How To Make Your Home Safer In 2024: An In-depth Analysis
Protecting your house under all conditions helps keep your mind at ease, especially outdoors. So, while you focus on home security, you hope that your methods work in your favor! That being said, other people’s actions are not under your control. The only thing you can do is secure your home against all kinds of burglary attempts and home invasions.
Even though burglary rates have steadily decreased over the last ten years, you can still become a victim. It can be traumatizing and disruptive to go through something like this and extremely expensive to rectify.
However, there is good news!
You can undertake multiple ways to ensure your home is safe and secure. All you need to do is think and consider all entry and exit points of your home and improve upon their safety prospects.
Is your home secure enough?
Burglars can be pretty opportunistic. They can scope out all properties in advance and work meticulously with other criminals. It is extremely important to think about all the measures you need to ensure that your home is occupied all the time, and there are no clear places where burglars can potentially hide in order to assess your home further.
Ensure that you are not making it obvious you are away for a few days, on holiday. In such cases, use lights on timers, or have someone constantly check up on your home. No matter what you do, do not mention your vacation in front of strangers on social media because you never know who is watching you, both online and offline.
Apart from these measures, ask yourself some important questions:
- Are your windows and doors closed, even though they are not accessible easily? Do your windows and doors have locks that are visible?
- Do you have a spare key easily visible and accessible underneath plant pots or above the door ledge?
- Are your walls and hedges high enough to offer protection to burglars?
- Is your home noisy enough to access? For example, do you have gravel around your home?
- Is there a ladder lying around your home that could be used for a potential burglary attempt?
- Are your shed and garage secure enough? Do you leave it locked with a good quality security lock or a padlock?
How can a burglar scope your home?
Burglars are looking for weaknesses in your home security. It starts first with your homefront. All potential burglars will look forward to things that ensure you lack somewhere in terms of security, for instance, no window locks, single-cylinder doors, etc.
Burglars are also looking for mistakes homeowners can make, like leaving your keys in the backdoor or locking your windows with keys still left inside.
Tools like ladders are also a security fault, which can be used to invade your home.
Burglars find it easy to target detached homes due to the ease of access for such homes. Homes with terraces are slightly tricky to invade. Planning an escape out of such homes is difficult. The same can be said for homes with many fences. Burglars plan out their access route in advance before getting inside your home. However, having high walls, hedges, and fences can help protect burglars who might hide in plain sight.
Once burglars have chosen the right home to invade, they are going to scope it all out. Most professional burglary attempts will be made over 2-3 days of planning. This means they will be going through your garbage bin, calling you to see if you are home, and checking your social media presence.
Is your home secure enough?
Dogs
Have a pet dog. Dogs bark upon sensing any unfamiliar activity around the house or anyone coming to your doorsteps. This helps prevent burglaries.
Do not let everyone into your home.
Often, even the people you have known for years might have an ulterior motive. Be extremely careful around housekeepers and gardeners. It is extremely important to keep a close eye on them, in and around your home. Whenever anyone you hire is around your home, take extra care of your valuables.
Use keypad locks and personal entry codes that ward off strange third parties away from your home. Keeping your home secure is extremely important, especially when you regularly have hired help coming in and going out. Installing smart locks helps alert you to the timings of someone coming into your home.
Keep records of people you hire
Ensure you keep records of all people you hire, including their verified background checks. After these contractors and workers go out, your valuables might still be at risk. Ensure you have all records in cases of emergencies.
Install home security alarm systems
Home security alarm systems and cameras can help keep a tab on everyone. Its presence itself can help deter potential intruders and criminals away. Most systems can record footage and store it in cloud storage systems and hard drives, giving you and the necessary authorities proof of the crimes that were committed. Ensure you have installed an alarm system inside and outside your home.
Know who lives next door
One of the best ways to ward off potential criminal and burglary attempts is to get a little friendly with your neighbors. You must know who is living next door to you so that whenever you need some help, someone is looking after your home. This comes especially handy when you are out on vacation and require an extra set of eyes.
Keep your doors and windows locked.
Ensure you do not have easy access to your home. Easy access attracts criminal activities. Always keep your doors and windows locked. Open them only under supervision.
Say no to unsolicited help.
If you are calling some hired help to work around your home, that’s fine. However, if someone is just randomly coming to your doorstep, trying to “help” you without being called, watch out! Thieves can be con artists and can “offer” to help unnecessarily.
Light up your porch
Your home must be well-lit during nighttime. Thieves can hide behind things in your front yard or your porch during the night, especially when it is dark out there. Make sure they do not get that “dark space.” Install some lights outside your doorstep.
Look what you throw
Criminals do go through your trash, searching for potential clues to things in your home. If you recently bought an expensive machine, you would throw out the outer box. Criminals will notice that, and it attracts a burglary attempt for that particular device. Cut up all the expensive packaging before disposing of it. You do not want to attract attention to your new TV!
Don’t advertise your vacation plans.
The fewer people know about your vacation plans, the better your vacation time will be. Whatever you do, don’t advertise your future vacation plans or ongoing vacations on social media. Online activity, like your trash, is looked for when people are attempting any criminal activities while you are not looking. Wait until you are back home to post your pictures or videos.
