We’ve all seen the adverts on TV telling us to make sure our smoke alarms are working properly and we all think to ourselves “ours is probably fine” – but you may be surprised to know that on average only one in 3 households have a working alarm on every floor of their homes.
With that in mind, in this article I intend to give you 3 household tips for a safe and clean home, all of which are problems that can easily be avoided and therefore making our homes a safer place.
Check our smoke alarms work
“Smoke alarms were absent from the fire area in 37 per cent of dwelling fires (16,400 fires). Of the total of 306 dwelling fires fatalities in the Great Britain in 2010-11, 112 (37 per cent) of these fatalities were in fires where there was no smoke alarm present, and a further 76 fatalities (25 per cent) where a smoke alarm was present but did not operate.”
I’m sure you’ll agree that these are shocking figures to read. The worst part about it is we see so many deaths each year that could be avoided by simply checking our fire alarms work on each and every floor of our homes. It’s pointless having a smoke alarm if you don’t know it works - taking a couple of minutes every six months to check your fire alarm could potentially be the difference between life and death.
If you know you will forget simply set yourself a reminder on your phone or leave a note on your calendar - and just to be safe you could even replace your everyday alkaline batteries for some lithium ten year lifelong batteries, this could be a blessing in disguise for you.
Clean your stove and utensils
On the hygiene front so many of us do the obvious things such as cleaning our toilet or cleaning the chopping board, yet so many of us leave our stove after use but we don’t think about the many bacteria that is then attracted and living on it.
The solution is simple, clean your stove straight after use - It will only take a few minutes but it could save you getting unwanted stomach bugs. While it is fairly unlikely you will become really ill from it, but you could be leaving your home at risk of a potential fire once again due to build-up of fats and oils from food.
As well as your stove remember to clean your drip pans and all cooking utensils well - it is also crucial you replace these every couple of years, especially when your pans become stained as it’s highly unlikely they will come clean again
Take some time to clean underneath your fridge
As well as sweeping away bits of food debris that gathers underneath a fridge in a kitchen that can attract mice - very few people know this but underneath your fridge is a cooling fan along with a set of coils which need to be cleaned at least every year. The coils looks a grate or a radiator and their function is to remove heat from within the inside and that heat is then dissipated through a radiator like appliance, this is located at the bottom of the fridge.
The reason for cleaning this appliance is that if you don’t clean those coils you cannot expect them to function properly and they will fail to give off heat as a efficiently as a consequence, creating issues with overheating.
To clean them simply unplug your fridge and locate the grate like coils, and clean with a long thistle brush, and get the vacuum cleaner out to clear any lint, pet hair and food from the coils.
This article was provided by Ryan Hirst who writes helpful guides and tips for Eurofit Directon their blog
