ADT® Authorized Dealer Serving Bend & Surrounding Areas

Home Safety Checklist For Bend

Being safe in your house should be your largest responsibility. But are you forgetting some key safety items? Use this home safety checklist for Bend and find out where your home can use an update.

We give you some whole-house safety ideas, and then we break it down on a room level. Then, call (541) 213-2340 or send in the form below to get your house set up.

Whole Home Safety Checklist

Essential Home Safety Checklist for Bend

While you may want to take a room-by-room approach to home safety in Bend, there are a few things that are useful for the whole house. These components can link to each other through a smart hub, and oftentimes work off other things. You might also manage all your home safety devices through a mobile app, like ADT Control:

  • Monitored Home Security System: All your windows and doors should use a sensor that warns you to forced entry. As your alarm goes off, your monitoring agent responds to the call and quickly sends emergency personnel.

  • Smart Bulbs For Each Room: Sure, you can schedule your smart lighting to become more efficient. But smart lights can also allow you to keep safe during an emergency. Have your lights flash on when an alarm goes off to scare off burglars or illuminate the way out to a outside area.

  • Smart Thermostat: Like your smart lights, a smart thermostat in Bend should save you 10%-15% in energy spending. Also, it can turn on an exhaust fan during a fire.

  • Monitored Fire Detectors: It’s code that you will have a fire detector on every level of your house. You can increase your fire preparedness by hanging a monitored fire detector that senses excessive heat and smoke, and notifies your round-the-clock monitoring agents when it thinks that there’s a fire.

  • Smart Locks: Every door that needs a deadbolt can use a smart door lock. Now you may preset numbered codes to family and friends and get notifications to your mobile device when the locks are unlocked. Your smart lock can even automatically unlock, letting you quickly leave when you have a fire or dangerous situation.

Family Room Safety Checklist

Living Room/Family Room Safety Checklist For Bend

You’ll spend most of your time in your family room, so it may be the best area to optimize your home safety. Electronics, like a big screen or stereo system, typically sit in your family room, making it a tempting area for thieves. Start with hanging a motion sensor or indoor camera in your room, then take a look at all these ideas:

  • Motion Detectors: By putting in motion sensors, you’ll hear a shrieking siren if they detect unexpected movement in your family room. Look for motion detectors that ignore pet movements or you’ll have your sirens go off every time your dog roams by for a bite of food.

  • Indoor Camera: An indoor security camera offers a constant watch on your living room. View live streams of your room so you can see what’s going on through the mobile app. Or speak with your kids in the room with the two-way talk feature.

  • Surge Protector/Cord Maintenance: Make sure you protect all your electronics and quit overburdening your electric system with a surge protector. For additional comfort, install a smart plug with surge protection in the unit.

  • Entertainment Center Attached To The Wall: If you have curious kids, you’ll need to attach your bookshelves and entertainment center to your wall. This is extra important if your living room uses carpeting that might make objects extra unbalanced.

  • Special Locks For Sliding Doors: If your living room uses a glass door that leads to a deck, patio, or screened-in porch, you probably can see that the door lock is fairly thin. Use a special lock, like a cross bar or locks that bolt to the top and bottom of the door frame.

Kitchen Safety Checklist

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Bend

Your kitchen has plenty of items that can bring safety and security to your house. Some of these objects are also simple to add and should be purchased from the grocery store:

  • Fire Extinguisher: A fire can happen from a neglected skillet or a towel that’s too close to a burner. Always store a fire extinguisher at the ready for any cooking emergencies.

  • GFCI Box On Each Outlet: A circuit interrupter outlet should be installed on outlets where there’s nearby running water to lessen the chance of a deadly shock. That means the plug outlets close to your kitchen counter and sink. Since 1987, it’s been code to have one GFCI per dedicated circuit. But all your outlets will go dead if any outlet detects a surge, so you’re going to want to use a single GFCI for every outlet.

  • Monitored Carbon Monoxide Detector: A CO detector is needed in the kitchen if you use natural gas for the stove and oven. If your gas burners spring a leak, the carbon monoxide detector will cause a loud, buzzing sound and ping your monitoring expert.

  • Cleaning Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety hazard in the kitchen is the viruses, bacteria, and protein that comes with blood from meat and dairy. Always store cleaning wipes or spray to sanitize your counters when making a meal.

  • Refrigerator Alarm: The milk, meat, and perishables in the fridge have to remain at a chilly temperature to be healthy to eat. If you leave the freezer or refrigerator door open, then a small beep will tell you to close the door. Some fridges already have an alarm, older models do not, and you’ll have to get a fridge alarm from the store.

Bathroom Safety Checklist

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Bend

Just because you don’t a lot of square footage in your bathroom doesn’t mean that there aren’t safety issues. From flood detectors to medicine care, here are a few safety ideas for your bathroom:

  • Flood Detectors: A leaking sink or shower can lead to extensive damage. Get alerted early about pooling water with a flood detector before they generate hundreds to thousands of dollars in renovations.

  • No-slip Bath Mats: A slip in the bathroom can be painful, causing pulled muscles, gashed heads, or trips to the hospital. Make sure you prevent these problems with a textured bath mat for after your bath or shower.

  • Textured Bathtub Stickies: Like a tiled floor, a tub basin can be a slippery surface to stand in. Make sure every tub has some non-slip stickies so your toes have a rough patch to grip.

  • Medicine Door Latch: If you have young toddlers or a family member with memory difficulties, you should take extra care regarding prescription medicine. Safeguard your bottles by using a medicine cabinet with a latch that locks.

  • GFCI Circuits: While installing better outlets in the kitchen, you should also put in a grounded GFCI outlet on every bathroom receptacle. These will shut off the electric current if water splashes on them or they experience a sudden spike from an electric razor or hair dryer.

Child's Bedroom Safety Checklist

Child’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Bend

Your kid’s bedroom should counterbalance safety with simplicity. If their window treatments or other items are safe but tricky to operate, then your children may perform risky methods -- like climb a bookshelf -- to open them. Try these straightforward, and safe, ideas:

  • Cord-Free Window Treatments: Safety experts have identified cords from shades and blinds an unsuspecting danger for kids and pets. Use motorized shades that you can easily control through a remote. Or better yet, connect your motorized coverings to your ADT smart hub so they can raise on a schedule when the sun comes up, and lower in the evening for an easier sleep.

  • Tableside Security Camera: A camera sitting on your kid’s dresser can act just like an HD baby monitor that you can watch from a smartphone. And when they want you, they can hit the two-way talk feature included on the camera.

  • Plug Covers: While each outlet should use outlet safety caps on them for your little children, this is especially urgent in a child’s bedroom. It’s the one place in your home where your children will most likely be by themselves without consistent additional supervision.

  • Window Fire Ladder: If you have bedrooms on above the first floor, then you need to put in a window escape ladder. These will help a child escape in case the hallway or ground floor are on fire. Make sure to practice how to employ them a few times a year.

  • Toy Box Or Low Bookshelves: It’s strange to look at a toy chest as a safety component, but you’ll get it if you’ve ever walked on a building block in your stocking feet. A uncluttered floor gives your child a quick retreat if there’s a safety or security event.

Master Bedroom Safety Checklist

Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Bend

The main bedroom should be your calm space, so let your safety items give you peace of mind if you have an emergency event. After all, being jerked awake by a loud siren can be disorienting.

  • Home Security Touchscreen: Having a touchscreen on your bedside table helps you know what’s going on without leaving your bed. You could alternatively log into your ADT smartphone app. However, the large touchscreen can be better to use when you’re coming out of sleep and finding your bearings.

  • Device Charging Stand: We depend on our smartphones for almost everything now alarm clocks, web browsers, time wasters, and maybe even phones. However, an uncharged cell can cut us off from communications if during an emergency. So, a an easy-to-use charging station is should be used nightly.

  • Nightlight/Smart Lights: A small light can calm you when you’re jolted awake from a fire alarm or other loud sounds. If you can’t fall asleep with an outlet light, use smart bulbs in your bedroom and hall. Then you can have light on-demand with a button push or voice direction.

  • Fireproof Lockbox: Keep your important paperwork like social security cards, medical information, or a bankbook in a fireproof safe. Your safe can be a bigger one that is located in a corner or a small portable safe that you can grab on your way out during a fire or other emergency.

  • Temperature Sensor: The drawback with a master bedroom is that they can run too stuffy or be chilly since they are far away from the thermostat. A temperature sensor can communicate to your smart thermostat so you should have a comfortable, peaceful sleep at a wonderful temperature.

Garage Safety Checklist

Basement/Garage Safety Checklist For Bend

Most safety needs in the garage or basement deal with your pipes or furnace. Finding issues at the source can stop bigger emergencies in the future. So, as you walk around your basement or garage, take note of these crucial items:

  • Flood Detector Or Sump Pump Alarm: Putting a flood sensor next to your water heater or sump pump can save you from wading into a pond when you go into your garage or basement. It’s sure better than sifting through a bunch of destroyed storage boxes.

  • CO Detector: It’s nice to have a carbon monoxide detector in areas where a CO leak can spring up. If you employ gas heating, try to put an alarm in the same room as your HVAC unit.

  • Remote Water Shutoff Valve: If your water sensor finds a plumbing leak or a broken pipe, then you will want to cut off the main water pipe quickly. With a WiFi shutoff valve, you can turn off your water flow from your phone. That’s helpful when you’re on vacation and get a water leak text on your smartphone.

  • Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage up brings about all sorts of headaches. You can lose a bunch of heat or air through that gaping hole, and all sorts of animals or thieves can just saunder in. A remote sensor will notify you about a neglected garage door and lets you close it through the app.

  • Heat Sensor: A temperature sensor in your basement or garage is handy if you fret about freezing pipes. The heat in these rooms can be surprisingly different than your main rooms of the house, so you will want to maintain a close look on the temp through the ADT mobile app.

Outside perimeter checklist

Home Perimeter Safety Checklist for Bend

Your foliage, drive, and front porch are just as crucial to make safe as the rest of your house. Try the items on this checklist to create a safe outside:

  • Outdoor Camera: You can hang outdoor cameras to notify you about unusual movement in your yard. These devices are nice in places where you might not have a window installed -- like a side yard or by the garage door.

  • Low Shrubbery: Overgrown foliage can create some privacy, but they also hinder your view of the yard and curb. Don’t offer potential burglars an area to hide. Plus, high shrubs or greenery too close to your house can jam up gutters and invite bugs.

  • ADT Signage: One of the biggest disincentives for a break-in is alerting aspiring intruders that you own a state-of-the-art ADT security system. An ADT yard stick by the front door and a window sticker will show lurkers that they ought to shove off to an easier score.

  • Motion Activated Flood Lights: Light is the best deterrent to people who lurk in the unlit places. Motion-activated lights on your porch, garage, or deck can help scare lurkers away. Flood lights also help you get inside when you arrive back home late after work.

Contact Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help You With Your Home Safety Checklist for Bend

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t install non-security devices on your Bend home safety checklist, we can discuss a state-of-the-art home security. With everything from alarms to thermostats, we can personalize the best system for your home’s needs. Just contact (541) 213-2340 and talk to a professional or send in the form below. Or personalize your own solution with our Security System Designer.