If you are considering doing either large or small improvements to your kitchen in the new year, it is important to keep safety in the foremost of your decision making. There are just a few areas to concentrate on so, take a look at the suggestions included with this blog.

Make certain that you have good lighting in the kitchen, so that you can have lighting that focuses on the areas of the kitchen that you work in. Task lighting and good general lighting is important to avoid injury while involved in meal preparation.

You will want to make sure that your flooring is not slippery, so use materials that are matte finished or softly glazed. You can also use a rug or floor mat in areas that are prone to getting slippery to avoid possible accidents.

Do you have a fire extinguisher close at hand in the kitchen? It is recommended that you keep one near the exit of a room where it is visible, and have it mounted15″-48″ above the floor.
There are appliance lock out features on ranges and ovens so that you can keep little people from gaining access.

Faucets can be installed with “anti-scaled” features to avoid water at too high a temperature. There are pressure balance valves that can be installed as well as faucets with pre-progamming features, so you can have water set at the temperatures that you desire.

Controls for your cooktops should be in the front or alongside the burners, to avoid being burned or scalded. When you are cooking, make sure that the handles on your pots and pans are turned inward so children cannot pull them down on top of themselves.

Make sure to design a safe kitchen arrangement or floorplan. Think about how traffic will flow through the kitchen, and design the floorplan to keep that traffic out of the cooking area. For example, avoid putting a range near an entrance or exit.

Install the microwave at a convenient height, that doesn’t require reaching to retrieve food.
With your cabinets, consider slide-out trays and bins. Such features in base cabinets make their contents more accessible, and they minimize reaching and twisting to pull out the right item.
Take care to eliminate sharp corners on countertops. Use a rounded edge on the corners of countertops, especially islands and peninsulas, to avoid injury to children.