Spring Cleaning Safety
My wife and I spent this past month getting a jump on spring cleaning and making some much needed repairs and renovations to our home. In the course of doing this work, I had time to reflect on the fact that safety is not only something you do at work. In fact, safety should never be far from our thoughts.
Cleaning out the storage area in the basement, I came across some old cans of paint. In a work shop, flammable materials like paint would be stored in a fire rated storage cabinet. Yet here they were, in amongst the boxes of old clothes and books in the basement of my house!
Open a “house decorating” file on your computer; make a note of the brand, name and possibly formula of the colour for future reference; and responsibly dispose of the left over paint. After all, how many times have you ever actually touched up room paint after the initial painting has been completed?
While in the basement, I noticed a long forgotten carbon monoxide detector near the furnace. Spring cleaning time is a perfect time to test and replace smoke and CO detector batteries. Many fire department officials recommend checking your batteries twice a year when resetting clocks for daylight savings time shifts.
Our renovations also included replacing a mirror and throwing out some old wooden mouldings with nails still embedded in the wood. Consideration should be given to the trash collectors who pick up the refuse. We carefully packed the mirror glass in an old cardboard box and clearly marked the outside of the cardboard container with the words “danger glass inside”. Similarly, the nails in the old moulding rail were flattened and bound with duct tape to make sure that they do not cut an unsuspecting collector.
Safety is a full time job that requires your attention 24/7 - at home and at work.
