Breaking these bad habits can be challenging, especially if you have been leaving the front door unlocked since your 30 year-old son or daughter was a toddler. Maybe the neighborhood kids would walk over and invite themselves in to play, and you never experienced a break-in for all of those years. Why change now?

So many different things affect crime rates. From the economy to gang activity to an influx of irresponsible teenagers, crime can go up or down. Even though it might seem like your community doesn’t change much, it does change in some ways every year. Those twins down the street might be troubled teenagers now, or maybe a new and suspicious character has been walking the streets since the area is so wealthy. There are so many scenarios.

Even if you have to write notes to yourself to lock the door or close the windows, it’s going to help decrease your changes of theft over time. Get everyone in the household to understand the new home security rules, and try to make an effort to reverse those bad habits that could leave you vulnerable some day.

There are many different updates you might want to make, but consider making some basic adjustments first so your home is up to code. If you own a home built before 2000, here are some things you might want to start on:

• Install hard-wired smoke alarms in all of the bedrooms and even in the hallways near the bedrooms. These smoke alarms should also have a battery backup in case there is a power outage.

• Install ground-fault circuit interrupter receptacles in all rooms where water and electricity are available. This includes your bathrooms, any utility or laundry rooms and kitchen. These types of receptacles prevent people from getting shocked.

• Prevent electrical fires with ac fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs). These are used in bedrooms.

• Replace your shower valve with an anti-scald valve. This prevents the person in the shower from getting burned if someone else in the house flushes the toilet.

• Replace your current toilet with a low flow one. These are more efficient and will save you money on your utility bill.

• Replace windows in the bathroom and any windows near a staircase with tempered or safety-glazed. If someone were to hit the window, the tempered glass won’t shatter.

• Choose double-pane windows over single-pane ones. This is another way to make your home more energy efficient.

• Install handrails on indoor and outdoor staircases.

• Use a water tank with an expansion tank. This prevents your water heater from exploding if it gets too hot and expands.

For a couple of homeowners in Sebring, Florida, this exact situation occurred. Owners of a mobile home were surprised to wake up and find a car that had driven through their house. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the driver left the scene of the accident. This situation could happen to anyone, but there are ways to prevent it from happening to you.

These mobile home owners live near a dangerous curve that drivers take too fast. Although warning signs have been posted up, drivers have literally crashed into them. If you have a steep hill or sharp curve near your home, it’s important to discuss preventative traffic measures with your local police department. Providing a safe road and neighborhood should be at the top of the list, but you might have to peacefully petition if your concern isn’t being heard.

For additional preventative measures, you can take matters into your own hands and build a fence. A sturdy fence around your property is a great idea for privacy, but a brick or wrought iron fence might be a good deterrent for vehicles too. You can also create your own warning signs near your property. To protect your mailbox, you can place a shield of wood or steel on the side or secure your mailbox into the ground with cement.

Waking up to find that a car has driven through your front door isn’t a good way to start the day, so if you live near a dicey road, some action on your part or at least your community’s is in order. You might also want to check into your homeowner’s insurance to find out whether a circumstance like this would be covered.

A team is when two or more people work together to reach a common goal, and the team’s increased productivity directly corresponds with a comfortable environment among team members. However, obstacles can arise when team members are unable to maintain effective communication. Effective family communication is important, especially when it comes to emergency situations.

The ability to communicate effectively amongst members of a team enables those members to be productive. Having a set plan is essential to creating emergency preparedness plans and even managing basic household security. If all members of the team finish tasks as originally planned, goals are reached and productivity is met or raised. This could drastically change your future for the better and enable you to survive disasters or become less of a target for burglars.

The quality of work created by the group is directly related to the way in which team members communicate. In addition, all members need to be comfortable with one another in order for the leader to delegate responsibilities and feel confident that all persons will participate accordingly. If the group feels comfortable to discuss opinions and ideas without the fears of being overshadowed by others or of being left out, it enables the group to further succeed in discussing all matters regarding the subject at hand. Therefore, understanding how to respect others, particularly your family member that comprise the team, makes the goal more likely to be obtained without excluding pertinent information.

When communication is successful and teams are able to complete the assigned tasks efficiently, all persons involved will feel a sense of accomplishment. Working together successfully gives family members the confidence to continue to do so in the future.

Understanding the difference between effective and ineffective communication in different environments enables people in teams to accomplish goals efficiently, which will lead to family success as a unit.

Heart related emergencies might happen more than you think. Every year in the United States, 325,000 people experience sudden cardiac arrest and die before they are even able to get medical treatment. Most of the time family members witness the cardiac arrest. Because CPR helps circulate blood to the heart and brain, it is said to double a victim’s rate of survival. You could be prepared and know what should be done to keep the person stable until medical services arrive at the scene.

Maybe you remember learning CPR in school? The AHA’s Heartsaver CPR in Schools Course has been structured to make learning CPR easy for middle and high school students. Not only does this course show CPR basics, it also teaches students how to help a person if they are choking and how to properly and effectively use an automated external defibrillator (AED).

For employers and employees at businesses, it is beneficial to take a basic first aid course. This course is also beneficial for parents and other adults too. AHA also has personal learning programs specific to your needs like CPR Anytime, Family & Friends CPR Anytime, Infant CPR Anytime and Heartsaver AED Anytime. These learning programs can be purchased on the American Heart Association’s Web site for under $30. The program will be shipped to you as a personal learning kit, which includes a video, informational packet and dummy, plus it only takes 22 minutes to learn how to use CPR effectively.

Healthcare professionals can take courses online or in a classroom environment too. The American Heart Association (AHA) offers the following courses: Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Basic Life Support (BLS) and Stroke.

Easy green cleaners made from common household items are vinegar and baking soda. These products can be used on just about anything when you mix some warm water with them. The vinegar smell will go away after it has dried. Baking soda can also be sprinkled on the carpet to absorb any odors then you can vacuum it up.

Essential oils are versatile and can be mixed to create a multi-purpose cleaning product or an air freshener. Essential oils are distilled from plants, and each oil has a specific property. For example, cinnamon and citrus oils (e.g., lemon) can kill germs and disinfect. All you need is a spray bottle and a cloth to apply the mixture. Add 5 to 10 drops of oil to a spray bottle filled with water, and you have your cleaner for counters or an air freshener to spray on the carpet and other fabrics.

When purchasing green cleaners, make sure they are made from renewable resources (not petroleum) and are also biodegradable and non-toxic. There are even cleaners already mixed with essential oils, so you don’t have to worry about mixing them yourself.
Other ways to keep your home non-toxic and smelling fresh is to keep the windows open as much as possible, especially while it’s warm outside. Also remember to properly deal with any toxic household cleaners, because they should not be tossed in the garbage or emptied down the drain.

Making green cleaning products is healthier for the environment and your well-being, because you don’t have to worry about your family or pets breathing in or ingesting toxic chemicals.

To determine if a superfund site (hazardous waste site) is near the location of your home or office, search the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website. This provides you with basic information about the sites including the status and types of contaminants, so you can know what the risks are. If remediation is taking place, you can also determine how far along they are and what they are doing to stop the chemicals from spreading. As a homeowner, don’t you want to know these things and become an informed resident?

In Ohio, there is a Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations (BUSTR) that home owning residents can consult. This site monitors the tanks so that any releases can be remediated appropriately and efficiently. You can use the UST search engine to find USTs near you if you live in Ohio. If you don’t live in this state, you can at least check the EPA’s site and maybe your local waste management facility or incinerator might have more information.

It’s beneficial to know the potential dangers around you so that you can protect your health as well as stand up for the environment. Raising community awareness and monitoring the stages of remediation is a way to ensure that dangerous chemicals such as Benzene or Mirex are not getting into your drinking water supply or a local creek or river. Why take a chance when you can do a simply online search?

• Always lock your doors. By the time you drive down the street to a gas station to pick up milk, a thief could have already entered your home and stolen your property. It’s not a good idea to take the chance.

• Keep emergency numbers by your home phones and store them into the speed dials of your cell phone too. Also, charging your cell phone by your bedside every night can ensure that a working phone is near you while you’re sleeping.

• Call 911 to report suspicious activity immediately. You might feel unsure whether a crime is going to take place, but it’s better to have the police check out the situation instead of waiting for something bad to happen. Plus, it will give you peace of mind, and if something is occurring, the police will be more likely to monitor the area in the future.

• Never prop open outside doors or let strangers inside a premises. This just makes it easier for the bad guys to get in, and you might also be putting others in danger if you live in an apartment complex or dormitory.

• Own a watchdog or install an alarm system. If you’re housing doesn’t allow pets and if you cannot afford a security system, purchase a hand held alarm. This can be kept on your key ring and beside your bed.

• Get to know your neighbors but avoid telling too many people whenever you go out of town. Find one trustworthy neighbor or friend with extra keys to pick up mail and check on your home. If mail piles up or notes are left on your door, it’s a tell tale sign that you’re away.

• Don’t hide money or extra keys in or outside your home. It’s too challenging to think of a unique place to hide these items, and most likely a burglar will find them and possibly use your credit card information. Store material items in a safety deposit box and money in a checking and savings account that is FDIC certified.

These are some common sense ways to protect yourself, which is why it’s easy to forget them or feel like you don’t need to worry. Wherever you live, it’s best to protect yourself from crime as much as you can.