It’s common for most homeowners to take tools and handle some of their home décor projects by themselves in making a home they want and desire.
Unfortunately, most people would neglect or won’t pay attention to the basic rules and regulations outlined in the Health and Safety Executive, concerning the use and maintenance of tools. And failure to observe safety increases one’s risks of injuries.
In this article, we’ve covered some of the best safety and precautionary measures you must take to ensure you protect yourselves and others around you during your DIY home decor projects.
Here are some safety measures to consider.
Avail a First Aid Kit
First things first, ensure you have your home first aid kit. You can either buy or make your custom-made, first aid kit.
It’s common for accidents to happen, but it’s essential to plan and have a first aid kit for preparation if you experience unexpected injuries.
Also, it would be of more help if you could save a list of some emergency numbers should things get out of hand.
Ensure a Clean Working Space
Maintaining a clean working environment would ensure a healthier working environment and help you become more efficient and productive.
How’s that?
Keeping a tidy workspace helps reduce your risk of injuries. Naturally, the chances are high that you would be concentrating on your job at hand. Be it refinishing a wooden chair or webbing your outdoor furniture. And sometimes, it may be a mess when you have tools cluttered all over the place.
Besides, you should concentrate much on your work when you feel safe. But you can’t find safety in a tool-clustered working place. Therefore, to avoid injuries, ensure you clean up your working space before you could jump into a tool. Besides, you also disinfect air and surfaces using air purifiers, especially when you have smelling chemicals.
Pay Attention To Instructions.
It’s prevalent for most DIY masters to rely on their level of experience or the intuition of their handyman.
However, whether you’re a DIY home décor master or just a newbie, you must always check with the owner’s manual on how to use or apply specific tools or equipment. Read and understand the precautions and steps involved in fixing and using different appliances. Then pay attention to the warnings; it would even be wiser to do some more research on operating a specific tool.
Ensure Your Tools Are In Good Condition
Having a quality tool or equipment is a critical investment. However, for the equipment to last longer or return you the favor would greatly depend on how you use and maintain them.
So how can you maintain your tools?
Clean, dry, and lubricate tools– you must ensure you properly clean or wash tools before storing them. After washing devices, leave them to dry out before storage. You can also wipe them with some rags. This helps prevent rusting of your tools.
If you’re working with tools that require lubrication, then you must lubricate them to facilitate easy usage.
Inspect and repair tools– a more significant percentage of injuries would result from poorly managed devices. For instance, covering tools that need repair with tapes, using broken casings, or using rickety ladders. Such would only increase your risks of injuries.
Therefore, before you take or use any tool, ensure you check for breakages and repair all those equipment that indicate any damages. You better be safe than be sorry.
Sharpening cutting objects– the primary use of most tools is to help make your work easier. However, you can never achieve that if you are using dull and blunt instruments. That said, ensure you sharpen your bladed tools more often for faster cutting.
Wear Protective or Safety Gears
You have to dress for safety. It’s very unwise to be in flip-flops or shorts, sleeveless clothes and open, heels or unstable shoes while doing DIY home décor projects. Therefore, depending on the work at hand, you must ensure you have sturdy clothing like:
- Safety glasses while using power machines
- Hard hats to protect you from dropping objects
- earmuffs or plugs
- Electrical tapes
- A dust mask
- A safety rope or harness for any roof and climbing works
Use Tools For The Proper Purposes
A workplace can present several hazardous situations, so you don’t need to make the mistake of increasing your risk of injuries by using the wrong tool. Or using the right tool for improper purposes. Always remember that every instrument is designed for particular purposes.
Therefore, using the correct tool for the proper purposes saves you a lot of time and effort you need for a job well done. Also, it reduces your chances of causing damage to yourself, equipment, and the surface on which the tool is applied.
Conclusion
It’s common for most people to take shortcuts or ignore some safety precautions while handling different projects. However, to stay safe during your DIY home projects, it would be better if you could: have in place first aid for emergencies, ensure a clean working space, use the right tools for the correct purposes, and ensure you properly maintain your devices.
