Apartments - Kitchen Safety Tips

You might be thinking “I’m twenty-something years old. I don’t need to know rules of the kitchen.” However, there may be a few little things you might look over generally that could potentially cause a fire or other hazards. Granted that you do have renters insurance, but you still don’t want to deal with losing all of your belongings and the other hassles that come with your home burning down.

If you turn the stove on to cook dinner, don’t leave it unattended. As simple as this sounds, it happens way too often. You can turn away for only a second and a pop of grease from your skillet can cause an extremely dangerous fire. If something important does call your attention away from the stove, just turn it off. As they say, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Loose clothing or oversized clothing can be hazardous as well. Clothing that drapes can easily brush against a burner and catch fire. So basically, it’s not a good idea to be cooking in your big, oversized pajamas or your robe that hangs off your arms. Keep it out of the kitchen.

Keep all your pot handles facing inward. This helps to avoid spillage after bumping into with your elbow and such. You definitely don’t want to wear your dinner and in this case, your hot dinner that could potentially also start a hazardous fire.

And since we keep speaking of oil, make sure to pour the oil in the pan before heating it. This will prevent any popping grease or splattering, another potential fire hazard. As you can see, oil and hot stoves are not a good mixture. They can easily cause a fire and no one wants that. As much as it sucks, try to clean off the stove each time after cooking on it. This keeps the oil residue off so it won’t build up and once again, cause a fire. Preventing a fire is much easier than trying to fight off one. This is another obvious fact, but for safe sake, keep all flammable materials away from the stove, like oven mitts, paper towels, dish towels, and etc.

All of this may seem simple minded and obvious facts about kitchen and fire safety, but it only takes one time to cause a fire that can destroy your entire apartment and everything you own. Do your best to keep the fire out.