Whether you are about to be a new parent, are planning to rent space out of your home, need to provide a safe place for an aging family member or have any other reason for it, making sure your home is as safe as possible may have recently become a top priority for you. Many things can be hazardous around the home, but fortunately there are ways to mitigate most of them.

Keep Guns Locked Away

One critical component of home safety, especially if your home includes members of vulnerable populations such as children, is locking away deadly weapons. Plan to install a secure method of keeping weapons out of reach, such as a gun vault. Make sure that only responsible adults within your household have access to the key or code to enter the vault.

Anchor As Much As Possible to the Walls

Kids love to climb things, and that can result in tipping hazards. Moreover, anyone with intellectual and severe memory challenges, such as those suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, could be unaware of the dangers surrounding tall or high up items. Even if your household is full of responsible and mature individuals, one earthquake could still turn your personal property into a source of danger.

Whenever possible, anchor things to the wall. In particular, TVs and anything tall, such as shelving, should be tied down. The process could be as simple and inexpensive as getting strong webbing, sealing and folding the ends of each piece, and then using washers and heavy-duty screws or bolts to anchor each end in a way that secures your shelving or other dangerous objects to studs in the wall. With just a few minutes per area, you may mitigate the possibility of harm to people you care about.

Replace Batteries in Safety Alert Devices

Your home should have working smoke detectors at a minimum, and hopefully also carbon monoxide detectors. In the event of a problem, though, your ability to rely on those devices is only as good as the batteries within them. Batteries in devices of that nature can wear out every two or three years. However, long before they fully wear out, the batteries can begin to degrade in ways that leak acid and may affect the device’s proper function.

To avoid battery acid leakage and ensure that your device always has the power to perform, consider adding “battery replacement” to your list of scheduled maintenance at least once per year. If you still feel the batteries have usable life left in them by that time each year, you can always hang onto them for use with less critical applications such as TV remote controls.

Maintain Clear Paths to Exits

In the event of an emergency, you don’t want your loved ones having to trip over toys or move boxes and furniture out of the way trying to reach the exit. For example, suffering injuries from tripping and falling as they try to navigate your home during an earthquake could put your family members in danger of not being able to make it to safety. Each member of your home should be able to make their way outside with the least effort possible. Make sure every path has good, wide clearance at all times.

Install Adequate Lighting Inside and Out

Making sure pathways around your property have proper lighting is essential for those times when tripping and slipping hazards cannot be entirely eliminated. Your yard may have dips, your driveway may have uneven concrete or you may have a complex furniture layout in your living room due to the size or shape of the space. These kinds of hazards may be impossible to completely eradicate, but good lighting can make a difference.

In your yard and driveway, for example, you may not even have to install or improve wiring to achieve good lighting. Solar lights have come a long way in recent years, capable of absorbing solar energy throughout the day and storing it for use overnight.

There are many ways you can reduce the chances of accidents and injuries on your property. Each method you implement will provide one more layer of protection.