I know what you mean. 4 weedeater batteries, 4 power tool batteries. 6 laptops floating around the house. Luckily, they are all rather small capacity batteries packs, so these are not high-energy batteries. For all the tool batteries, when not being used, they are not plugged into their devices.

i think that there are a few other things that can be done to minimize the risk.

I keep seeing stories of fires resulting from things like electric bicycles. Don't buy cheap no-name Chinese battery-powered crap.

Use only the charger provided and designed to be used with your specific battery. All the latest chargers have electronics designed to (hopefully) safely work with your battery and not stress or overcharge them.

Re: getting more cautious as we age. Me too! I think it's common. Activities and equipment that I didn't think twice about when younger, now cause concern. I think that as we age, our "invincibility" gene leaves us. We know and have seen what flirting with disaster can do.