Start where she will actually spend her first hours, not with the whole house at once. Get down on hands and knees in that room and look along skirting boards, under sofas and behind furniture, because that low view shows trailing cables, dropped coins, hair ties, medication blister packs left on a coffee table, and the gap behind a bookcase that an adult eye walks straight past.
The Floor-Level Survey
Move along each wall slowly and handle everything within reach of a small mouth. Coil and lift charging cables into covered trunking or behind heavy furniture she cannot shift, and raise chargers off the floor entirely. Pick up anything small enough to be carried away or swallowed, including socks, elastic bands, toy parts and bottle caps, and put cleaning sprays, detergents and batteries into cupboards fitted with child latches or onto high shelves. Check houseplants at puppy height too, and move any plant you cannot confidently identify as safe for dogs out of her rooms until you have checked it properly.
Look for what she can pull as well as what she can reach. Tablecloth corners, trailing blind cords, low-hanging towels and the flex on a lamp are invitations to tug, and a falling object teaches nothing except fear or injury. Blind cords should be tied up short and out of reach. Heavy items belong away from edges, and wobbly furniture in her area is worth fixing or removing for the first weeks rather than supervising around.
Gates, Barriers and Closed Doors
Fit gates before arrival day, while the house is calm and you can test them properly. A gate at the stairs, at the kitchen doorway if cooking and a new puppy are a poor mix, and across any room that cannot be made safe lets her world stay small and manageable at the start. Walk through each gate yourself, check that it latches with one hand, and confirm she cannot slip through the bars or push underneath it. Doors to rooms holding chemicals, tools, craft supplies or a cat's litter tray stay closed as a habit, and everyone in the household agrees which rooms are open to her on day one.
Supplies Staged Where They Will Be Used
Set up her sleeping and resting place, fresh water, and an indoor toilet spot or a clear route to the garden before she walks in, so the first hour is not spent moving furniture around a tired puppy. Stage cleanup supplies where accidents tend to happen: beside her pen, near the back door and by her sleeping area, each with cloths, a waste bag supply and a suitable cleaning product for hard floors or carpet. Keep a spare set of bedding ready so a washed set can rotate straight in, and place a few appropriate chew toys in her area so redirection takes seconds when her teeth find a chair leg.
The First-Day Walk-Through With the Household
Once the survey and the gates are done, walk the puppy's route once with everyone who lives in the house, travelling it at adult height but judging it by what you found at floor level. Test each gate latch as you pass, name the rooms that stay closed, and agree out loud who supervises her during cooking, during door answering and during the busy first hour of the morning, because gaps in supervision, rather than gaps in proofing, are where first-week chewing and swallowing incidents often happen in a house that has otherwise prepared well.
Repeat the survey at her new height every few weeks, because reach, strength and confidence change fast and a shelf that was ignored in week one can be raided later. Care Teams, used through KinsLe by the whole household, keeps proofing assignments and timestamped completions in one shared view for the next room you tackle.