Keeping your home safe this winter. As Melbourne enters to coldest time of year, if you are anything like us, you are probably missing summer already. As we spend more time at home during the wet season, we take the opportunity in the market insight to share some helpful to keeping your home safe this winter and more importantly your family.
Lets explore some safety tips to keeping your home safe this winter from both inside and outside your home.
Safety tips for inside your home:
- Make sure you have serviced your smoke alarms/detectors in your house. Changing a battery is important, but employing an electrician to ensure its in working order is important.
- Having a fire escape plan. The home doesn’t have to be massive, but in the event of an unfortunate fire or natural disaster, establishing a fire escape plan for the family to follow could be life saving.
- As you’ll be looking to stay warm, if you use gas heaters, its ideal to have it serviced. Doing this every two years by a qualified professional is the safest measure.
- Always check various fixtures, fittings and contents including electric blankets, portable heaters and hot water bottles before using them.
- When spending more time in the kitchen, always be present. Don’t leave cook tops burning unattended. Always keep a watchful eye over your children during food preparation. The majority of house fires begin in the kitchen!
Safety tips for outside your home:
- It naturally darker in winter. It always gets darker earlier. Ensuring you have good external lighting or sensor lights are beneficial so its more visible at night.
- Make sure any electrical or equipment are adequately protected from the cold wet weather.
- Do a clean up after autumn. You’ll find more leaves and debris on the ground which is easy to clean up, but don’t forget to check your gutters. They will collect a lot of leaves, dust and sticks from surrounding trees. Keeping the gutters clear will avoid blockages and leaks when encountering excess rainfalls.
- Keep your footpaths and driveways clean. A good high pressure hose will ensure it removes any moss accumulated in recent months. This will help avoid unnecessary falls, particularly at night. Even fallen leaves can become dangerous as you may slip on them.
Taking note of these safety tips to it would be prudent to have an insurance policy in place to protect you and your home. Always keep safe at home and we wish you all well during the coldest time of year.
June 2022
