Kitchen is one of the most important spaces in your home. It’s where you can unravel marvellous meals that you can enjoy each day. Many memories that you make with your family happens inside your kitchen. However, because we are dealing with fire, sharp objects, water and electricity in kitchen, it can be one of the riskier areas inside the house. You need to ensure that your kitchen is safer to avoid potential injuries. The simplest way to make your kitchen safe is by making sure that it has proper lighting. If the kitchen is bright enough, you can see more things and be aware of various details. A hidden knife could potentially injure your fingers, so make sure that all objects are clearly visible before you reach anything. Other than using light bulbs, you can also use sunlight to provide natural lighting, which will help you to reduce electricity bills.
You also need to pay attention of the flooring. Make sure that the kitchen flooring is not slippery, especially when wet. If your kitchen is slippery, consider replacing the flooring with ceramic, textured vinyl and wood with matte finish. If you use rug, make sure that it has slight adhesive backing or rubberized. Pay attention to areas near the sink and stove and make improvement if it tends to be slippery. Another thing to consider is that your cabinets and cupboards must be safe to use. If you have overhead cabinets inside the kitchen, avoid putting very heavy objects in them. Fire is also a risk factor in any kitchen. To avoid fire outbreak, you should never leave the stove unattended. Although you could leave pressure cooker for a few hours, you shouldn’t do that. Remove any flammable material from around your stove, because sparks could potentially cause fire.
When handling hot objects inside the kitchen, you should always wear protective gear. You can use counter towels, dishcloths, oven mitts and potholders to protect your skin against hot surfaces inside the kitchen. Don’t stay near hot surface too long and don’t place any combustible material near them. Make sure to allocate a spot inside your kitchen for fire extinguisher and first aid kit. Your kit should contain ointments, bandages and band aids. Your extinguisher should be placed at a spot where it can be accessed easily. Make sure that you know how to use it properly. Depending on the situation, you should make the kitchen a kid-proof area. You should prevent children to enter or stay inside the kitchen without observation. It’s a good idea to teach children how to cook and bake, but any potentially dangerous activities, such as using knife and handling fire, should be done by parents.
When children are in the kitchen, we should keep an eye on them and always insist to stay in the area. Toddlers are especially quite curious and we can feed their curiosity in a safe way. Make sure that they don’t venture to the kitchen and play around recklessly. It may be a good idea to have a kitchen with lockable door, if your children are very active and you can’t watch them all the time