Hello World! Welcome Friends! For many people, there is nothing more terrifying than the thought of an intruder breaking into their home, whatever their intentions are once they’re inside.
Yet, with some states having up to 696.8 home burglaries per 100,000 residents in 2019 (New Mexico), and others up to 671.7 incidents (Oklahoma), it’s clear that there’s a genuine cause for concern. Hence the importance of protecting your home with security measures.
This article will take a look at some of the best home security essentials to keep your house, as well as everyone and everything that resides within it safe, for your peace of mind. We look at external, internal, and online security to make sure we’ve got every corner covered.
External Home Security
Protecting the outside of your home is essential if you want to protect what’s inside, so external home security is something you should think seriously about.
Not only can you protect the valuables you store outside your home, such as things kept in sheds, garages, or outhouses, but you might even put off Porch Pirates with a secure exterior; and potential burglars from even attempting to break into your main house as it suggests that that will be secure as well.
Secure all Outbuildings, Garages, and Sheds
With anything you want to keep safe, it’s a good idea to put a lock on it.
Even if you’re not storing anything valuable in these home-adjacent spaces, securing them with locks and weatherproof padlocks is still an important step in securing your home. It will act as a major deterrent to thieves scouting the neighborhood for an easy target to rob. Consider incorporating gadgets such as a smart garage door opener to further enhance the security of your home. Modern devices such as this allow you to control your garage door from your smartphone, providing you with peace of mind regardless of your location.
Individual Outdoor Items
For the things that are too big to fit in your shed or garage, you’ll want to try to secure them using anchor locks and cables so that they’re not easily removed from your yard.
This can be a useful way to prevent thieves from taking expensive items such as lawnmowers, bicycles, garden ornaments, and even garden furniture. Without taking these preventative measures, you may find that your insurance claim is void.
Caravans and Motorhomes
When the winter months roll around and your once favored caravan or motorhome isn’t being used as often, it becomes a sitting duck which makes it an attractive target to thieves.
Standalone alarms are often an affordable way to keep your more expensive possessions safe, and having one for your vehicle can alert you if someone tries to steal it. Most alarms also come with sticks which you can display on the window to put off potential thieves.
It might be more of an old-school approach, but a simple car lock on the wheel can also be effective as an added deterrent, like this Tevlarphee steering wheel lock found on Amazon.
Internal Home Security
Most of the time, we keep the things we value the most inside our homes. Not only that, but having good internal home security can also be what keeps you safe, most importantly of all. Ease your mind and get secure alarm systems for your home in the Toronto area.
In order to fully secure your home, you need to think about every entry point that a criminal could use to try and break into your house, as well as trying to deter thieves at every turn.
Put Locks on Doors and Windows
The first thing you should do when you start to think more seriously about home security is to check the locks on all of the windows and doors to make sure that they all have one. Make sure to upgrade any of the older-looking locks as these could falter after years of use.
Even the highest windows should be lockable as well, although you could opt for ones that aren’t quite as strong as the ones on your doors if you’re comfortable with it.
In order to prevent your doors from being kicked in, a door jammer can act as another barrier if your locks should fail and there is an intruder trying to enter your home.
Having been foiled again, the burglar may assume that there are further security measures in place awaiting them inside and decide that the job isn’t worth the risk.
Install a Burglar Alarm System
The best type of alarm system is a visible alarm system, as the point of these is to put off potential intruders and to alert you and the neighbors if someone succeeds in breaking in.
This means you should always try to install your alarm system somewhere that they’ll be clearly seen by thieves or criminals who are sizing up your home security. With some models, you’ll receive a sticker that you can display to warn intruders you have an alarm.
Some of the higher-end brands feature a camera or built-in CCTV, so make sure you position these facing towards any vulnerable entry points, including your front and back door, which are the most commonly targeted areas. You should also try to position the camera in a location that is not easily accessible so that the burglar can’t damage or interfere with it.
They can be quite expensive, but it really is worth investing in a quality security alarm system in order to protect your home.
Invest in a Hi-Tech Home Security System
The digital age is bringing with it an age of digital security measures that we can use to keep our homes safe. A number of the modern digital doorbells that are currently on the market feature digital door viewers, for example, allowing the resident to see who’s at the door.
This isn’t just limited to when you’re at home, either, as some systems like Ring can connect to your phone to provide a live stream of the outside of your house and send you an alert if someone rings the doorbell or even just approaches your door while you’re not there.
Conceal Your Valuables
Many thieves operate on an opportunistic basis, meaning they’ll take a chance on a house where they can see that it has the potential for a high reward.
That means things like leaving presents out under the tree overnight or leaving the packaging of expensive items on show in your trash will paint a big target on your front door.
While most homes contain valuables, failing to conceal things like this practically invites opportunist criminals to steal from you by providing a temptation they can’t possibly resist.
For seriously expensive items, it’s worth investing in a professional safe to store your valuables such as heirlooms or grand pieces of jewelry so they’re kept out of sight should someone break into your home. This can also be a good place to hide spare sets of keys, important documents or paperwork, and IDs or passports that could be used for fraud.
Switch to Smart Lighting
Another clever way to keep thieves and potential burglars at bay is to leave lights on when you pop out in the evenings to make it look like someone is still home.
A high percentage of burglaries happen in the winter when thieves can operate for longer under the cover of darkness, as it conceals their presence making it easier to scope out a potential property to hit as well as carry out the actual break-in. It also makes it much easier to see which houses are empty as there’s no light to stand out against the night sky.
Smart lighting means you don’t have to worry about forgetting to leave a light on ever again, as you’ll be able to control it all from wherever you are through an app on your phone. This will also make it more believable that there is actually someone at home, as you can alternate between switching different lights on and turning them off for brief periods of time.
A lot of these systems even come with a convenient “Holiday Mode” setting that mimics your typical lighting habits while you’re away on vacation.
Home Insurance
One of the best ways you can protect your home is to protect it in the event that all of your other preventative measures have failed. Failing to take out home insurance will make the situation of your house being burgled even worse as your losses won’t be covered.
It’s important to take out the right home insurance, which means looking into a bunch of different policies and finding the one that has the most to offer you within your budget.
You will also need to read through the fine print to see if there are any clauses that could void your policy, such as needing to always turn the alarm on when you leave the house or installing locks that are of a certain quality rather than accepting any old cheap set of locks.
Online Home Security
In recent years, online home security has been at more risk than ever, with hackers coming up with new ways to breach peoples’ digital security systems seemingly every week.
The older generations tend to be at higher risk of experiencing online home security issues, but there are a few ways you can protect yourself from falling for these scams.
Fraud
Fraud is becoming even harder to detect thanks to the conniving and inventive ways that digital thieves are trying to coax us into giving them our details. However, there are a few simple practices you can follow which can help you to detect fraud before it happens to you.
Firstly, don’t click on any links from unknown numbers or if the message seems off in any way. If someone phones you and asks you to answer any questions about your personal banking details, end the call and ring your bank right away to alert them.
You should also remember to check your bank account and credit card payments frequently so you can spot any suspicious activity or any purchases that you don’t remember making.
Anti-Virus Software
Laptops and PCs can be some of the most expensive equipment you own, so it’s important to protect these valuables just like you would with the rest of your home.
Antivirus software can prevent hackers from gaining access to your personal files and information, such as credit card details, bank statements, travel, and bookings information, appointments, and home insurance policies with details of your home security system.
Final Thoughts
We’ve covered a lot of the main points about home security, so we hope you’re feeling more confident that you can protect your home against intruders.
In addition to these security essentials, remember to keep doing the simple things like locking your door every time you leave, keeping valuables concealed, and asking a neighbor to keep an eye on the place if you’re going away for the weekend.
Click the links below for any posts you have missed:
High-Quality 3D Interior Visualization
Which Types of Sneeze Guards are Best For You
What Is A Heavy-Duty Entrance Carpet?
3 Reasons to Hire Professional Masonry Companies
I’d love for you to join my email list! You’ll receive a notification straight to your inbox which will include links to my latest home project posts! Simply enter your address below.
Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day/night depending on where you are in the world! Go with God and remember to be kind to one another!
Toodles,
I do agree with all the points mentioned in this article. Investing in a Hi-Tech Home Security System is one of the great ways to protect your home from any kind of burglary, Additionally, security guards also play a major role in preventing crimes. FBY Security Services provides a vast range of security guard services to make all personal, industrial, residential, and commercial environments a safer place. Their dedicated team of security guards possesses the skills needed to provide custom-tailored, comprehensive security solutions to meet every industry’s specific needs.