Your home is your castle, complete with battlements but short of a moat. Keeping it safe is so important but you can do that without the moat and rockets at the ready. Making your home more secure is of great importance as the last thing you need is to have your home breached. The vulnerability you feel when your home is broken into is one you won’t find elsewhere.
No one likes to imagine their home is vulnerable to break-in. When you are a business owner, you protect your business at all costs. When you’re a driver, you protect your car and yourself on the road. When you’re a homeowner, you invest in the best home & contents insurance possible so that you have a great back-up if things do go wrong. Spending money on home security is a no-brainer, especially if you value your property and belongings.
So, how can you be exceptionally clever at protecting your home from an intrusion?
- Appearances matter, a lot. Your house needs to look secure with a glance, so anyone planning to break through your home doesn’t see potential. Valuables should be kept away from windows and avoid installing glass front doors if you can. It’s far too easy to smash a window and turn the doorknob if there is a glass panel to smash.
- The outside of your property needs to be secure as well as the actual property. Having gates secured with sliding bolts or padlocks is a smart move as they’re noisy to break through. Tall, thick shrubbery is a nice idea, but they can also conceal an intruder. You want to make it difficult for them to walk up to your home and break-in. Making them visible will stop that.
- Exterior lights that are automated with sensors are the better option. Motion sensor lights immediately alert you to outside activity and draws attention to an outsider.
- Don’t advertise your gadgets. If you have a nice, big flat screen TV, have it wall mounted and away from the windows. If you have a beautiful car, keep it locked in the garage. There’s no need to advertise your wealth.
- Don’t advertise your security system. It’s great to alarm your home and it makes sense but if you have on display which brand of system you have, it is much easier to disable. Keep it generic so you can let people know you are secure without giving the game away.
- Invest in a good dog. Every family needs a good pet and if you get a dog, you can guarantee a deterrent. Yappy dogs are a great way to let intruders know not to mess with your property.
You have to remember that you want to make your home less attractive to those who plan to break-in instead of creating a fort. Home security is about making sure that you don’t end up spending money you haven’t put aside to fix problems made by other people who don’t understand the law. If you are in a high-risk area, it isn’t unreasonable to want to install cameras, but check the laws in your area first.