There is an art in keeping your home. The first is to find home solutions that are inviting, comfortable, and stylish – things that Tim Arnold can guide you in achieving your dream home.

As you care for your home, you will also need to check on your electricals regularly. Otherwise, you could run into issues, damages and potential hazards if you don’t properly care for and check on your electricals. Let’s go over six items you should put on your home electrical checklist to keep your house safe and up-to-date.

Replace Your Lightbulbs

When you want to check your electrical system, you should make sure you look at all of your lightbulbs. While this one seems simple, many people overlook it due to how obvious it seems. This means you should add it to your checklist to avoid overlooking your lightbulbs or putting it into the back of your mind.

As you check the lightbulbs, you should match them as much as possible. For example, if you want to use fluorescent lightbulbs, you should replace all of your lightbulbs with that type. On top of this, you should make sure the socket doesn’t have any problems, so if it does, you need to fix it.

Test Your Alarm Systems

You need to also check your alarm systems to ensure they work correctly. This should include your fire alarms, carbon monoxide alarms and your home security system. You don’t want one of these systems to have problems during an emergency, so you need to make sure they work correctly by checking them regularly.

Make sure you inform others in your house before you test your alarm systems. Otherwise, you may scare some people and cause them to panic. The same applies for security system checks: you need to contact the people in charge of your security system and let them know about it.

Check the Electrical Panel

Your electrical panel holds all of the breakers in your house, which will disconnect different areas of your home during a power surge. This prevents damages, so you need check on your electrical panel regularly to make sure it works. If any outlets or switches in your home stop working, you should check your electrical panel.

Make sure you inspect it to ensure you have all the breakers in the correct positions. If you notice anything odd, or something stops working, you will need to contact an electrician to help you. You should also look for any signs of wear and replace parts to help you improve and maintain your electrical panel.

Plug Into Your Outlets

If you have outlets you don’t use that often, you should plug into them to check their condition. You can keep things simple if you take your phone charger, plug it into every outlet, plug in your phone and make sure it works. Doing so will allow you to verify the outlet works when your phone starts to charge.

Make sure you check every outlet in your home to ensure they all work. You should also fix your outlets if you have any exposed wires or outlets without covers. If your outlets emit a strange smell, then you have a serious problem you need to address immediately. If you notice anything strange with your outlets, get some help from a professional.

Fix Your Exposed Wires

While many people will check on their exposed wires around the house, they may forget about the ones connected to their electronics. For example, you should look at your TV wires to see if any of them are starting to peel open and exposing the wiring underneath. If this happens, you need to fix or replace them.

You can use some electrical tape to easily cover your wires, so they are no longer exposed. While electrical tape will help you deal with the problem, you should take care of your electronics to avoid these issues in the first place. However, some wires will start to peel with time, even if you care for them properly, so you have this option available to make them last longer.

Perform Maintenance on Appliances

You have various appliances throughout your house you need to perform maintenance on. This includes your fridge, freezer, heater and washing machines. In this situation, maintenance involves checking the machine and ensuring that they work as you look for irregularities. In short, check for issues, but don’t try to take your appliances apart.

If you suspect your appliance has a serious issue, you can either replace it or call someone to help you. Either approach works and will depend on the age of the appliance. For example, if you have an old washing machine, you may spend less money replacing it than fixing it, especially if it has out-of-date parts.

As you check your home’s electrical system, you should remember these checklist items. If you notice any serious problems, you need to contact an electrician to help you address those issues and fix them. Either way, make sure you go through this checklist and perform maintenance on your home to keep everything in the best condition possible.