New Year Safety Resolutions

As 2013 comes to a close, it’s that time of year where peo­ple begin mak­ing New Year’s res­o­lu­tions.  From los­ing weight to quit­ting smok­ing to doing more for their com­mu­ni­ty, every­one is look­ing to have a fresh start to the New Year.  This year, in addi­tion to your own New Year’s res­o­lu­tion, why not make one for your home too?  Don’t know where to get start­ed? Let us help you.  This 2014, let PROTECTION PLUS ® help make your home a safer place for you and your fam­i­ly with New Year Safe­ty Res­o­lu­tions.

Install an alarm sys­tem

Was you home bro­ken into this year? Did you have an alarm sys­tem to pro­tect it? If not, then that should be your top pri­or­i­ty this year.  There are sev­er­al ben­e­fits to a home alarm sys­tem, start­ing with the fact that bur­glars are less like­ly to break into your home if they see a secu­ri­ty alarm sys­tem sign on your lawn.  Also, some insur­ance com­pa­nies may cut your pre­mi­ums by 15–20% just by installing a home alarm sys­tem.  Anoth­er major ben­e­fit comes from the changes in tech­nol­o­gy.  Nowa­days with smart­phone tech­nol­o­gy, you can eas­i­ly check in on your home, even on the go, giv­ing you com­plete con­trol and peace of mind.  You could­n’t do that 20 years ago.

Pre­pare for an Emer­gency

Every­one home should have an emer­gency home kit ready just in case of well, an emer­gency.  This year, the city of Toron­to encoun­tered two mas­sive storms where an emer­gency home kit would have been ben­e­fi­cial: the mas­sive sum­mer rain­storm that flood­ed base­ments and knocked out pow­er for sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties and the dev­as­tat­ing ice storm that blacked out parts of the city, leav­ing peo­ple in the cold dur­ing the hol­i­days for over a week.  The mag­ni­tude of both storms was unex­pect­ed and no one was pre­pared for it.  This year, make sure that you and your fam­i­ly are ready for any unex­pect­ed emer­gency.  First, plan an escape route in case of a house fire and make sure that every­one knows what to do.  Also, make cure to cre­ate an emer­gency home kit and store it in a safe and eas­i­ly acces­si­ble place in your home.  With­in that kit, include flash­lights, can­dles, non-per­ish­able food items, first aid kit, spare set of clothes, blan­kets, water bot­tles and med­ica­tions.  Also, look to get a portable stove.  Alter­na­tive cook­ing meth­ods can be very use­ful espe­cial­ly in the sum­mer, allow­ing for you to con­tin­ue to cook your own meals when the pow­er is out.  The weath­er of 2013 has showed us that moth­er nature can be very unfor­giv­ing and just about any­thing can hap­pen.

De-clut­ter

With the new year rolling in, it’s time to de-clut­ter.  Exces­sive stuff in the house can pose a fire or health haz­ard to the inhab­i­tants.  Start by sort­ing through your stuff to see what is use­ful and what needs to be thrown away. If appli­ances are no longer work­ing, drop them off at a dis­pos­al cen­ter.  Donate old clothes to shel­ters or char­i­ties and prop­er­ly dis­pose of flam­ma­ble mate­ri­als.  De-clut­ter­ing a home gives you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to start the year off fresh and a fresh start to the new year is always a good sign.

 Update/Upgrade

Speak­ing of de-clut­ter­ing your home, this is the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for you to update your house.  By “update” we mean, replac­ing elec­tron­ics, appli­ances, sys­tems, etc in the home.  Replace your smoke detec­tors and car­bon monox­ide detec­tors if they’re not work­ing cor­rect­ly or if you haven’t done so in a while.  Car­bon monox­ide is an odor­less, colour­less gas that can be dead­ly if not detect­ed at the right time.  Also, make sure that your fur­nace is work­ing and your water heater does not need replac­ing.  Repair pipe leaks in the home to pre­vent water dam­age and seal cracks in the exte­ri­or of the home.  Last­ly, if you have an old alarm sys­tem, con­sid­er updat­ing it this year to pro­vide your fam­i­ly with the best pro­tec­tion.  Mak­ing sure that your home is in top con­di­tion helps to make the new year great.

 Care and Main­te­nance

This year, make it a pri­or­i­ty to take care of your home.  You can start by cre­at­ing a list of things that will require a bit more care and main­te­nance this year. Change the bat­ter­ies in your mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem when they’re low and be sure to keep the cam­eras clean to allow for per­fect sight. Try not to clut­ter up appli­ance areas and remem­ber to test equip­ment on a recur­ring basis.  When dras­tic cli­mate changes occur, check to see if your water pipes have cracked and keep an eye out for foun­da­tion cracks.  Con­tin­u­ous care and main­te­nance of your home will allow for the safe­ty and well­be­ing of you and your fam­i­ly.

This year as you make New Year’s res­o­lu­tions for your­self, don’t for­get about your home.  If mak­ing your home a safer place is on top of your New Year’s res­o­lu­tion list, call us, PROTECTION PLUS ®, and we can help in mak­ing that goal a real­i­ty.

Hap­py 2014!!