For most people, decorating their home is all about making sure that everything looks perfect and fits well together. One thing that likely isn’t going to be a consideration is how safe your decor items might be if there happens to be an earthquake in your area. But if you live in a part of the world where earthquakes are relatively common, preparing your home for these events in every possible way, including with your home decor, can help you keep your family and your belongings safe.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for earthquake-proofing your home and the decor you’re styling your home with.
Be Careful Where You Hang Wall Art
Most rooms won’t feel completely finished without some kind of decor on the walls. But when the walls start shaking, it’s very easy for art and other decor items to fall down.
Knowing this, it’s wise to be careful about where you hang wall art. In the event of an earthquake, you’re going to want to make sure that any wall art that might wall down won’t fall down on someone. So while you might love the idea of hanging a picture on the wall above your headboard or behind your couch, you should avoid placing heavy items on these walls, as they have a chance of falling onto you or someone else during an earthquake.
Embrace Round Decor
If you’re concerned about your safety at home during an earthquake, one thing you’ll want to keep in mind when decorating your house is sharp edges.
Items that have a high likelihood of falling over or moving during an earthquake, like light pieces of furniture or floor lamps, should avoid having sharp edges. Rather, you should look for items that have round edges, as these items will be less likely to cause damage to your home or your family members if they fall or move during the shaking of an earthquake.
Secure Furniture To Your Walls
For the bigger, heavier furniture items that you’ll have throughout your house, your main objective here should be to secure those pieces of furniture to the walls that they are against.
While you might think that you’d have to have a pretty strong earthquake to knock these items down, in the event that this does happen, the last thing you want to happen to you or a family member is to get stuck underneath a heavy piece of furniture that you can’t move off of yourself or could injure you very badly. But by securing these pieces to the wall, there will be one more fail-safe in place to keep them from moving.
If you live in a place that has frequent or large earthquakes, consider using the tips mentioned above to keep your home safe as you move forward with decorating your space.