Home Environment Checklist
Print the blank sheet to fill in
The book's explanations for this sheet (PDF)
How to use it
- Print it and take it with you. If you would rather read it on a phone, write your notes wherever you normally keep them. Filling it in from memory at the kitchen table gives a shorter sheet than walking through does.
- Go area by area and write what you actually see. "I don't know what is under the sink" is a real entry, and a useful one.
- Look from your child's height, and think about what they can reach now rather than what they could reach last year.
- Mark what you have looked at, and put anything you are unsure about under "what needs advice or inspection", with the name of whoever could answer it: a landlord, a local service, the product instructions, a clinician.
- Don't act on a guess and don't disturb suspect material. If something needs testing, servicing or an inspection, write down who does that where you live.
- If you rent, write down what you need to report or request, and keep a dated copy of what you send.
- Stop halfway if you need to, or ask someone to write it down for you. You can come back to the rest later.
- Keep it. Next time, the interesting part is what changed.
An alarm sounding, fumes, a smell of burning, or anything that may have been swallowed is not a checklist item. Act on it first. This sheet is for the calm walk-through afterwards.
Read the sheet on screen
The blank sheet
Notice one thing, choose a next step
Start with one room if that is all you have time for. Look from your child's height and think about what they can reach now.
This is a starting list, not a complete safety inspection. Some hazards cannot be seen or smelled.
What to look at
Mark each area "checked", "needs action", "not sure" or "not relevant" in the space below it, and write your note in the same space. "Checked" means you looked at it, not that the home has passed a safety test.
Products
Alarms
Air and heating
Furniture and windows
Water and outdoor spaces
Repairs and equipment
Our situation
While you arrange help
Keep children away from an immediate hazard while you arrange help. Don't disturb suspect materials or repair a fuel-burning appliance yourself. Follow local guidance and product instructions.
Turning it into a next step
This is the half of the sheet that outlives the walk-through.
What I can safely address now
What needs advice or inspection
Who I'll contact and when
If I rent, what I need to report or request
Our next check
Coming back to it
Review the relevant areas after a move, a repair, or a change in what your child can reach.
You don't need to buy everything at once; ask for help with changes you cannot make yourself.
If something may be dangerous now
If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, go outside and call emergency services. Don’t go back inside until responders say it is safe. If a child collapses, has a seizure, has trouble breathing or cannot be awakened, immediately call the emergency services in the place where the child is. If poisoning may have happened without these signs, promptly contact the poison service for that location; if you cannot reach it, contact the local emergency services. Do not wait for symptoms or improvise first aid for an unknown substance. An emergency is not an inspection and it does not wait for a walk-through.
What this sheet can and cannot tell you
- It is a starting list, not a complete safety inspection, and nothing on it is a measurement.
- It produces no score and no rating. A sheet with nothing marked on it says that nothing stood out to you on one walk-through, which is not the same as a home that has passed a test.
- It carries no action levels and no limits, because those depend on where you live and on the equipment in front of you. They come with the local service, the product instructions, or the person who does the testing.
- It cannot tell you whether anything is safe, and it does not diagnose a symptom. What it does is keep your question, and the name of whoever can answer it, in one place.
Privacy and sources
This page has no form: nothing on it is typed, saved or sent. Printing goes through your own browser.
Sources of this sheet
- Principles for evaluating health risks in children associated with exposure to chemicals
World Health Organization. Source of the hazard / exposure / risk distinction the sheet is built on.
- WHO global air quality guidelines
World Health Organization. Background for the indoor air section. Sets global guideline levels, not household advice.
- Guidelines for drinking-water quality
World Health Organization. Background for the water section. National limits and testing routes differ from one country to another, so they come from where you live.
- Guidelines for establishing a poison centre
World Health Organization. Why the acute-exposure exit points at an official poison center.