Kitchen Safety

While the kitchen is considered the heart of the home, an unsafe kitchen can be a disaster for you or an aging loved one. It’s important to consider fire prevention, comfort and convenience, and food preparation and leftovers when making the kitchen safe. Here are five ideas to prevent accidents and stay safe in the kitchen:

1. Move items that are used most often out of the highest and lowest cabinets and shelves, and into easy-to-reach cabinets and drawers.
2. Once a week, go through the food in the refrigerator and throw out anything that is expired. Go through your pantry and cabinet items once a month.
3. Make sure there is adequate lighting over the sink, range, and countertops to avoid spills, cuts or other accidents. You may want to install under-cabinet lighting to help with this. Also, add a night light.
4. If there are area rugs in the kitchen – or anywhere in the home, remove them. They cause a lot of falls.
5. Keep a fire extinguisher handy, and make sure everyone knows how to use it properly.

Make sure you survey the kitchen with a critical eye. What may seem perfectly harmless to you may be a potential threat to your loved one.