Four Tips for Staying Safe at Home

We’re still home now more than ever, so it’s good to pause and take a quick refresher on staying safe at home. Consider these four tips:

1. Think indoor air quality. Maybe an air filter is a good idea. Do you smoke? Don’t smoke in your apartment. Most apartments don’t allow smoking anywhere inside these days anyway, including Decker Properties, Inc. Consider deploying an air filter to eliminate allergens and dust.
2. Think new furnace filter. Again, it comes down to indoor air quality. At Decker Properties, we change these for you.
3. Think fire safety. Locate your carbon monoxide detector and smoke detector. Smoke detectors have been around a long time and you probably are familiar with them. Carbon Monoxide detectors are somewhat newer. Below is a picture of a sample carbon monoxide detector. But yours may be round or even combined with the smoke detector. Or you may not even have a carbon monoxide detector if there are no natural gas appliances in your apartment. Natural gas is used to fire furnaces, ovens and cook tops. If you have electric baseboard heat and an electric stove, you may not have a carbon monoxide detector. If your uncertain, contact your landlord. In the old days, the concern was with changing the batteries every year and making sure the batteries were working. Today, at least at Decker Properties, your detectors are either hard wired or they have a 10-year lithium-ion battery. The battery powered detectors were labeled with an installation date. You can check the date, but since these were installed in the last few years, you probably have years yet to go. Note that the detector has a test button. Test the detectors and make sure they’re working. Be ready for a loud pitched alarm to sound! It will go off as soon as you release the button.
4. Think Sleep. Create an ideal sleeping environment. Most people sleep better if the room is a little cooler – 65 to 70 degrees. At Decker Properties, many of our apartments have individual room thermostats. Remove any distractions and consider a white noise devise to help you sleep.