So, you’ve planned your dream vacation, you’ve booked your flight, you’ve made your reservations. You’ve gotten everything packed up. You’re not ready to head out just yet, though. You’re going to be out of the house for several days, maybe even several weeks, so you need to be sure it’s safe and secure while you’re gone. If you’re not there to check on it, though, how can you ensure it’s safe for such a long period of time?
Lock Up Before Heading Out
The first (and simplest) step you can take to secure your home before leaving is locking all the doors and windows. While this may seem like an extremely obvious tip, it’s surprisingly easy to forget to do! When you’re spending all your time at home. There’s really no need to lock anything outside of the front and back door, but even if you remember to lock them before leaving for vacation. A window also makes a solid entry point for burglars. Before stepping out the door, do one last run through your house and confirm that all of the doors and windows are, in fact, locked, and you should be good to go!
Set Up Security Cameras
If you don’t already have security cameras running. Set up a few of them around potential entry points to your home. While the price tag may be off-putting at first, they’re a more than worthwhile investment for protecting your home. Most burglars are looking for an easy mark. So even just seeing a security camera is likely to make them move on, meaning that you can often get away with just installing a dummy camera. If the worst happens, though, and they break in anyway. You’ll be able to notify the police and give them the evidence they need to find the culprit.
Hire a House-Sitter
Hiring a house-sitter is an incredibly simple way to give you the peace of mind you need to relax and enjoy your vacation. As they’ll more or less constantly be in the house. The chance that anyone will try to break in is reduced drastically, and if anything goes wrong in the few times they are out. They can let you know right away and file a police report. If you prefer a more simple approach to home security, this is the solution for you.
Place Valuables Out of View
The main goal of any would-be burglar is to get into the house quickly. Snag as many valuables as they can in as short a time as possible, and then get out without being noticed. It stands to reason, then, that they’re looking for easy, reliable marks when deciding on a target. They won’t break into a house if they won’t make any money off of doing so. So if they aren’t fairly confident that something valuable is inside, they probably won’t choose you as their target.
Close Curtains and Blinds
On a similar note, be sure to close your curtains and blinds as well. In the same way that hiding your valuables creates uncertainty. Closing your curtains and blinds only serves to amplify it. This ensures that any potential burglars have very little incentive to break into your home. Especially when you combine these two strategies with a full security system.
Set Alarms on Doors and Windows
If a burglar thinks they’ve been caught. Chances are that they won’t stick around to find out whether or not there’s actually anyone there to catch them. Naturally, if they open a door or window and an alarm immediately goes off. They’re not going to keep looking for valuables to steal, they’re going to hotfoot it out of there before anyone thinks to call the police.
Use Motion-Sensing Lights
Because they want to avoid leaving evidence behind, most burglars prefer to stay as far out of sight as possible. If motion-sensing lights start shining on them the moment they approach, they’ll start to feel watched and may have second thoughts about breaking in. Plus, there’s the added bonus that if you’re coming home tired after a long day of work, having porch lights come on automatically can help reduce the risk of tripping over something in the dark.
Connect Your Security System to Your Phone
Many smart security systems nowadays come equipped with smartphone compatibility, meaning that if they pick up anything out of the ordinary, you’ll get a notification on your phone right away. This means that you can rest assured that as long as you don’t hear anything, your house is completely safe.
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