If you and your family travel a lot and you enjoy exploring the world and broadening your horizons, one of the things you should really start paying a little more attention to is how safe and secure your home is while you’re away. The times during which you’re not there are when your home is most vulnerable. So it’s definitely worth giving this some more thought.
Luckily, there are lots of things you can do to keep your home safe and secure while you’re away. And although 100% guaranteed security is next to impossible, there certainly are lots of ways in which you can protect your home and travel without having that worry in the back of your mind. We’re going to talk about all this and more below, so keep reading to find out more.
Don’t be Afraid to Make Your Security Visible
First of all, you need to be okay with the idea of making your security features visible. This is all about deterring and making sure that your home looks secure, as well as actually being secure. When the home looks secure and people can see the alarms and cameras and whatever else is in place, they won’t be as likely to try and break in in the first place. Petty criminals like easy targets, so one of your first objectives should be to make sure your home isn’t an easy target.
Manually Lock the Garage Door
The garage door is one of the most common entry points through which burglars enter people’s homes. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that you don’t only use a remote system to lock your garage while you’re away spending your time on travel. Universal remotes can sometimes unlock your garage door, so you should have a physical backup such as a deadbolt lock that’ll make sure your garage is completely inaccessible.
Ask a Friend or Family Member to Check in Every Few Days
It’s a good idea to have a family member or a friend who can drop by and check everything is as it should be while you’re away. If you’re going to be away for a very long time, you want to make sure that someone is checking things out and making sure everything is okay. It’s something that can be done very easily, and it’s one of those things that definitely gives you greater peace of mind, and that in itself is a pretty big deal too.
Install Security Lights
Security lights are another great asset when it comes to making sure your home is as secure as it can be when you’re not there. They act as a deterrent and make sure that people are not going to feel safe and secure as they try to break into your home. These criminals always prefer the cover of darkness. They certainly don’t want a bright light shining down on them as they try to gain access to your home, so that’s something that you should definitely think about installing if you haven’t already.
Put a Home Warranty in Place
You can never be completely sure that something won’t go wrong while you’re away. And that might not even relate to a security issue. For example, a burst pipe or something like that can have a significant impact on your home, even more so if you don’t notice it until weeks later when you finally get home. That’s why having a home warranty in place that you can turn to and rely on if any of those kinds of repairs ever do have to be made is such a good idea. It means you’ll be backed up and some of those costs will be covered.
Don’t Let Mail and Newspapers Pile Up
One of the surest signs that someone is not at home is when their mail and newspapers start to pile up. They might be piling up in front of the door or they might be stuffed into the mailbox. Whatever it is, it’s usually a sign that burglars look out for. That’s why it’s a good idea to put your mail and newspapers on hold while you’re away. Or you can ask the person who’s dropping by to check on the home to ensure these things are removed or put to one side so that people don’t notice them piling up.
Set Up a Home Monitoring System
Some sort of home monitoring system is a good idea. These days, home security systems are pretty impressive and you can install a range of small cameras in and around the home very easily. You can then have these connected directly to your smartphone so you can see exactly what’s happening there even when you’re away. That’s definitely a big deal and something that you should think about putting in place if you haven’t done so already. It could be hugely beneficial to you.
Carry on With Regular Home Maintenance Tasks
If you have a gardener and other people who come by to take care of your home and carry out regular maintenance, that’s something that you should carry on doing when you’re not there. If these things stop happening when you’re away, it shows a pattern and it’s simply another thing that can show criminals that you’re not there. You don’t want to make it clear to the whole world that the home is unoccupied because that’s what criminals look for.
Store Valuables in a Safe or Off-Site
If you have any valuables in your home, you don’t want to leave these lying around. If the worst does happen and the home does get broken into when you’re not there, you don’t want to make it easy for those burglars to simply take anything they want from you. Instead, you should store your valuables in a safe or you should store them off-site in a safety deposit box or something like that. If you haven’t thought about this already, it’s something you should plan for.
Don’t Leave a Hidden Key
One of the major mistakes people so often make when it comes to home security is leaving a key under the mat or hidden somewhere near the home. This might be convenient when you lock yourself out but it also offers criminals a very easy way to gain entry to your home. It’s something no one should be doing, when traveling or otherwise. It’ll also invalidate your home insurance policy if someone breaks into the home this way, so you need to be wise and don’t make silly mistakes such as this.
Let the Neighbors Know You’re Leaving
Finally, you should talk to a neighbor that you know and trust and talk to them about the fact that you’re not going to be there for the next few weeks or however long it is. This ensures that they can keep an eye out on the home and spot any suspicious activity that might be going on while you’re away. Having neighbors you can trust is one of the most valuable things in the world when it comes to home security.
There are plenty of things you can do to keep your home as safe and secure as it possibly can be, so be sure to make the most of the many ideas discussed here today. Each of them will serve you well and help to keep your home safer than it might otherwise be while you’re not there.