Kitchen Safety Tips

A woman opening up an oven door.

If you aren’t incorporating safety into your kitchen design and daily routine, you aren’t doing enough to stay safe in this room of the house. But good kitchen safety is actually pretty easy, and all you have to do is take a few extra steps and use some easy tips.

Starting With Safety

Building a kitchen from the ground up is always an exciting project, and a fun way to make a home truly feel like your own. Take the opportunity to integrate safety right into the design of the kitchen, and do more to avoid accidents.

Cabinets

A grouping of small appliances.

Give yourself the gift of extra cabinet space in the kitchen. It's always best to store small electrical appliances in cabinets when they aren't in use, rather than leaving them out. Small electrical appliances may come into contact with water, heat, or wear when sitting out on the counter, and these problems could lead to accidents. Install child locks on lower cabinets if you have small children in the home to keep them safer, too.

Sprinklers

Since you're building your kitchen anyway, add a sprinkler system. This way, fires in the kitchen can be handled quickly and effectively, before serious damage is done. A new sprinkling system can be added during a kitchen remodel as well, so there are many ways you can integrate this feature into your kitchen space.

Slip-Resistance

Choose a slip-resistant floor for your kitchen to greatly reduce accidents, particularly accidents with children. Many slip-resistant flooring options are still stylish. Wood, slate, rubber, and cork floors are all available in slip-resistant finishes that do nothing to detract from the beauty of the floor itself.

Basic Safety

Pots and pans on a stove.

Always practice basic safety when you're in the kitchen. First, try to keep the pets and the young kids away from the room entirely. Kids and pets can cause chaos in the kitchen, and they're always at risk of getting hurt while they're here. As for yourself, wear closed-toe shoes and move with purpose, not with speed. If you start rushing around and moving fast in the kitchen, you are much more likely to be injured.

Keep pot holders and warming pads on hand in the kitchen, and know how to get to them easily. Handling hot pans and kitchen tools is one of the main ways that people get hurt when cooking. Protect your hands and all your kitchen surfaces from the heat of hot pans, and you'll prevent a lot of unnecessary accidents. When you’re cooking, turn pan handles inward toward the stove and not outward. When the handles are facing out on the stove, they can be grabbed or snagged by clothing or body parts.

Avoid wearing dangling jewelry and loose clothing when cooking. Hanging items can get caught or snagged on food and cooking items, which can create a disaster very quickly. Long hair should also be tied back, so it doesn’t get snagged.

Getting Serious About Kitchen Safety

The kitchen is probably the most dangerous room in your home. This is where knives and other sharp cutting tools are kept, not to mention electrical appliances. Microwave ovens, hot stoves—there's a lot going on in the kitchen. It pays to take safety seriously, and it's a good idea to keep some tools on hand to keep yourself safe here.

Fire

Kitchen fires are a real possibility and almost everyone experiences one at some point. Make sure the kitchen fire that you experience isn't a damaging or fatal one by dealing with it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Don't ever use water to put out a kitchen fire. Keep a fire extinguisher handy to deal with fires before they become a real emergency. In a pinch, you can quickly manage a small fire before it becomes a large one by smothering it. Baking soda really does effectively and quickly put out grease fires. Smothering fire with a lid also works well to extinguish flames quickly.

First Aid

Cuts, burns, and other kitchen accidents do happen, even when you're practicing safety. Minimize the effects of kitchen injuries by keeping a first aid kit right in the room. Know exactly where the first aid kit is, and make sure it stays stocked with basic cut and burn treatments.

Contamination

Raw chicken on a cutting board.

Food-borne illness happens. Make sure it doesn't happen in your kitchen by practicing good food safety habits. First, keep your poultry and your raw meat separate. Use different utensils on these two proteins if you're working with meat and poultry at the same time, and store them apart from each other. Always wash your hands before and after handling poultry, and don't cut poultry on the same surface with other food items.

Water

The kitchen is a dangerous place because water and electrical appliances are all in the same small area. Always be aware of using water in the kitchen because this can become the catalyst for a lot of accidents. Never, ever add water to a pan that already has hot oil in it. This will cause hot oil splatter that is extremely dangerous and potentially very harmful to everyone nearby. Never use your electrical appliances around running water, and don't touch sockets or appliances unless your hands are dry.

Using Kitchen Safety Tips

Knowing how to stay safe in the kitchen goes a long way, but it won’t go anywhere unless you actually put your knowledge into use. Use the things you know about kitchen safety every single day to stay safer, and keep everyone in the household safer as well. Even professional chefs who spend half their lives in the kitchen are always using safety tips, so no matter how much time you spend in this room, you can’t afford to get careless. An accident can happen at any time, but as long as you’re staying safe you can handle any problem before it becomes a really big disaster.