Holiday Home Safety: Essential Tips for a Safe Christmas
This week on the Thoughts from the Crawlspace podcast, Jamie Miller, CEO of Gold Key Home Inspections, Inc. discusses essential tips for safety during the Christmas season, particularly around home decorations, cooking, and entertaining. Jamie shares how to prevent hazards associated with Christmas trees, lights, candles, and cooking, highlighting how festive activities can inadvertently lead to dangerous situations. He also touches on kitchen safety, childproofing your home for holiday visitors, and securing your property to deter burglars during the festive season.
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Episode Highlights
- Ensure your Christmas tree is well-watered to prevent fire hazards from dry foliage.
- Always check Christmas light wires for frays or damage before plugging them in.
- Avoid overloading electrical circuits when decorating to prevent potential fire risks.
- Keep candles away from decorations and never leave them unattended to ensure safety.
- Be mindful of carbon monoxide risks when using gas appliances and ensure proper ventilation.
- Prepare your home for guests by clearing walkways and childproofing hazardous areas.
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(01:19) Christmas Safety Tips
(04:54) Candle Safety During the Holidays
(05:40) Kitchen and Cooking Safety Tips
(09:41) Home Safety During the Holidays
Transcript
Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.
Speaker A:Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent, or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way.
Speaker A:Your path to success starts here.
Speaker A:Hello, everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome to another episode.
Speaker A:Today we're going to dive into a topic that's pretty relevant right now, and that is Christmas.
Speaker A:You wouldn't think that would have much to do with the home inspection podcast, but today we're going to talk about safety around your house at Christmas time.
Speaker A:Now, I don't want to be one of those guys that's telling you how to live your lives and giving warnings on every single thing, but there are some practical things that we can talk about that, well, we'll give you a little bit more safety.
Speaker A:You know, this time of year, you have things that you plug in or you add or you decorate with that are different than every other time of year.
Speaker A:And so there's always, you hear every year of homes burning down because of this and burning that.
Speaker A:And usually it's related to some type of Christmas decoration or a project you doing or something like that.
Speaker A:So let's start out.
Speaker A:You know, this is a fun time of year, and you know, it's festive and people are in the Christmas spirit, at least I hope you are.
Speaker A:If we get snow, it actually looks like Christmas.
Speaker A:But there's certain hazards that we want to talk about, about decorating, cooking, lighting, and entertaining.
Speaker A:First of all, let's start off with the big one that everybody gets, and that's a tree.
Speaker A:Now, you can use artificial or you can use natural.
Speaker A:Actually, a natural tree is safer than an artificial one.
Speaker A:Only if you keep it watered.
Speaker A:So if you do get a natural one, make sure you get a good one that doesn't have parts that are dead and already dried out.
Speaker A:Make sure it's got a straight trunk so it's going to stand upright and not risk fall falling over and water it.
Speaker A:Keep that thing watered.
Speaker A:Think back to our favorite Christmas movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, where the dog always drank out of the little water holder at the base of the tree.
Speaker A:If you have a dog that likes doing that, keep watering it right, Keep adding water.
Speaker A:And then when you're done with your tree at the end of Christmas or whenever you take it down, move it out of the house, don't let it dry out, and even get it away from the side of the house, take it out, compost it.
Speaker A:However, you want to get rid of it.
Speaker A:But don't just let a dead, dried out tree sit around because those can catch fire.
Speaker A:You get lights that overheat.
Speaker A:You get an exposed wire and let me jump right into that.
Speaker A:Exposed wires.
Speaker A:On Christmas lights and decorations, always check your lights.
Speaker A:If you save them from year to year, which I would hope you would, and check them for damage.
Speaker A:Frayed wires if they've been stored in the attic, maybe a mouse got into them, chewed on them a little bit.
Speaker A:You know, depending what kind of lights you get.
Speaker A:If you get the kind where one bulb goes out and the whole string goes out, that's frustrating.
Speaker A:But even if you don't have that kind, you need to check all the bulbs and check the wires to make sure that they're going to work properly.
Speaker A:If you're going to use outdoor lights, use lights that are rated for outdoor use.
Speaker A:Don't just take skinny little extension cords that are designed for inside and use them outside.
Speaker A:They're a reason they're rated for outdoor use.
Speaker A:Avoid overloading electrical circuits to prevent overheating.
Speaker A:Think back to that movie again, Clark Griswold, right?
Speaker A:He was putting lights all the way down his roof, around the gutter.
Speaker A:Every square inch of his roof, it seemed like, or every square foot overloaded all the circuits.
Speaker A:And of course it was a movie.
Speaker A:But you know what I'm getting at?
Speaker A:Don't overload.
Speaker A:There will be ratings on the boxes when you get them.
Speaker A:Like you can chain three of them together or four of them together or whatever.
Speaker A:Don't exceed that rating.
Speaker A:And don't overdo it on extension cords.
Speaker A:If you're going to use an extension cord, make sure it's a heavy duty one.
Speaker A:One that's rated well, one that can be, can withstand some heavy loads.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:So don't, don't overdo it on that.
Speaker A:And then keep decoration away from these lights, especially like tinsel or anything like that.
Speaker A:Keep it away from your lights so you don't have contact right there and potentially catch something on fire.
Speaker A:So one more thing to think about on your tree or anything that you set up.
Speaker A:Think about if you have electric baseboard heating, in particular.
Speaker A:Those baseboards you all know can get very hot.
Speaker A:When we take temperature readings on those on home inspections, it can wilt, can be well over 200 degrees.
Speaker A:You don't want, obviously you don't want curtains touching that, but you also don't want your Christmas tree touching that or tinsel or any decoration.
Speaker A:So normally they might be free and clear.
Speaker A:Now you're Plopping a Christmas tree and all the goodies that go with it.
Speaker A:On that, make sure you're not touching electric baseboard heaters.
Speaker A:Number four candle safety.
Speaker A:Candles are beautiful.
Speaker A:They have their place.
Speaker A:But avoid open flames near your decorations.
Speaker A:Don't put them where they could, you know, flicker a little bit and catch garland on fire.
Speaker A:Obviously that's going to go up in a hurry because that's really dry and artificial.
Speaker A:Consider using the flameless candles.
Speaker A:Technology is touched.
Speaker A:Now you can have just like a little small watch battery in a candle and it looks like a flame and it's cool, running and perfectly harmless.
Speaker A:If you do have regular candles, don't leave them unattended.
Speaker A:If you go to bed, blow them out before you go to bed.
Speaker A:And just make sure if you have small kids around, they can't bump into them, knock them over.
Speaker A:Because all it takes is one accident to create a major problem for your house.
Speaker A:So let's switch gears just a little bit to kitchen and cooking safety.
Speaker A:Typically, you're going to have more people in the house, family come in, meet together, a lot of cooking going on.
Speaker A:Stay attentive.
Speaker A:Whenever you have more cooking going on than normal, things could get out of hand.
Speaker A:And create a grease fire.
Speaker A:Make sure you have if you're deep frying or cooking at hot temperatures that you have safety measures around so that you can put out a fire if a small one would start.
Speaker A:All right, so child and pet safety keep hot items, sharp objects and cooking utensils.
Speaker A:Now, this is common sense any time of the year, but it's just when you have more people in the house than normal things happen because you're not used to that.
Speaker A:And so just giving you a couple of tips, let's see if you have guests and visitors coming, someone that's not familiar with your property.
Speaker A:Maybe you should make sure your walkways and pathways are clear.
Speaker A:If you have a crack in your concrete or an offset where an elderly person that maybe shuffles when they walk could trip over.
Speaker A:Either highlight that area, steer them somewhere else, or have that fixed before they stop by.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:And then think of childproofing if you've maybe enough empty nester or you haven't had small kids around the house for quite a while.
Speaker A:Think about if small kids come around, what is not childproof in your house.
Speaker A:Now, that can be a big list, right?
Speaker A:And obviously supervision is the number one way to supervise your child or to childproof your house.
Speaker A:But if that doesn't occur or if someone else is in charge of them for a while, make sure you have some things put in place, whether it's safety gates or barriers in front of stairways.
Speaker A:Maybe electrical outlets that need a cover, possibly the plugins for electrical outlets so they can't stick anything in it.
Speaker A:It could go on and on, but at least some of the basics.
Speaker A:Just think about that as people roll around to create Christmas.
Speaker A:Another thing that we want to talk about is fireplaces.
Speaker A:Fireplaces are popular, especially the gas fireplaces.
Speaker A:Maybe have it cleaned before you start it.
Speaker A:If you have a wood burning fireplace, just be cautious with it.
Speaker A:Make sure your flue is clear and clean.
Speaker A:Make sure you're not sticking your Christmas tree, an old Christmas tree, in there to burn it.
Speaker A:That's never a good idea.
Speaker A:It'll go up in an instant and, and could spread to other areas.
Speaker A:Space heaters keep those away from flammable objects.
Speaker A:You don't ever want space heaters to be touching something.
Speaker A:You want to have good clearance for air circulation and certainly check the wires on those to make sure that we don't have any risk of overheating or an electrical problem with that.
Speaker A:Another thing to think about is carbon monoxide safety.
Speaker A:Carbon monoxide happens.
Speaker A:It can come happen a variety of ways.
Speaker A:Just using your gas stove and oven creates carbon monoxide.
Speaker A:There's a certain amount that's allowed because of that.
Speaker A:But it's also not a terrible idea to have a fan going, an exhaust fan if you're doing a lot of cooking.
Speaker A:Same with a gas burning fireplace.
Speaker A:Those can create carbon monoxide.
Speaker A:Now if it's a, if it's sealed on the front and it's vented, you're not likely to get any in the house.
Speaker A:If it's a non vented fireplace, you are essentially venting the components of combustion into the home and that includes carbon monoxide there.
Speaker A:Again, there's a small limitation on what's allowed.
Speaker A:But you want to have carbon monoxide detectors installed just in case it's exceeding that and you don't know it.
Speaker A:If you haven't used your non vented gas fireplace in quite a while, I'd recommend getting that cleaned before you use it.
Speaker A:And especially if you're going to have company.
Speaker A:Those are not allowed in bedrooms and there's a reason for that because they create carbon monoxide.
Speaker A:And we don't ever recommend you use those more than four hours at a time and preferably less than that.
Speaker A:So one more thing to think about and this might take you back to another movie, Home Alone.
Speaker A:And that is home security during the holidays, right?
Speaker A:You had this of course, it was a movie and there was a small kid and, you know, burglars knew that this house was empty or thought it was, and they're going to target those homes.
Speaker A:So if you're leaving for the holidays, consider setting up a security system, having some lights on a timer, having some guests maybe stop in, family step in and just check things out.
Speaker A:Another thing to consider if you're leaving for an extended period of time, hide your gifts.
Speaker A:If you have gifts under the tree, hide them, put them in a room.
Speaker A:Obviously lock your house.
Speaker A:If you're going to get packages on the front porch through Amazon or what another kind of company is delivering, have neighbors pick them up just so they're not sitting there and tempting somebody that's driving by.
Speaker A:And maybe if you're not there for a week and they see packages keep piling up and piling up, that's a sure sign you're not there.
Speaker A:You might also considering having your mail held at the post office if you're going to be gone for more than a week, just so your, your mailbox is not crammed full.
Speaker A:And then at least the postmaster knows you're gone.
Speaker A:And you know, we don't know who they're going to tell.
Speaker A:So just some things to think about when you're gone or if you're there or decorations you're putting up.
Speaker A:We want it to be a joyous time, a fun time.
Speaker A:We don't want any bad memories to be created because of these little preventable things that could, could cause a fire or a danger to anybody.
Speaker A:So just make sure you take a few minutes to inspect your decorations.
Speaker A:A lot of times they get stored in places you don't look at them the whole year.
Speaker A:Things can happen in that time.
Speaker A:So look at that.
Speaker A:Be proactive.
Speaker A:And we just want to wish you a Merry Christmas.
Speaker A:There's so many things to be thankful for this time of year and another Christmas to be grateful for.
Speaker A:The real reason for Christmas, and that's our Savior coming to save us from our sins and provide a way for redemption.
Speaker A:So remember that as we go through this Christmas season, what it's all about, it's not about the gifts.
Speaker A:It's not about Santa.
Speaker A:It's about the real reason we celebrate.
Speaker A:So have a great Christmas season, everyone.
Speaker A:Thank you for listening.
Speaker A:This week.
Speaker A:You can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Speaker A:For more information about Gold Key Inspection services, go to goldkeyinspect.com.
