Gone are the days when you could crack the window open on a hot summer night or leave the door unlocked as you run to the store quick. Home burglaries have spiked over the past few years. No need to worry though; there are many hassle-free and cost-effective methods of securing your home.
Here are 20 of our best home saftey tips:
1. Add Yard Lighting
After sunset, your yard offers burglars convenient hiding spots. Burglars can hide in your shrubs, bushes, and the like. Illuminate the outside of your home so burglars can’t hide and make any suspicious activity as easy to spot as in daylight.
2. Improve Visibility
If your home isn’t visible from the road, or vice versa, it is a cause for concern. Anyone approaching your house will remain unseen and your neighbors will be unable to watch for suspicious activity. By doing some landscaping, trimming your hedges, and cutting down low hanging branches obstructing the view you can improve your visibility.
3. Fence your Property
Build a boundary wall or put up a fence around your property. This will help people discern where your property starts, therefore, making it easier to tell if someone is merely unwanted or a burglar. This wall or fence puts an additional layer of security between you and a potential burglar.
4. Motion Detectors
An Outside Motion Detector instantly alerts you to any movement on your property during the day or night. Some models can even detect heat. An Outdoor Motion Detector can detect movement up to the range of ¼ of a mile. They are easy to install and convenient to use as they don’t need Wi-fi or a phone connection. Outside Motion Detectors can be installed all-around your property to give 360-degree motion coverage to your house. Its loud volume will not only alert you about an intruder but also scare them off.
5. Lock Your Doors
While it seems like a very obvious thing to do, homeowners tend to overlook it all the same. Homeowners think the front door is too obvious an entrance for burglary or that a burglar wouldn’t use the garage door. In reality, burglars opt for the quietest way to gain entrance to your home. Why break in when you can simply walk through the front door without raising alarm?
6. Reinforce your Door
While locking your door serves as an added layer of security, it serves no purpose if it will give way on a single kick. Most doors are installed with screws that barely penetrate the door. Only long screws bite into the stud. Adding metal sleeves around the lock and extended steel plates strengthen your door to withstand kicks and shoves.
7. Hide Expensive Items
Don’t leave expensive items lying around. When not in use, store them safely. An expensive item may attract the attention of a burglar, therefore making your home their next target.
8. Spare Keys
It is important to always have a spare key to your house, but hiding them under doormats and potted plants is unsafe. We suggest entrusting your keys to a neighbor or a reliable friend instead.
9. Neighborhood Watch
Forming a Neighborhood Watch Committee keeps all homeowners within the local community in touch. The committee is responsible for sharing current happenings in the area with all the members and alert them to suspicious persons and activity.
10. Be Wary of Service Providers
Service providers often have unrestricted access to your house and some familiarity with your routine. Schedule their visits in your presence and supervise them during their time inside your home. Burglars may disguise themselves as service providers and use their visit as a reconnaissance mission for burgling your house.
11. Install Burglar Bars
All it takes for your window to turn into a burglar’s entry point is a punch. It is noisy, but quick. Install burglar bars across your ground floor windows and any first-floor windows that can be easily accessed from the ground. Burglar bars fit inside the window frame, securing yet another entrance to your home.
12. Home Security System
A home security system is a smart way of alerting you to the presence of an intruder in your house. The security system alarm can only be disarmed by someone who you have trusted with your passcode. Should it go off, it will show you which part of your house the alarm was triggered from. It is the ultimate indoor security device.
13. Alarm your Windows
Someone who does not know that you have installed burglar bars on the windows may attempt to access your home through them. Installing a window alarm is an additional security measure and will immediately alert you when someone is trying to enter your home.
14. Security Cameras
Security cameras inside your home can be placed at strategic places, covering all entrances so they can be monitored from the safety of your bedroom or your phone screen when you are away from home.
15. Video Doorbell Camera
Intercoms are practically vintage now. Invest in the security that a doorbell video camera offers. Each time your doorbell goes off, the video camera is activated and you are alerted. You can access the video from anywhere and know who is outside your door before you even get to it.
16. Cover up the Glass
The idea of massive windows is very pleasant because the view of your property is soothing, but it also gives potential burglars a clear view of the inside of your home. All your valuables are on display and may tempt them. A privacy film will give you reasonable protection during the day, but you will need blinds or curtains for the night.
17. Keep Your Neighbors Informed
When you plan on being away from home more than a night, make it a point to inform your neighbors. They can keep an eye on your house and even drop in at your house to give the impression that the house is being lived in.
18. House Sitter
If you plan on going away for a longer timeframe, enlist the help of a friend or family member to stay at your house in your absence. This way your home is never empty and burglars will remain deterred.
19. Newspapers
When you’re away from home for days, newspapers and other mail tend to collect at your doorstep or your mailbox begins to overflow; a dead giveaway that no one has been home in some time. Therefore, discontinue your subscription and delay any scheduled deliveries till you are back. Request your neighbor to collect any mail that will inescapably be delivered in your absence.
20. Short Trips
If your trips away from home are unavoidable, keep them short and only leave your house alone for smaller periods. Break a long trip into two smaller ones. Burglars are always on the lookout for an empty house to make an easy score.
Securing your house and protecting your home from burglary is not as difficult as it appears. In fact, with our help, it’s 20 simple tips away which ensure that your home and loved ones are always safe and your property guarded.
