Once your bags are packed and you’re ready to leave for a fun Summer vacation, it’s important to make sure that your home will stay secure while you are away. The experts at Golden Locksmith have prepared a list of important tips to follow which will help keep your household secure.
Initial Advice
Make sure that you do everything possible to make it look like there’s activity happening both inside and outside your house. One potential option is to pay in advance for lawn or exterior work to be done on your home while you are away – either through a deposit or long distance automatic payments. Make sure that the company that does so mail you an invoice, rather than taping it to your door – as this gives away the fact that you’re not home.
You can also accomplish this basic decoy technique by installing motion sensor lights inside and outside your home Use a battery operated push light inside the window, and connect indoor and outdoor lights to motions sensors that turn them on automatically when somebody approaches. We don’t recommend leaving lights on 24/7 as not only does it waste energy, it sort of looks suspicious that you’re not home on it’s own. Some burglars are smart and can read a general situation to determine whether you’re home. For further ‘Home Alone’ style techniques, play a recording of speech near your home on a timer periodically. You could even ask a neighbor to park inside your driveway while you’re away, as an empty driveway is a sign of a vacant home.
Neighborly Watchdogs
Ask a trusted friend or neighbor to keep watch over your home to check up on it every now and then. You can offer to pay them or simply take them out for dinner or drinks when you return. Make sure that your mail is also stopped and held by your local post office. You could give a trusted friend or family member spare keys to your home so that they can go in every now and then while you’re away just to make sure that everything is intact inside. We also highly stress the importance of integrating a security system into your home, so that if a window is broken, or even opened while you are away, the authorities will be instantly notified.
Other Tips
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Make sure to unplug major electronic to protect your appliances from potential power surges.
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Make sure not to publicly mention the fact that you’re going away on vacation.
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Make sure to tell your security company that you’re going to be going away.
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Make sure to turn the thermostat to around 80 degrees.
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Make sure to turn down the temperature on your water heater.
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Don’t leave anything valuable out in plain sight – put all valuables inside a safe or safe deposit box.
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Make sure to lock the garage.
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Don’t leave any spare keys outside your home – EVER.