bankbook in a fireproof lockbox. This can be a big one that is located in your closet or a smaller portable lockbox that you can carry on your way out during an emergency event.
Garage/Basement Safety Checklist For Milwaukee
Most safety needs in the basement or garage have to do with your water or HVAC system. Discovering problems before they start can stop bigger disasters in the future. So, as you take a look around your storage areas, pay attention to these crucial items:
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Carbon Monoxide Alarm: It’s smart to have a carbon monoxide alarm in areas where a CO leak can happen. If you employ gas heating, you should put a detector in the same place as your HVAC unit.
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WiFi Water Shutoff Valve: If your flood detector finds a hot water leak or a burst pipe, then you will want to cut off the primary water valve at once. With a wireless shutoff valve, you can block water flow from your phone. That’s helpful when you’re on vacation and receive an emergency leak alert on your phone.
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Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage up leads to all types of headaches. You can lose a bunch of HVAC energy through that gaping hole, and critters or thieves can just saunder in. A remote sensor will notify you about a neglected garage door and lets you lower it with your phone.
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Temperature Sensor: A temperature alarm in your basement or garage is a definite if you worry about freezing pipes. The temperature in these areas can be wildly different than the rest of the home, so you may need to keep a closer eye on the temperature through the ADT mobile app.
Home Perimeter Safety Checklist for Milwaukee
Your landscaping, driveway, and front porch are just as crucial to defend as the interior of your home. Use this checklist to defend your perimeter:
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Window Height Shrubbery: High foliage can give you some privacy, but they also obscure your line of sight of the yard and curb. Don’t offer potential thieves a dark shadow to hide. Plus, high bushes, shrubs or greenery against your structure can jam up gutters and bring in ants and termites.
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ADT Signs And Decals: One of the biggest disincentives for a break-in is alerting would-be intruders that you use a state-of-the-art home security system. An ADT sign by the main walk and a window sticker will alert ne'er-do-wells that they should move on to an less prepared target.
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Motion Activated Porch Lights: Light is the best enemy to people who lurk in the dark. Motion-controlled lighting on your deck, porch, or garage can frighten lurkers away. Flood lights also help you get inside when you get home on those dark, winter nights.
Contact Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help You Finish Your Home Safety Checklist for Milwaukee
While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t deliver every item on your Milwaukee home safety checklist, we can offer a powerful security system. With easy-to-use devices and ADT monitoring, we can customize the perfect system for your family’s needs. Simply phone (414) 376-0805 for more information or fill out the form below. Or personalize your own solution with our Security System Designer.