Home Security: How to Defend Your Home When You Are Away
Is your home going to be empty for several days while you go on
vacation? That's when your home or apartment is most vulnerable
to break-ins.
Here are several specific things you can do to ensure your home
stays safe even when you are away.
* The best defense for your home is to have a house sitter.
There's no getting around it. A house where someone is staying
is almost always safer than a house that's empty. See if you can
get a trusted friend or relative to stay at home while you are
away.
* Stop your mail delivery and newspaper delivery for the entire
time you are away. An overflowing mailbox or piles of newspaper
advertises that no one's home. Alternatively, get a neighbor to
collect them regularly.
* Similarly, if you keep a garden or have potted plants that are
visible, get someone to come in regularly and maintain them.
Wilted and dying plants are another signal that the house is
uninhabited. At the very least, move the potted plants out of
sight.
* Put lights as well as TV / radio on timers. Put lights on
timers in multiple rooms. Try to create a natural-looking
sequence for the lights. Set the timer to turn on the living
room lights at sunset. Later on, at your regular bedtime, set it
to switch off the living room lights and turn on the bedroom
lights at around the same time.
If you regularly turn on the TV at 8:00 pm and it remains
switched on till 11:00 pm, set the timer accordingly. Quite
often, even if the lights are on, the absence of the bluish glow
from the TV can give away the fact that no one's really home.
* Ask a neighbor to drop into your house regularly, if you don't
have a house sitter. Windows being opened and closed, curtains
being worked and so on are signs that someone is home.
* If you live in a rented home or apartment, you may want to
notify your landlord that you will be away. In fact, some lease
agreements stipulate that you must inform them if you are going
away. Some landlords like to keep an eye on an empty house, even
if they don't enter it.
* If you have an alarm system installed, make sure the house
sitter knows how to operate it.
* Leave your contact details with the house sitter and/or
neighbor. Whoever is checking on the house should know who they
should call if there is a problem.
About the author:
Joe Timbers has written on home
security ideas including how to enhance home security, home security tips while on vacation and more.
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