Category Archives: Home Safety Products

Fall Safety, General Safety Issues, Hand Protection, Head Protection, Home Safety Products, Weather Protection

AVOID WINTER-RELATED INJURIES AT HOME THIS SEASON (GUEST POST)

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By Carrie Van Brunt-Wiley

Each season brings its own unique safety concerns for families. In the spring, allergies are rampant and unexpected rain showers can often make driving a challenge. In the fall, we worry about flu season and slipping on leaves in walkways and sidewalks. During the summer, there are heat waves and perilous slip ‘n slide injuries. The winter season often brings the widest variety of safety concerns, from cold weather and slippery road conditions to hazardous holiday decorations. Here are a few tips to help you keep your family safe this winter:

Cover up

If you work outside, like to play in the snow or otherwise spend a lot of time outside in the cold, cover up. Your extremities are the first to lose circulation in cold weather, so be sure to wear gloves and warm socks. Prevent the majority of your body heat from leaving your through the top of your head with a winter hat, and be sure to wear proper footwear. If you’re working in heavy snow, boots or other shoes with good traction are highly recommended to help prevent falls.

Remove ice and snow from walkways and stairs

Slippery surfaces are one of the leading causes of winter-related injuries. If your driveway, walkways and other surfaces you regularly use are buried under snow and ice, don’t try to walk on them until they’re cleared. Children and older guests are especially vulnerable to falls on slippery surfaces, so it’s extremely important to do some preventive maintenance and shovel your snow before any injuries are likely to occur. Keep in mind that many cities that suffer extreme weather require that you keep your sidewalk and driveway clear.

Injuries can also occur during the process of shoveling snow. It’s always a good idea to warm up before you start in order to avoid overexertion. Stretch your arms, back, legs and shoulders. Don’t be afraid to stop to rest for a couple of minutes if you start to feel tired or sore. Finally, take your time. Use a light-weight shovel and push small amounts to the side instead of trying to throw large amounts out of the way.

Use caution when decorating or undecorating

While holiday decorations help add some cheer to the winter season, they also come with their own set of dangerous hazards. Make sure your Christmas lights are plugged into safe sockets that won’t overload your electrical system. Never leave them plugged in while you’re away for an extended period of time, especially if you’ve got loose pets roaming around the home. If you’ve set up a real Christmas tree, make sure you water it often. A dry tree and hot lights are the perfect combination for a not-so-festive holiday fire.

Supervise children outside

When the first snowfall of the season occurs, everyone wants to run outside to build snowmen and snow angels and pelt each other with snowballs. It’s so exciting that it’s easy for a child to forget to put on a jacket, not to mention a cumbersome hat and gloves. As a parent, it’s your job to make sure your children are properly wrapped up for the winter weather. It’s also a good idea to coax them inside every hour or so with some hot chocolate or warm cookies to prevent them from losing too much body heat. It’s also easy to slip and fall on ice when you’re dodging speeding snowballs, and a snowball to the face has the power to knock the wind out of any poor victim. Keep an eye on your kids any time they’re outside in the snow to make sure they’re playing safely.

Following these tips will help you stay safe around the house. It also will help keep others safe when they visit or walk past your home. Then all you’ll have to worry about is the coming of the next allergy season.

This article was contributed by Carrie Van Brunt-Wiley, Editor of the HomeInsurance.com blog. Carrie has been writing insurance news and consumer information for HomeInsurance.com since 2008. She graduated from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington in 2005 with a B.A. in Professional Writing and Journalism.

Another winter tip that you may not know: children need eye protection from bright snow in the winter as well as sun and water in the summer.  Their eyes can be damaged just as easily as an adults’.  Sunglasses provide UV protection all year.  Pat

 

 

Fall Safety, General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

SAFETY BENEFITS OF SOLAR LIGHTS

With all the publicity out there,  most people are very conscious of efforts to help save our planets’  resources.    Many people are beginning to change their lifestyle in small and large ways.  There are recycle plants or drop-offs  in most cities and even towns in the country.   Finding ways to re-use products is becoming popular.  One of the more simple ways to help save our planets resources are solar lights and other solar products. 

Solar lights are using the suns’ energy by storing it in a solar panel.   At dark, after a days sunlight charge,  solar lights can last up to 8-10 hours.   The main cash outlay with solar lights and products is the cost of the item.  After that, the sun charges the solar lights – no plugs, wires or outlets. 

Outdoor Solar lights come in different shapes, sizes and for different uses.  They usually turn on automatically when dark, although some do have an on/off switch in case you do not want it to light up one night.  Solar powered lights are not dependent upon conventional electrical supply. This means that you can automatically light up any dark corner or stairway.   Line a walkway or pathway.  All this means a safer walk or stair climb for you, your family and guests.  

Solar lights come in different degrees of brightness.  Solar spot lights, for example, usually have a brighter LED for brighter light output.  Because it is a spot light you can aim the light directly where you want it to shine.  Do you have an out-building or a fence out in the back of your property?  You can easily find it and walk to it with more safety.  You can outline an entire fence line with solar cap lights. 

The ability to place these solar powered lights just about anywhere you wish makes them unique in the lighting world.   They provide added safety wherever you have them.  Knowing you are saving money and the earths’ resources at the same time makes them very practical, as well. 

Solar powered barricade lights, solar powered revolving and flashing lights, as well as several models designed for 24/7 operation are available in amber (caution) and red (stop) for drawing attention in low-visibility areas where dangerous conditions or obstructions exist. Waterproof, steady-on or flashing lights, also solar-powered, are available for marine or extremely wet applications.

Installing flood lights outside a home makes good sense because these kinds of lights improve visibility and they also increase security around your property. However, the high costs of conventional flood lights can put many people off – until they look for alternatives such as solar powered flood lights. Solar energy technologies over the recent past have provided many affordable lighting solutions and the solar powered flood lights in particular provide you with a great means of keeping your home safe and without going over your budget.

Just like any other solar lighting system, the solar powered flood lights too require sunlight in order to get their energy which is converted with the help of DC electric power and stored in batteries so as to provide power during the night. The main reasons for choosing solar powered flood lights are that they provide security and also safety which together and along with motion sensors make such lighting systems a more effective solution.

Typically, solar powered flood lights also make use of LED bulbs that are great for illumination while being energy conserving and which do not also waste any of the energy that they are supplied with. In fact, there are many useful functions that the solar powered flood lights can serve including lighting the backyards and boat docks as well as for your sheds and even for landscape.  The discerning homeowner too has become more aware about how solar energy can provide better lighting solutions than conventional lighting solutions. This means that they need to seriously consider using solar powered outdoor lighting solutions that provide numerous benefits. These lighting solutions include saving precious energy resources and being very easy to install. 

There’s no doubt the fact that solar powered flood lights are also very useful for lighting up business premises to secure the premises or to create a more beautiful landscape. Such flexibility means that you can use solar energy in many different places. 

An added  benefit of solar lighting: we recently received information that solar lights are much safer than oil lamps and candles when home power is out.  One family lost power for several nighttime hours during a thunderstorm.  The husband looked outside and noticed the solar lights shining brightly all around the outdoor area.  They walked outside and brought several of the solar lights inside and stuck them into plastic drink bottles, creating much needed light.    Another lady placed her solar lights in jars and bottles, which gave off lots of “free” light.  These lights will fit into most 2-liter bottles or 20-ounce water bottles, and can be weighted down by sand, marbles, gravel or whatever is available to keep them from tipping over.  Additionally, if you need an all-night light, place your solar light where needed, and then take it back outside so it can recharge and be ready again. 

Last, but not least, try some LED lights for your caps that help you be seen, as well as enhance your vision when you are walking or riding your bike.  These provide super safety!  Every home  needs a flashlight or two, as well.

Sources: Linkroll; Home & Garden Solar

 

General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

THE IMPACT OF OVERHEATING YOUR HOUSE (GUEST POST)

Sent to us by Allan Williams, of fullsteamconsulting.com.au. 

In extremely cold weather conditions, heating the house becomes a must. It is essential for survival and creates a warm comfortable environment for us to live in. But over-heating a house can cause a lot of problems in many aspects,  including financial, health and environmental problems.

Health Problems

The surrounding environment has a direct impact on a person’s health. An over-heated environment is not only detrimental to the health of children but is also very harmful for adults. Too much heat in the house can lead to hyperventilation or over-breathing. Children are very sensitive to changes in temperature. They can suffer from mouth breathing problems in over-heated surroundings. Such environments can also lead to an advancement in chronic diseases and lead to poor health in children.

Heating a house excessively will remove the moisture in the air, which assists in breathing. Breathing in dry air can prove to be hazardous to health as it can lead to many respiratory ailments such as sinusitis, asthma, bronchitis, nosebleeds and dehydration. Also, moisture evaporates from the skin, which can cause itchiness in the eyes and skin irritations. Low air moisture can also cause static electricity and can result in mild shock when you come in contact with metal.

Financial Problems

Energy resources are depleting at a fast pace and their prices are constantly on the rise.  Using the heater excessively in your house can result in exorbitant energy bills. You should, therefore, use your heaters moderately so as not to waste energy resources as well as keep you energy bills low. Also, using heaters a lot can cause them to heat up and break down. The cost of getting the heater repaired is very high and may force you to exceed your monthly budget.

Environment Problems

The environment  also bears the brunt of heaters that run in houses. Firstly, it creates unnecessary noise pollution. Moreover, heaters also cause air pollution by giving off hazardous gases and fumes.

Many heaters just give off hot air into the room but fail to evenly distribute it in the surroundings. Such uneven distribution of heat can cause one area of the room to become extremely hot. The other equipments in the house can also malfunction due to over-heating. Too much heat can cause the mechanism of other equipment in the room to breakdown.

Therefore, it is preferable to turn your thermostat down to a level which provides sufficient heat. Keep your house insulated so that there is less heat loss when you shut the heater and the heat lasts longer in your home. Furthermore, getting an automatic heater is a good choice as it shuts itself off when the room is sufficiently heated and turns itself back on when the temperature drops a little. 

Allan loves blogging about energy saving and environmental issues. Over the last 3 years, he has reviewed appliances at http://www.oo.com.au/Heaters and published numerous articles on various blogs and websites.

General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

WHEN MONITORED HOME SECURITY IS NOT AN OPTION (GUEST POST)

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 Sent to us by Melonie McLaurin.  Another timely article to share with our readers during Crime Prevention Month.

If you live in a highly urban area, or even a moderate-to-densely populated residential suburb, the importance of a reliable, monitored home security system for your home and family cannot be overstated.  Each year, crime statistics can vary from state to state and among cities of varying sizes and populations, but watching the nightly news will confirm that crime is on the rise in neighborhoods, including wealthy suburban areas on the outskirts of the inner cities.  A large part of home ownership involves investing in the protection of your home:  from fires, floods, break-ins, home invasions, and other dangers that could present a problem for you whether you are present or away.

In the early days of home security systems in the United States, simply having an alarm installed could suffice to keep criminals at bay.  Once they heard the alarm, they would flee the area without waiting around to see whether anyone followed up.  Today, criminals are more brazen than ever and the sound of an alarm is not by itself enough to send them away from your home.  In these times, a monitored home security system from a trusted brand like ADT is the best way to go.

Monitored home security is security that connects to a monitoring center staffed by real people who are trained to respond to your home alarms remotely, and take the correct action to insure your home is protected.  This is very different than the alarms that simply ring; these alarms are connected to people who, if after attempting to contact you to find out whether you are safe, will have authorities dispatched to the location immediately if no answer is received.  This means that even if you, for some reason, are unable to respond to their attempt to reach you, they will still send help right away.

If you entrust your home to substandard home security, or worse, no home security at all, you run the risk of inviting crime rather than deterring it. Difficult economic conditions contribute to spikes in crime attempts, especially thefts of valuable items such as laptops, jewelry, and other portable objects that can be quickly traded off for cash or other goods.  Why make it easy for them, when you could have electronic, wireless, monitored home security from ADT helping you deter crime 24 hours a day, ready to respond in the event of unplanned emergencies?  Living in the city doesn’t have to cause you worry with adequate home security installed.  Consider it an investment in your peace of mind.

General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

Planning a Fire Evacuation Route for Your Home

We talked about fire safety for college students, so toay we will focus on fire evacuation from our homes, sent to us by Jeralyn Nelson, of HouseSitters.org 

According to the United States Fire Administration, more than 3,500 Americans die in fires each year, with another 18,300 sustaining injuries as the result of a fire. Because the majority of these fires occur in the home, it’s of vital importance that every family has a fire evacuation plan in place. While no homeowner wants to consider the possibility of losing everything they’ve worked so hard to acquire, ensuring that you and your children are armed with the information you need to survive a house fire could mean the difference between an unfortunate event and a truly tragic one.

Prepare

Making sure that you have taken the proper precautionary measures as a matter of routine maintenance can make a huge difference in situations where every moment matters. Making sure that your home is stocked with the proper equipment is the first step to planning your evacuation route and fire safety plan.

  • Smoke Alarms –Your home should be equipped with smoke alarms on every floor and outside of every bedroom to ensure that each member of the family can hear the alarm clearly enough to awaken from a sound sleep, should it go off. The batteries in your smoke alarms should be changed when you reset your clocks for daylight savings time, or more frequently if they begin to emit the chirping noise that indicates low battery power.
  • Fire Extinguishers – You should place a fire extinguisher on every floor, including one in the kitchen where cooking fires can quickly get out of control. Upstairs extinguishers should be kept in central locations for ease of access. As an extra precaution, keeping a fire extinguisher near any sources of heat, such as a fireplace or an outdoor fire pit, is wise.
  • Emergency Escape Ladders – Houses with more than one level and bedrooms on upper floors should be equipped with an emergency escape ladder in each of those bedrooms. Children should be instructed on the proper use of such ladders when they’re old enough to manage them without assistance.

Plan

Making a plan of action for your family to adhere to in the event of a fire can be a difficult task for many reasons, not least of which is a simple reluctance to consider the possibility of losing everything you own in a blaze. Making that plan, however, could very well mean the difference between your family making it out of a burning home intact, or suffering a devastating loss.

  • Pick a Meeting Point – For any disaster, natural or otherwise, your family should have a designated meeting point for everyone to converge, should you become separated. Make sure that your children know where to go after they escape from a house fire or other catastrophe, and how to reach that point on their own.
  • Choose an Emergency Contact – Choosing an emergency contact, such as a close friend or a member of your extended family, for your children and spouse to call in the event of a fire that leaves you separated can help each member of your family determine that everyone made a successful escape if you’re unable to reach the designated meeting point.
  • Determine the Quickest Exit from Each Bedroom – Because older members of the family will almost certainly attempt to assist the younger ones, it’s important that everyone in your family knows the quickest and safest exit from each bedroom in the house.
  • Teach Kids More Than One Route – Ideally, your children will be accompanied by an adult as they escape a burning house. Unforeseen events, however, can leave them to make the trek alone. Because of this, it’s imperative that you teach your children how to safely evacuate your home by themselves, and how to choose the best route to do so.

Practice 

After your evacuation route is decided upon and memorized by everyone in the family, it’s wise to periodically practice your fire evacuation plan by staging regular drills. During these drills, covering the basics of concepts such as “Stop, Drop, and Roll” is advised. Kids should learn how to stay low on the ground to avoid excessive smoke inhalation, to test doorknobs for blistering heat before grasping them, and to close doors behind them as they move from room to room to slow the spread of fire.

We hope you will follow this good advice, if you haven’t already prepared your family for an evacuation. 
 

General Safety Issues, Health Issues, Home Safety Products

UPDATE ON WEST NILE VIRUS, SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

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There are two illnesses that are affecting many parts of the U.S. right now, and we want to address both of them, in hopes that everyone will be more aware of them and what to do.  As of September 4, 2012, 48 states have reported West Nile virus infections in people, birds, or mosquitoes. A total of 1,993 cases of West Nile virus disease in people, including 87 deaths, have been reported to CDC. Of these, 1,069 (54%) were classified as neuroinvasive disease (such as meningitis or encephalitis) and 924 (46%) were classified as non-neuroinvasive disease.

The 1,993 cases reported thus far in 2012 is the highest number of West Nile virus disease cases reported to CDC through the first week in September since West Nile virus was first detected in the United States in 1999. Over 70 percent of the cases have been reported from six states (Texas, South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Michigan) and almost 45 percent of all cases have been reported from Texas.  As of September 12, Dallas County Health officials say more than one-half of trapped mosquitoes are infected with West Nile Virus.  There have been six deaths in Tarrant County, fifteen in Dallas County, included in the 824 cases known in four counties in North Texas.

West Nile virus (WNV) is a potentially serious illness. Experts believe WNV is established as a seasonal epidemic in North America that flares up in the summer and continues into the fall. This important information from the Centers for Disease Control can help you recognize and prevent West Nile virus.

Prevention measures consist of community-based mosquito control programs that are able to reduce vector populations, personal protection measures to reduce the likelihood of being bitten by infected mosquitoes, and the underlying surveillance programs that characterize spatial/temporal patterns in risk that allow health and vector control agencies to target their interventions and resources.

The easiest and best way to avoid WNV is to prevent mosquito bites.

  • When you are outdoors, use insect repellent containing Deet.  Follow the directions on the package.
  • Many mosquitoes are most active at dusk and dawn. Be sure to use insect repellent and wear long sleeves and pants at these times or consider staying indoors during these hours.
  • Make sure you have good screens on your windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out.
  • Get rid of mosquito breeding sites by emptying standing water from flower pots, buckets and barrels. Change the water in pet dishes and replace the water in bird baths weekly. Drill holes in tire swings so water drains out. Keep children’s wading pools empty and on their sides when they aren’t being used.

Being outside means you’re at risk. The more time you’re outdoors, the more time you could be bitten by an infected mosquito. Pay attention to avoiding mosquito bites if you spend a lot of time outside, either working or playing.

People over 50 at higher risk to get severe illness. People over the age of 50 are more likely to develop serious symptoms of WNV if they do get sick and should take special care to avoid mosquito bites.

Because warm weather continues, be watchful of mosquitoes, and use spray repellent on yourself, your children and everyone’s clothes.  This is a very serious illness that affects persons in different ways.  

Source: CDC, WFAA News

General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

TEN USES FOR BABY WIPES OTHER THAN WHAT THEY WERE INTENDED FOR (Guest Post)

Here is the second installment from Paul Taylor,  http://www.babysittingjobs.com. Ideas that we can all take advantage of. pb

Baby wipes have to be one of the best inventions ever.  Moms will readily attest to the fact that, even after you no longer have kids in diapers, you will still buy wipes because there are so many other great uses for them.  Check out these 10 uses that you may not have thought of:

1.        Use wipes to clean sticky fingers and faces.  Wipes are much softer than tissues and since they are already wet they are more convenient to use than a wash cloth with soap and water. They also are great for when you are away from home and need to clean sticky fingers and faces quickly.  In a pinch you can even use them to wipe runny noses because they are so soft.

2.        Wipe spots off of microfiber furniture.  Microfiber furniture is very easy to clean, but sometimes a gentle cleaner is necessary.  That’s where the wipe comes in.  Baby wipes can work well in cleaning spots when you need to clean up a small spot quickly. 

3.        Remove crayon from painted surfaces with wipes.  Baby wipes are a kid-safe way to clean what can otherwise be a difficult mess to remove.  Other harsh chemicals can be used to effectively clean crayon, but wipes are safe for the kids to be around with no severe fumes.

4.        Clean your rubber stamps when card making.  Something in the wipe conditions the rubber stamp as it cleans the ink off.  There are other alternatives to clean stamps, but none as convenient and as inexpensive as a baby wipe.  You can also use a folded baby wipe on a paper plate and add a few drops of different colors of ink from a re-inker and use the plate and wipe as your temporary stamp pad for a custom color mix.

5.        Wipes work as a make-up remover.  The make-up industry has caught on to this trick and is now making makeup removing wipes especially for that task, but for less money you can use a baby wipe that you already have at home.

6.        Remove lipstick from a shirt collar.  As long as you catch it right when it happens, you can use a wipe to remove lipstick from a shirt collar.  It takes a little elbow grease, but it works when you need a solution fast.

7.        Use wipes for quick clean ups around the house.  Keep a box of wipes in your kitchen for a quick clean up after breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Wipe your kid’s mouth and any spills or crumbs on the table all by using a single wipe.

8.        Use in place of water to clean hands if using a porta-potty.  Doesn’t it always figure when you are at some sort of outside event that your child has to go to the bathroom?  It also never fails that there’s no way to wash her hands after she goes.  Baby wipes to the rescue!  In desperate situations wipes can serve as toilet paper too.  That is, after all, what they were designed for.

9.        Baby wipes are a convenient way to clean your puppy’s feet.  Do you ever take your pooch to the dog park only to realize that his paws are a mess and he’s about ready to leave paw prints all over your car?  Grab the baby wipes.  These work well to clean the mud and dirt off of your puppy’s feet.  Keep them by the door at home for those times that he comes in muddy from the yard too.

10.     Wipes work well for cleaning hairspray off of wood surfaces.  Baby wipes have just enough moisture and texture to lift the sticky residue of hairspray off of counters and wooden cupboards.  Unlike harsher cleaner-based wipes, baby wipes won’t dry out your wood. 

Thanks, Paul!  Anyone out there have any other ideas? pb

 

General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

TEN STEPS TO BABY-PROOFING YOUR HOME (Guest Post)

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Before you bring your bundle of joy home from the hospital you’re likely to be under the influence of some fairly strong nesting instincts. After washing tiny onesies and bibs, it’s a good idea to get a jump start on baby-proofing. Though your newborn won’t need many of the new security measures for a few months, you’re also not likely to have much spare time on your hands after she arrives. Rather than realizing a few moments after an injury that your baby’s old enough to require safety precautions around the house, here are a few steps for baby-proofing your home that you might want to consider taking early.
  1. Keep Bedding Safe – While cute, fluffy bedding can be tempting, it can actually pose a suffocation risk for newborns and infants. Make sure that there’s no more than a finger’s width between the edges of a crib mattress and the sides of the crib, that plush toys and pillows are removed from your baby’s crib while she’s in it, and that you do not use crib bumpers. They may tie a nursery together, and supposedly protect an infant’s head from knocking against the side of a crib, but they are also officially outlawed in some areas and emphatically denounced by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
  2. Choose the Right Furniture – The antique nursery furniture that you found or inherited might be beautiful, but it may also be unsafe. Before using it, make sure that slats in the crib are less than 2 3/8 inches apart, that changing tables have side guards of at least 2 inches high to prevent falls, and that the surfaces are not painted to eliminate the risk of lead-contaminated paint.
  3. Install Toilet Locks – Infants that can crawl will soon be able to pull themselves into an upright position by holding on to a stable surface. When that surface is a toilet, curiosity about the water inside and the unsteadiness of a standing child who can’t support their own bodies properly combine to create a risky situation. Installing locks on toilet seats can help to prevent your little one from drowning.
  4. Use a Faucet Cover – To protect your baby’s soft, delicate head during bath time, using a specially designed cover as a buffer between her sensitive skin and the cold metal of the faucet is best. Be warned, however, that these covers can slip off and are not a substitute for careful monitoring.
  5. Change the Temperature Setting on Your Water Heater – Scalds are among the most common types of burns among children seen in emergency rooms; to ensure that your baby doesn’t inadvertently sustain such an injury, turn the temperature setting on your hot water heater down to 120° or less.
  6. Move Cleaning Fluids and Chemicals to Upper Cabinets – In the average child-free home, cleaning solutions and other chemicals are kept in the lower cabinet, directly beneath the sink. Infants begin pulling themselves along and crawling sooner than some parents expect, which can lead to poisoning scares if such substances are still in reach. Moving your cleaning fluids to an upper cabinet early helps you become accustomed to the placement and reduces the likelihood of you forgetting to do so later.
  7. Be Mindful of Blind Cords and Curtain Tie-Backs – Cords used to open and close blinds, and tie-backs used for drawing back curtains are among the most common culprits in infant and toddler strangulation. There are winding and securing products on the market to help prevent these tragedies, and they should be used in all rooms of the house.
  8. Cushion Edges of Furniture – Padding sharp corners of coffee tables and other low-slung furniture, along with the sharp, hard edges of brick hearths, can protect your baby’s head and face from injury as she learns to grasp these surfaces to gain rudimentary balance skills.
  9. Install Cabinet Locks – In addition to moving dangerous chemicals to upper cabinets well out of a baby’s reach, parents are also encouraged to install cabinet locks to block access. Because inventive or determined babies can sometimes outsmart them, you should still make an effort not to leave your child unattended in kitchens or bathrooms.
  10. Check Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detectors – In the hustle and bustle of preparing for Baby’s arrival, it’s easy to forget to check the batteries and functionality of your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms. Be sure to test them to ensure that your growing family is protected from poisoning or fire.

Sent to us by Barbara Williams, findababysitter.org

General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

WHEN MONITORED SECURITY IS NOT AN OPTION (Guest Post)

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When Monitored Home Security is Not an Option by Melonie McLaurin

If you live in a highly urban area, or even a moderate-to-densely populated residential suburb, the importance of a reliable, monitored home security system for your home and family cannot be overstated.  Each year, crime statistics can vary from state to state and among cities of varying sizes and populations, but watching the nightly news will confirm that crime is on the rise in neighborhoods, including wealthy suburban areas on the outskirts of the inner cities.  A large part of home ownership involves investing in the protection of your home:  from fires, floods, break-ins, home invasions, and other dangers that could present a problem for you whether you are present or away.

In the early days of home security systems in the United States, simply having an alarm installed could suffice to keep criminals at bay.  Once they heard the alarm, they would flee the area without waiting around to see whether anyone followed up.  Today, criminals are more brazen than ever and the sound of an alarm is not by itself enough to send them away from your home.  In these times, a monitored home security system from a trusted brand like ADT is the best way to go.

Monitored home security is security that connects to a monitoring center staffed by real people who are trained to respond to your home alarms remotely, and take the correct action to insure your home is protected.  This is very different than the alarms that simply ring; these alarms are connected to people who, if after attempting to contact you to find out whether you are safe, will have authorities dispatched to the location immediately if no answer is received.  This means that even if you, for some reason, are unable to respond to their attempt to reach you, they will still send help right away.

If you entrust your home to substandard home security, or worse, no home security at all, you run the risk of inviting crime rather than deterring it. Difficult economic conditions contribute to spikes in crime attempts, especially thefts of valuable items such as laptops, jewelry, and other portable objects that can be quickly traded off for cash or other goods.  Why make it easy for them, when you could have electronic, wireless, monitored home security from ADT helping you deter crime 24 hours a day, ready to respond in the event of unplanned emergencies?  Living in the city doesn’t have to cause you worry with adequate home security installed.  Consider it an investment in your peace of mind.

 

 

Eye Protection, First Aid Safety, General Safety Issues, Hand Protection, Home Safety Products, Weather Protection

TEN SMART TRICKS FOR SUMMER (Guest Post)

Ah, the warm summer months are here, which means more time spent outside running around enjoying the outdoors. It also means occasionally battling the bugs, the sun, and the heat.  To ensure that these and other common summer annoyances don’t derail your summertime fun, here are 10 smart tricks that can help make your summer a little sweeter:

1. Keep a dryer sheet in your pocket to keep bugs away.  You can spend tons of money buying bug spray, and you’ll most likely end up feeling sticky, smelling like bug spray, and getting bitten by bugs anyway. An easy solution is to carry a dryer sheet with you, which is something most people have at home already anyway. By carrying it in your pocket you can ward off bugs; something about the smell keeps the bugs away from you.

2. Sprinkle baking soda in sweaty shoes.  Running around in your shoes without socks is a regular occurrence during the summer time because everyone just wants to slip shoes on and go. Unfortunately, this also causes extra unwanted odor in your shoes.  To fix this problem sprinkle the inside of the shoes with baking soda to absorb the odors.  If you’d rather not have the powdery look in your shoes, you can create a sachet by using a rubber band wrapped around a few tablespoons of baking soda in a handkerchief.   Just put a sachet in each shoe and the odors will disappear.

3. Trap fruit flies with apple cider vinegar.  Did you bring home fruit flies from the farmers market?  Fill a glass jar half full of cider vinegar and screw the lid back on.  Punch several holes in the lid and leave the jar where you have seen the fruit flies.  They will be gone in no time.
4. Cool a sunburn with white vinegar.  Unfortunately, with the warm summer months comes the occasional sunburn.  To take the sting out of a sunburn soak clean soft cloths in white vinegar, wring them out and lay them on the sunburned skin.

5. Coat feet with petroleum jelly and cover with socks at bedtime.  This trick will keep your feet soft and sandal ready all summer.  A little petroleum jelly on your elbows and knees will make sure they stay soft and smooth for all of those revealing summer outfits.

6. Mix a can of cola with ketchup for a quick and easy barbeque sauce.  Figure out about how much sauce you want and add the cola to the ketchup to thin it out and add flavor and sweetness.  Brush on chicken or ribs during the last stages of cooking on the grill to avoid burning.
7. Use conditioner to shave your legs in a pinch.  Did you forget to pack your shaving cream for your vacation?  That’s okay; you can use the sample bottle of conditioner that most hotels give you.  This will leave your legs smooth and silky soft.

8. Apply coconut oil to bee stings and bug bites.  Coconut oil has anti-inflammatory properties and will help heal the sting or bite as well as soothe the pain.

9. Straws make great strawberry hullers.  Take a normal straw and push it up through the base of the strawberry and come up under the hull.  Keep pushing and the hull will usually come right out.  Practice makes perfect with this, but it really works well when you get the hang of it and you won’t have all those strawberry seeds under your finger nails.

10. Use cute cupcake papers to cover your drinks this summer.  When the weather turns nice, eating and drinking outside becomes standard, and almost mandatory.  The problem with eating and drinking outside is keeping the bugs away from your food and drinks.  Get yourself some cupcake papers and use them to cover your drinks.  If you’re having a party the cupcake papers can even match the theme.  To make a drink cover you just need to punch a hole in the cupcake paper and stick a straw through.  Just make sure there are no bugs inside the straw before you drink.

Carrie: may I add one last suggestion to help – wear polarized sunshades that block out UVA and UVB rays to protect your eyes, and a good hat for your head.  Anything that will keep us from burning is welcome in the summer!  Thank you for these good ideas, pb
Carrie Dotson, http://www.summernannyjobs.com/blog/10-smart-tricks-for-summer/