What's the most common way to get hurt in your home?

United States
August 28, 2007 8:56pm CST
So, what are the biggest hazards in your home? Are you always tripping on the stairs or nipping yourself with the scissors? Do you find that your floors are really slippery? And, how do you avoid these common hazards. Please share. As for me, the two biggest hazards that I am always having to be wary of include water on the floor and sharp objects. Earlier today, I was trying to move a curtain back from the window and almost slipped down in a small puddle of water, that had apparently leaked out of our window air conditioner. It was upsetting to say the least. But, it's not the first time that I've fallen from a water spill. Last year, our refrigerator started defrosting in the middle of the night and I slid down in a water puddle half the size of our living room. I am lucky that the baby did not find the puddle first. But, it still hurt really bad. Most times I try to stay away from scissors or knives, because I am clumsy and prone to nip myself with scissors accidentally instead of the paper! So, scissors are definitely out for me. Those are the two biggest hazards for me in our home. I am working at making my home a safer place, but it's a constant struggle.
3 people like this
20 responses
@AmbiePam (92719)
• United States
29 Aug 07
The biggest way to get hurt in my apartment, is tripping over my two dogs. To avoid hurting them, I've taken face first falls. No way would I ever hurt them, so I get the brunt of the impact. LOL, they are so quick that I never know when they will pop up.
29 Aug 07
lol i do that with my doggy , when falling over him, i do my best not to hurt him, but hurt myself
1 person likes this
@secretbear (19448)
• Philippines
29 Aug 07
I usually bump my knee or my heel in our hard narra chairs. or miss a step in our stairs. that hurts more because when I miss a step, usually the last step, I often hit the floor kneeling with one knee. just thinking of it makes me wanns say "ouch". ^__^;;
1 person likes this
@raychill (6525)
• United States
30 Aug 07
The Thing I hurt myself most on when I'm at home is... well I live in a small apartment. It's pretty much like a studio. Except that I have a bedroom. But in the kitchen I have this small table that works as kind of an "island" of sorts, though it's really just where my cat likes to sit and watch me while I'm cooking. You know how that is. Well because my kitchen is small the table is perfectly situated so that it doesn't interfere with the fridge, the cabinets or the oven! However, it also does not leave a lot of room for me to walk around it. So on a daily basis I bruise up my hip area by walking around my kitchen and banging myself on either the corner of the table OR the handles of the cabinets. At work I also hurt myself daily, this usually is in the form of a paper cut or even worse...a cardboard cut. OUCH!
@I_LUV_U (2519)
• India
29 Aug 07
I think its the injury with shaving razors. I cut my chin when the beard grows long and thick, its difficult to shave off once the area gets denseer.
@Daelin (683)
• Brazil
29 Aug 07
For me the things that hurt me are knifes and hot water. I never fell at home, not in my adult life anyway. One day I tried to get my remote and I was on my bed. Lazyness is something very dangerous. I almost fell trying to reach the remote when it would just be simpler if I got up and picked it up. Now with food I am always in danger. Knifes like to hurt me, and I never did anything to them. Go figure :)
• United States
29 Aug 07
I trip up the stairs and over my sons toys or my son sometimes. He likes to stay behind me when I don't know he is there. The other son is so small you have to actually look down to make sure you don't step on him. You never know which way they are going to go and they never pick up there toys.
@TerryZ (22076)
• United States
29 Aug 07
I think alot of people have accidents in home right in the shower. Like you said water on the floor I think is the biggest problem and people tend to get hurt by slipping and falling in their homes from water.
@Darkwing (21583)
29 Aug 07
I really don't think it matters how safe you make your home, there are always those absent-minded times when something silly happens to injure you. For instance, many a time I have left a wall-cupboard door open in the kitchen, then stood up and bashed my head on the corner. When I was in Germany, we had swing windows which opened straight round, so that half the window protruded inside and half outside the home. Then I've been down on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor, stood up and crrrrrraaaaaaaaack, my head again. It's no wonder I'm so nutty! lol. Then there is burning yourself as you take something out of the oven, cutting yourself with a knife whilst peeling vegetable, or on a can lid as you open the can. There are so many ways in which you can injure yourself and not forseeing the dangers, take no prevention steps. Brightest Blessings, my friend.
@sgarjun (123)
• India
29 Aug 07
i generelly fall from stairs
@brew2x (3094)
• Philippines
29 Aug 07
The most common way to get hurt in our home is slipping in the bathroom, we tried as much as we could to keep dry. Another way is tripping over because of our dogs, you see we've got four of them and it is a little painful... LOL... =)
@youless (112497)
• Guangzhou, China
29 Aug 07
When I am in the kitchen and chopping the foods, it is the most common way for me to get hurt. As I am not so good at it. Sometimes my finger will get hurt.
@3lilangels (4639)
• United States
29 Aug 07
well i would say the biggest hazzards in my house would be the childs gates we have put up,its like a play yard that goes all around my living room,so my babies cant climb into the kitchen,but sometimes you forget they are there when you are climbing over and trip.its not funny but almost everyone in my family has tripped over them,lol.also another thing would be my babies toys,they get all over the house,and some of them really hurt.
@alfecris (181)
• Philippines
29 Aug 07
well in my side. doors and table edges/ corners are the most common thing that hurts me. i usually get hurt on the edges of the table when i walk and unknowingly the table is there or after i eat on the table and you know my legs get bruise because of it. also the doors. when someone bang it, well you know it hurt in your ears though. also it hurts when my fingers and toes are being banged on the door. ouch!! it really hurts.
29 Aug 07
I am amazed everytime I hear about the number of things that can go wrong in the home that can result in an injury! It's just astonishing how dangerous it is to be at home (and there's people our there that are too afraid to leave the house at all!) My biggest danger in the house is most definately my stairs, drunk or stone cold sober, they don't like me. Every time I attempt to get downstairs, I trip and that's it then, on my backside at the bottom wondering what just happened. Also the tacks that are keeping it there, they always cut my toes, but when I go to look and check they are safe... I can never see any! I think they're haunted or something, it's not right!
@crazynurse (7482)
• United States
29 Aug 07
Well we have several that cause routine injury! First would be the large area rug that we put down over our den carpet. The den carpet is a drab beige and so we put a very colorful area rug over it, in the center of our seating area. It scoots and forms large wrinkles which we all seem to trip over! Second is the front stoop. The entrace to the home was modified when we added a garage and we made a front door entrace. The driveway was lower than the door, but only by the depth of a brick. We made a little brick stoop. We are constanly going out the front door and forgettting about the stoop and walking right off it! Lastly, we trip over the numerous cat toys!!!
• Canada
29 Aug 07
I would have to say at the moment the new living room table we just got from my mother in law . No one is used to it yet and everyone of us had banged into it so far . My son can't seem to get used to it at all and walks into it everytime he walks by it . Eventually we will all get used to it though as it is a case of not watching where we are going lol .
@carlaabt (3504)
• United States
29 Aug 07
Probably the biggest hazard in my house is my cat. She's small (about 6 lbs), but she's always in the way! While I was pregnant with my son, I tripped over her and fell down the stairs three times, and we didn't even get her until I was almost 6 months pregnant! So far, I haven't really had any problems with the stairs in our house here. Our house on base was 3 floors, and the stairs were really steep, so I had a hard time carrying anything up and down them when I was pregnant. Here we just have the stairs down to the basement, and they are easy to navigate. Even my son has never had any problems with them! The problem I have now is tripping over stuff. The dogs don't get in the way nearly as often as the cats, but they do sometimes. And my son likes to carry shoes and toys and leave them in weird places.
• United States
29 Aug 07
im not the most graceful of ppl lol! i tend to trip on things..usually the dogs or their toys or ppl's shoes (argh!) and then run into something trying to "save" myself from the fall. ive bonked my head where the wall turns a corner and on the door jams and been inadvertantly "body checked" by the table or the rare other person trying in vain to grab me lol! more often though i burn myself. i honestly dont think i can cook a meal using the stove or oven and NOT burn myself at least a little bit at some point. shoot, thinking about that i really should include the microwave too. ive burnt my hand pulling something out of the micro that was too hot to handle.
@cynddvs (2948)
• United States
29 Aug 07
The biggest hazards in my home are electrical cords and all of my fiances electronic "toys". We don't have cable outlets in all of our rooms so the ones we don't have outlets in we have tacky looking cords running through the house to them. They drive me crazy and I'm always trying to keep them covered with rugs so we don't trip on them. And we work on computers so naturally we always have lots of computers in our office. I have to keep that room shut off unless I am in there so my daughter doesn't get into them and get hurt.
@gmakesmoney (2923)
• United States
29 Aug 07
I lived in a townhouse recently that was 106 years old so the wooden stairs were worn and I tripped or fell on them almost every day that I lived there. Where I'm living now the place I hurt myself most usually by bumping into walls or hitting my head on open cabinets, lol.