Adding holiday ambiance and cheer to your home is a great way to spend time with loved ones. Pulling out the storage tubs and tins filled with lights, knick-knacks, and inflatables bring back the memories of holidays past, and the hopes for the current holiday season.
As you are sharing this tradition and memories with your loved ones, make sure that you are also sharing a healthy concern for electrical safety as well. Sadly, there are thousands of house fires every year due to unsafe use of electricity, and many of them end with injury and devastation.
The best way to avoid any kind of tragedy ruining your holiday memories, is to be mindful of electrical safety. Here are a few tips that your family can follow and share with one another:
- If you have several electrical items concentrated in a certain part of the room, and they all use the same outlet, make sure to use a surge protector. These items are an inexpensive and easy way to equally distribute the amount of electricity going through one plug and keep the plug from overheating. Also, because we are not only in the middle of the holiday season but also the stormy weather season, a surge protector will prevent any kind of electrical surge cause by bad weather.
- Your holiday lights are stored for most of the year, making them vulnerable to any kind of damage when they are not being used. It is not uncommon for mice to get into an attic, crawl space, or garage and chew through cardboard boxes and even electrical cords. Make sure to store your holiday lights in plastic tubs that are kept up off of the ground. When you pull your lights out of the box, check the cords for any damage or fraying before you plug them in.
- While candles are not electrical, they do cause a large percentage of annual house fires. Many homes use candles in holiday traditions this time of year, so it is important to be thoughtful about candle safety. Keep your candles up high away from where children can reach them. Make sure that your older children know not to lift or move the candles. Never leave a candle burning when you go to sleep or if you leave the house.
This is the time of year for sharing time with loved ones and making memories to last. Keep yourself and your family safe by making smart choices about your holiday decorating and electricity usage.