Vacation, all I ever wanted! 🎶 The entire point of going on a trip is to relax and forget about your worries. Yet many homeowners spend the entire time worried that their houses will be broken into before they get back. Unfortunately, this fear is not unfounded. Thieves and home invaders target houses whose owners aren’t home, and know how to tell if you have left for an extended period. But through the following simple tips, you can hide the fact that you’re out of town while removing any incentive for criminals to attack your house:
Remove Outside Indicators
The first step to shore up home safety before your vacation is to get rid of any signs that your home isn’t occupied. These include:
- Newspapers– If you receive print news, ask your supplier to stop sending it for the period when you will be away. When these items pile up on your porch, thieves get the hint that you aren’t there to pick them up. But if they aren’t there, everyone will think you went out and collected them.
- Mail– Thieves often check your mailbox to see if it has filled up with letters and catalogues; the more and longer they are there, the greater the odds that you aren’t home. You can eliminate this problem by calling your mail carrier and asking them to hold your letters until you get back.
- Flyers– Businesses, canvassers, and neighbors may put flyers on your door, whether to advertise a product, promote a candidate, or invite you to an event. Since you don’t know who will send you these, your best bet is to ask a neighbor to remove them from your door whenever they notice them.
Besides getting rid of indications that you’re away, you can plant signs that falsely suggest you are home. Consider leaving a light on in a bathroom or some other room you could be in at any time of night, or investing in a programmable timer for your lights. This automatically makes your house look lived in, and as long as you use an LED bulb, it shouldn’t waste much energy.
Hide the Bait
The next step toward home safety is to keep anything valuable you own out of sight of potential home invaders. Expensive vases, jewelry, art, electronics, and other prized possessions should be kept away from the windows. The harder it is for thieves to see things they can steal, the less likely they are to identify your home as a promising target.
Limit Accessibility
Locking your doors is Home Safety 101, but it’s surprising how many people forget to do it. Before you leave, triple check that every entrance is locked. Consider installing digital locks with codes, as these can’t be picked the way that traditional locks can. You should also draw all the blinds so that thieves can’t see inside your house and get a sense of the layout. The harder it is for thieves to plan an invasion and get inside, the less likely they are to steal from you, even if they do realize you’re away.
Invest in Digital Security
Home alarm systems, motion sensor lights, and other household security features improve home safety in two ways: Not only do they prevent thieves from getting in, but they make them less likely to attempt an invasion in the first place. No one wants to be caught breaking and entering, so if a thief sees that you have advanced home security, they’ll pick a different house to attack.
For more information on home safety, contact SafeTouch Security today.