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Make Your Home Safe and Secure When Leaving on a Trip

If you’re going on vacation, you have to make sure that your home is safe and secure if you’re not around. You didn’t shop barn door hardware kits just to have your home ransacked. This article covers some tips on making your home safe and secure when you’re on vacation.

Steps to Take to Make Your Home Safe and Secure

  1. When you head on your vacation, use good locks to secure access to the back door. The hardware kits will stop crooks from breaking into your back door, which is the most common way to break into a home. Sliding barn doors can even have locks. The kits include locks mortised into your door frame and a knob used in place of the existing handle. This way, when the door is closed, it can’t be opened from the outside. The only way to open it from the outside is to use a particular key, usually attached to your ring.
  2. Install motion sensor lights outdoors to ensure people don’t break into your home at night while you’re gone. These lights will shut off when there is no movement for a set period.
  3. Secure your windows to ensure thieves don’t break in through the window. Make sure that the window is locked, it’s not broken, and there are no scratches on it. Someone who has already broken into your home might consider smashing the window. Also, make sure to have curtains that close via cords so if someone is inside your home and you see lights or people moving around or hear noises, you can complete your windows quickly and block out the light.
  4. Secure your doors to make sure that the door is locked, it won’t be opened from the outside, and there are no scratches on it. If someone has already broken into your home, they might consider breaking the glass or cutting through the door. Make sure that you use deadbolts to lock all of your entries. A deadbolt keeps the door closed while preventing anyone from opening it without a key.
  5. Install a natural alarm system to ensure you hear an alert and receive a call if someone breaks into your home while you’re away. A natural alarm system will signal the monitoring company if someone breaks through your home’s perimeter. The monitoring company will contact you, the homeowner, and ask for your security code to determine whether or not it’s a false alarm. This way, you can be alerted immediately if someone is trying to break into your home. Alarm systems are also great at keeping criminals from coming back once they have been locked out by the monitoring company after triggering the alarm system, keeping you and your possessions safe in the future.
  6. Store valuables in a safe to ensure thieves can’t get to anything they think would be valuable, like jewelry or electronics. Most burglars have a target in mind when they break into a home. If they know that there are valuables inside, they will take the time to break in and be out of your home in record time. They might even return later if they need help finding something of value.
  7. Use timers on lamps and lights to ensure that people don’t break into your home at night while you’re gone. These lights will turn off when there is no movement for a set period and then come back on when the timer is up again.
  8. Use a doormat to ensure no one can come through your door when you’re away. The doormat makes it impossible to get your shoes off at the entrance to your home without removing the mat and is often used in conjunction with the locks discussed above. Make sure you change the regular doormat with a special one, which prevents anyone from crawling through your door from the outside but doesn’t allow anyone inside from the outside.
  9. Lock your doors when you’re gone to ensure that anyone who might have gotten in previously can’t open your door from the outside. Make sure to lock all of your doors when you leave and don’t give any copies of keys to anyone. The only way for someone to enter is if you, the homeowner, are there with them or if they enter a door that isn’t locked.

If you follow this list of steps, your home will be much safer and more secure when you are on vacation. Remember to lock your windows, set the alarm to on, etc., and ensure that your stuff is stored safely. Leaving on a vacation is a fun time. You don’t want to worry about your home while you are away.