A burglary happens every 25 seconds in the U.S. Most burglaries occur in broad daylight when many people are at work or school.
Is your home safe from such harm? Maybe not, so let’s go over a few tips you can do to make your home less appealing to burglars looking for likely prospects.
Steps to Help Keep Your Home Safe
Let’s start on the outside and work our way in, taking steps to help make your home safer by helping make it more secure with the following home security tips.
If you’re looking for home security systems to install in your home – including motion sensor lights, cameras, and door locks – to help make your home safer, contact the home security experts at SafeStreets today.
Eliminate Hiding Places
Let’s start in the street, looking at your house as a passing burglar might see it. Most burglaries happen in broad daylight, but that doesn’t mean they happen in plain view. A burglar loves to have a place to hide while breaking in through a door or window.
What kinds of hiding places do you see from the street? Are there fences, shrubs, trees, or outbuildings like garden sheds that offer an excellent hiding place and easy access to an entry point?
Those are the things that need to be addressed first. Here are what we suggest you start with:
- Trim back bushes
- Pull plants out
- Move garbage cans
- Do what you can to eliminate the “cover.”
While at it, make sure not to hide your house key in apparent spots, including by the front door or under mats.
Check the Lighting, Inside and Out
Your next evaluation needs to happen when it’s dark because you want to see how well you’re lighting your house for security. Look for the same kinds of hiding places as before in the daylight, but this time look for shadows and dark corners. Then figure out how to shine a light on these problem areas. If you find places that need to be lit to help make your home safer but don’t want your house and yard to glow all night, consider motion detector lights for the areas that need extra lighting.
Also, consider the lighting inside your house as it’s seen from the street. Choose some windows to light up from the inside, and put lights and lamps on timers, so the house is lit from the inside even if you’re still at work or you’ve gone out to a movie. This is particularly important in the winter when the days are shorter.
Make Your Home Look Occupied
If it looks like someone is home, your house may be less likely to be burglarized. There are several tricks you can do to help make it look like someone is indeed inside, even if the house is empty:
- Put smart lights on timers so your home is never completely dark. You might want to leave lights on during the day too.
- Keep any extra cars in the driveway rather than leave them parked on the street.
- Ask your neighbors to pick up any delivered packages, so they’re not sitting on your front step if you’re away from home or out of town.
- Leave the radio or the TV on when you’re not home.
Reinforce Your Locks
Burglars often enter homes by breaking a window or forcing open a door. Investing in heavy-duty locks and adding deadbolts to your doors can help prevent break-ins. To help burglar-proof your windows, insert dowels into the tracks of sliding glass doors and windows so they can’t be opened from the outside. Also, we recommend you invest in locks for your windows if they only have latches.
Make sure all doors and windows are locked every day when you leave, including the doors and windows of garages and tool sheds too.
Invest in a Home Security System
Over 90% of convicted burglars say they would avoid a home with a prominent home security system. This is why we highly recommend having a home security system installed in your home.
This method for protecting your home is like an inside/outside one: It’s inside your house, but it can be blatantly displayed outside so that any burglar passing by can see the sign and keep on driving, looking for the next potential target.
SafeStreets has a full line of home security systems to help keep your home safe. We can install the highest quality glass break sensors, video doorbells, and security cameras backed by ADT monitoring.
Contact SafeStreets for Home Security System Installation
When it comes to keeping your home safe from harm, prevention is key! At SafeStreets, we care about the safety of your family. That’s why we can help by installing home security systems, smoke alarms, smart locks, and other alarm systems in your home to help keep your family safe.
