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Home Safety Tips For Summer

During the summer you home can become a bustling epicenter for afternoon pool parties, weekend cookouts, warm weather gatherings and other outdoor events. It’s important for homeowners to remember that the warm weather also invites more household mishaps and accidents as well as home invasions.

While you can never predict when a burglary or other harmful event will occur, you can help prevent unwanted mishaps by keeping your home safe this summer with some simple safety tricks. With these entertaining and vacation preparation home safety tips for spring and summer, you can maximize home security and ensure your family is safe and happy all season long.

Properly Prepare For Upcoming Travel

Summertime is often the most convenient and suitable time for families to cut loose and get out of town for awhile — but it’s also one of the best and easiest times for burglars to target your home. Before jumping in the car or boarding an airplane, make sure to properly secure your home by checking off these tasks:

  • Tell a neighbor: While you’re away, tell a neighbor you trust and have them regularly check on your house while also checking the mail, taking out the trash and performing other routine home maintenance tasks.
  • Keep quiet: It’s always tempting to tell everyone you know that you’re going on a tropical vacation, but avoid broadcasting your upcoming travel and posting pictures and updates to social media until after you’ve returned. When announcing that you’re away, you’re inviting burglaries to visit your home.
  • Schedule lights on timers: A telltale sign that someone is home is when the lights pop on at night — give the illusion that someone is living in your home while you’re away by having your lights placed on scheduled timers.
  • Lock the garage and windows: A variety of valuable tools and equipment is likely stored in your garage from lawn mowers to outdoor equipment to other lawn care tools. Prevent home burglaries by manually locking your garage door and making sure all other windows and doors around your home and garage are properly locked and secured.
  • Trim Hedges: Hedges may seem like an unlikely home security tip, but overgrown shrubbery is often a sign to invaders that no one is home to maintain the lawn. Tall and bushy hedges also offer necessary cover for a burglar to forcibly enter your home through a main floor window.

Keeping Kids Safe in the Sun

With kids now home everyday from school, they’re likely itching to get outside with friends and explore their outdoor surroundings. Although most kids are likely to get small scrapes and bruises, most severe child injuries can be easily prevented with proactive safety precautions and clear guidelines:

  • Set boundaries: Clearly tell your children where to play in an area that you’re most comfortable with — make sure they avoid playing in the street and explain proper roadway safety and tell them whether or not you’re OK with them leaving your home to go anywhere, like to a friend’s house.
  • Apply sunscreen regularly: Prevent long-term skin damage by having your kids regularly apply sunscreen to avoid burns. Make sure your sunscreen is not expired and has a high SPF rating.
  • Avoid fireworks: Kids should never play with or have access to fireworks in the summer. During the Fourth of July always make sure that a parent or adult is handling fireworks and keeping children at a safe distance.
  • Always wear a helmet: Whenever your children are biking, roller blading or playing an impact sport, make sure their helmet is properly fitted and secure to avoid incredibly hazardous and preventable head injuries.
  • Keep away from trampolines: While trampolines are an enjoyable pastime, children can become severely injured while playing on one.

Home Entertaining Safety Tips

When hosting an outdoor event, there are often many activities and guests swirling around, and it can be difficult to ensure everyone is safe and avoiding careless activities. Whether you’re hosting a pool party or entertaining friends and family at a weekend BBQ, make sure you’re aware of these common home safety tips:

  • Water safety: It only takes an inch of water for a person to drown — make sure that areas with a water supply like pools, hot tubs and fountains are monitored by an adult or properly secured with coverings and enclosures.
  • Grilling safety: Make sure that when you’re outside grilling, your gas or charcoal grill is placed far from structures and objects that could easily catch fire or become damaged. Once your grill is no longer in use, make sure it is properly turned off or extinguished.
  • Fire safety: Fire pits and campfires are an essential component to any outdoor summer bash, but make sure when they’re active, children and pets are kept at a safe distance and watched by an adult. Also, make sure any items that could catch fire or melt are placed a safe distance away.

Contact SDL Custom Homes to Begin Designing Your Dream Home Today

SDL Custom Homes is a locally owned and operated company helping Central Pennsylvania homeowners realize their dream homes with custom home-building solutions. We emphasize a personalized approach to every custom home building and design project and make sure to establish trusting, long-term customer relationships. Schedule a free in-home design consultation today by filling out our online contact form or calling us at 717-258-1459.

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