How to Make a Home Safety Inspection Checklist

Whether living in an apartment or a house, creating a home safety inspection checklist is the responsible thing to do.  Fortunately, this type of list can be prepared using resources that are readily available from local municipal governments and utility companies.

1. Compile a breakdown of every room in your home.  Since the safety needs will vary from one room to the next, it is important to address them individually.  For example, there will be some safety precautions that relate to a baby’s bedroom that are not necessary for a teenager’s bedroom.  Since the goal is to make sure each room in the home is safe, keep in mind the type of people who will use that space. 


2. Identify specific safety risks that are relevant to each room, and prepare a process for managing that risk.  Doing so will make it much easier to know what to check when doing a home inspection.  This may include making sure young children cannot get into the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, requiring that a safety lock be placed into position.  That lock can be tested as part of the routine inspection. 


3. Prioritize the safety solutions found in each room.  This makes it easier to devote attention to the more critical safety risks sooner rather than later, and also expedites the implementation of any repairs or replacements that may be necessary if something is not working properly. 


4. Include an escalation procedure with each of the line items on the home safety inspection list.  This is simply what must be done if something is not up to standards.  For example, if the smoke detector in the hallway is not working, the escalation list would call for replacing the batteries in the unit at once. 


5. Prepare the final list.  This can be managed by using a word processing program on a computer, or even some sort of spreadsheet program.  Creating an electronic template will make it easy to add or modify line items later when and as necessary, plus make it easy to print out a home safety inspection list when needed for a routine inspection.