Living with friends is fun as long as everyone follows essential home safety tips. Whether you are sharing a room with friends in a college dormitory or renting an apartment with them, safety should not be compromised. Here are some home safety tips that you and your friends can follow for much-needed peace of mind.
1. Get a Gas Safety Certificate
One of the most important home safety tips that you and your friends should consider is getting a gas certificate. Hire a professional to get your gas appliances inspected. You never know which gas appliance could require repair.
Unsafe appliances cause gas leaks which can cause an explosion, fire, or carbon monoxide poisoning. You can ask your college friends to chip in to pay for the inspection and necessary repairs. Gas safety is something that you must take seriously.
2. Make Sure the Alarms Work
The next home safety tip to follow is making sure the alarms work. You might think that living with friends does not require you to have working alarms. However, it could not be further from the truth. Since it is difficult to know if there is a gas leak, you need to install a carbon monoxide alarm.
3. Create an Emergency Exit Plan
Unexpected circumstances are a part of the college experience. But, it does not mean that you should be careless. You and your friends must design an emergency exit plan in case of a fire or any other type of emergency. The emergency plan will help guide everyone to safety.
4. Get Safety Equipment
When it comes to living with your college mates, you must get safety equipment such as a flashlight, whistle, and a fire extinguisher. You never know when there might be a power outage, especially if you live in Florida or Texas. Similarly, a fire extinguisher is an absolute must as it helps keep your home safe.
5. Prepare a First Aid Kit
College life can be stressful. You and your friends might fight and get hurt or trip and injure yourself. Therefore, you must prepare a first aid kit that contains the following.
• Safety pins
• Plasters
• Sterile eye dressings
• Gauze dressings
• Bandages
• Disposable sterile gloves
• Sticky tape
• Alcohol-free cleansing wipes
• Scissors
• Painkillers
• Antiseptic cream
Read CDC’s extensive guide on the perfect first aid box for further clarification.
6. Keep Your Doors Locked
When you live with your classmates in college, you are likely to party and head outside late at night. You must keep the doors locked as anyone can break into the property. The last thing you want is for your important valuables such as your school laptop to get stolen.
7. Keep the Floor Dry
A valuable tip that you and your friends should follow is keeping the floor dry. A wet floor can lead to an injury. Anyone could fall and break their ankle. Hence, you must ensure that the floor is dry at all times. Ask your friends to clean and dry the floors as soon as water spills.
8. Switch on Security Lights at Night
Intruders prefer breaking into a house during nighttime as it provides them with the perfect opportunity to steal. To deter intrusion, you have to keep security lights on at night.
9. Never Share Personal Information Online
Tracking someone down online is extremely easy. This is why you and your friends should not share personal information over the internet. There are all types of creeps and criminals lurking on the internet.
Hence, you need to ensure internet safety in college.
10. Avoid Creating a Mess
Studying in college can leave no time for you or your friends to clean the dorm or apartment. However, a mess can cause an accident.
Therefore, it is best to avoid creating a mess by asking everyone to keep the property clean and tidy.
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