Thank you First Alert for sponsoring this post. Don’t let the beep steal your sleep.

I've always been pretty lax when it comes to safety stuff like smoke detectors and such, but since having Jack, keeping our home safe has become much more important to me. Since our home was built in the early 1900's, there wasn't much in the way of safety codes required when it was built, but here in Washington new building codes went into effect in 2011 that required all new homes built have carbon monoxide alarms. Now, 7 years later, those carbon monoxide alarms are reaching the end of their life and need to be replaced! Our home has never had any CO alarms, so when First Alert reached out to partner with me to get the word out to families that their CO alarms might need replacing, I was excited to see what new technology was available that we could implement in our little old craftsman home.

Since Jack is a huge reason I want to keep our home safe, I let him open the package. He's super into boxes so I think he was almost more excited about the box itself, haha! They even sent a cute little coloring book that we colored in later, so fun!

Since our home is about 100 years old we have very few outlets. Because of this, battery operated alarms come in very handy, as most of our outlets are occupied with lamps and other necessities. One of my favorite alarms is the tabletop one, which is super easy to put anywhere. Another thing that I'm all about? The batteries in this bad boy last 10 years-- the lifespan of the alarm-- so I never have to remember to replace batteries. Perfect, because who has space in their brain to remember the last time their CO alarm batteries were replaced, am I right?

If you do have some old CO alarms in your house, though, they will typically beep when the battery is low! It's an annoying sound because dying of CO poisoning is way more annoying. Carbon Monoxide is a deadly poisonous gas and can be produced by any gas burning appliance, like your furnace, boiler, stove, and car. Since it's odorless, it's not like smoke which has a super distinct smell, which makes it even more dangerous if you don't have an alarm. Growing up, a neighbor of mine nearly died of CO poisoning while working with a gas powered tool in his basement without adequate ventilation, so it's something I've been aware of since childhood.

First Alert sent over a bunch of alarms to try, but my favorites were the Carbon Monoxide Alarm with 10-Year Battery and Digital Temperature Display (hello not having to remember to change batteries!) and the Combination Photoelectric Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm with 10-Year Battery (killing two birds with one stone... or I guess not killing them, that is).

We've now got enough alarms to have one in each bedroom and on every floor of our home, which is exactly how they're supposed to be... as opposed to the ZERO alarms we had before. Whoops. Now the only thing I need to remember is to test them on a regular basis, so I'm going to enlist Jack because pushing buttons is one of his favorite activities right now. Perfect.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.