The doorway
The Garage Is a Second Exit: Size the Release Cord, the Side Door, and Who Shuts Them at Dusk
A garage door that opens on a button can still open for your mother, so measure the release cord, the side door, and the keypad against the people who actually use this house.
The big garage door gets most of the attention, but the garage is often a second exit. It may open onto the driveway, the street, or the side yard, and it can be opened by a button, a remote, a keypad, or a cord that lets someone lift the door by hand. Each of those is a way out, so each one needs an owner and a place on the evening checklist.
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Check the release cord and its height
Most garage door openers come with an emergency release, usually a cord with a handle that hangs from the opener track. Pulling it lets the door be lifted by hand. Measure how far the handle hangs above the floor, and ask whether a person who walks with a frame or a cane could reach it. If the answer is yes, the release is a way out. Read the opener manual to see how the release is meant to work and whether it can be covered or secured. Ask the installer or the company that services the door whether the release can be set higher while still working for your household in an emergency, and get that answer in writing before you change anything.
Test the side door and the keypad
Stand inside the garage and try the door into the house and the door to the outside. Can you open the outside door from inside without a key? Is the lock a thumb turn, or a deadbolt that needs a key? Those are different answers for different households, and the choice belongs to the people who live there. If you are unsure what the local rules allow, ask the building department or a licensed locksmith. Next, look at the keypad or remote. Who knows the code? Change the code when someone who knew it moves away or stops coming by.
Name who closes it at dusk
Many openers offer an auto-close timer or a sensor that stops a closing door. Check whether yours has either one, and whether it is switched on. Then name the person who closes the garage at dusk, and the person who checks it when that person is away. Write both names on the same card as the front door plan. A garage that depends on memory is a garage that can be left open on the wrong evening.
For the full order of the evening, see Start Here: Dusk to Morning, in Order. For where each fact here comes from, see Sources.