Statistics
have determined that in the U.S a home break-in occurs every 14.4 seconds; that is roughly 2.5 million break-ins each year. This sad fact should provide enough incentive to inspire you to beef-up the security of your home.
Better safe than sorry is the philosophy that every homeowner should live by, especially during the burglary peek time of vacation season – just because your home hasn’t been targeted in the past doesn’t mean that it won’t in the future. Luckily, there are many things that you can do that can help shield your home from being victimized, below are ten excellent suggestions.
10 Ways to Keep your Home Safe from Break-ins:
Install quality home security: Homes equipped with a high-quality security system such as ADT Security are less likely to be broken into than homes without such security. The continuous monitoring, high visible decals, motion detectors and loud alarms will give you the peace of mind to sleep soundly at night.
Reinforced doors: One of the most common methods of forced entry is by breaking open weak doors and locks. Reinforce your doors by replacing with solid core or metal doors and use heavy duty dead bolt locks. Additionally, you should look for doors with wide-angle peepholes and avoid faulty sliding doors.
Illuminate the outside: Burglars often target homes that are poorly lit so that their actions can go unseen at night. You can deter this by illuminating the outside with floodlights and solar-powered pathway lights.
Get to know your neighbors: Neighbors can help break-ins from occurring by watching each other’s home and recording suspicious people lurking around. Your neighbors can agree to pick up your mail and water your lawn when you are vacationing so that burglars do not notice that the home is vacant.
Reinforced windows: Window entry is another common way that break-ins occur, replace your faulty windows with durable reinforced windows with strong glass panels and secondary locks.
Be careful who you invite into your home: You can’t trust everyone, many victims of burglary know the person that victimized them. It can be a “friend” or an acquaintance that you or your family member invite into your home- while inside, the person may scope your home, eyeing your valuables and looking for weak entry points and then they later decide to break in while you are out or sleeping.
Keep your windows and doors locked: Reinforced windows and doors are useless if they are left unlocked. Regardless of how safe you presume your neighborhood to be, make it a habit to lock up tightly.
Don’t advertise: Criminals are looking for homes with valuable items that they can sell. Avoid subconsciously advertising your high dollar items by leaving your doors wide open and curbsiding boxes for laptops, flat-screen TVs, and fancy Rolex watches, instead conceal those boxes by breaking them down.
Get a dog to back you up: The harsh bark of a loyal pooch is one of the best burglar deterrents available. Most dogs will instinctively bark at strange people and noise and that “beware of dog” sign may inspire criminals to think twice.
Educate your kids: Many older children walk home from school and stay home by themselves while the parents are at work which makes them and the home easy targets. Educate your children on the importance of keeping the security system on and on checking peepholes before opening doors and keeping the home locked tightly.
By employing these simple security suggestions above the harsh break in statistics will go gradually do down. And, every homeowner will be rewarded with that priceless peace of mind knowing that their family and possessions are safe from victimization.
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Another cheap trick is to just put one of those home security system signs in your yard even if you don’t actually have the security system. They can be tricky to acquire but if you’re crafty you could just make one yourself. The burglars won’t know the difference ;)
I am now thinking about installing some home security devices on our home. Our neighbor had suggested it since there are many cases of home break-ins in our city. My husband is asking some professionals about security devices for our home so that our family is safe to any harm. Thanks also a lot to this tips here. It helps a lot.
I loved your advice to get to know your neighbors. That isn’t only important when it comes to keeping the right people out. It will also help you develop relationships that could come in handy when someone tries to break in to your home. Your relationship with your neighbors could potentially stop a break in. http://www.stanbondsecurity.com.au/security-doors
I really like these ideas on keeping your home safe! I wish we could have a big scary dog in our house, but my husband isn’t a dog person. I do want to invest in a second deadbolt on our doors though, and some chirp alarms for the windows.
These are a lot of really important tips. Too many people think that break-ins only happen to other people. And one thing I would add is not being afraid to replace locks. A lot of people think it’s too expensive or too much hassle, but break-ins are much more of both. If ever you think the lock on your front door is compromised, don’t even hesitate to replace it.
It’s such an old school trick, but having good lighting around your home really does make a difference! I’m glad you included that in this list. I didn’t think about how I might be advertising things, though, so I’ll have to work on that. Thanks for a great list of tips!
This is just the perfect time I’ve found this blog post. Actually in this holiday season our family has already planned to go for a long vacation and the meantime our home about to locked alone for that period. I think following these 10 ways will make sure our home safety from unaware break ins. Thanks for a worthy contribution.
I’m actually pretty surprised that our new home doesn’t have a peephole on the front door. So we have to open the blinds on the bay window to see who’s at the front door. We keep our doors locked during the day, porch lights on at night, and the windows jammed shut with PVC pipes.
These are some really great tips for anyone looking to keep their home and family safe from intruders. I have always held that a good security door is one of the best ways to prevent break ins. If it takes a burglar more than a few minutes to get in, chances are they’ll give up and move on to an easier target. Thanks so much for writing, I would definitely suggest reading this to anyone who has a home or family.
Thank you for sharing these tips. This is one of my greatest fears and I try to make sure that my family always takes any necessary precautions.
Great tips! It’s one of my top concerns for my home and my family. Make sure you purchase expensive locks like a Schlage or something! It is totally worth the investment and peace of mind. Cheers!
I agree with your tip to supply the exterior of your home with a good illumination. I would also add that I find it helpful to keep the light on in your front room. That way, they’ll be even less likely to break-in because they’ll assume someone may be home.
We recently moved into a new home in a new area. We got a locksmith and changed all the locks on our doors. I agree with keeping your front yard as lit as possible as well.
Wow….a perfect post covered with all the important points of home security. The most important point which I like is to educate your kids. Children are very innocent, so its better to prepare them before such kind of situations occurs.
One more point to keep in mind is Do not advertise your home to burglars on social media sites
Strange as it may seem burglars are turning to social media to scout for potential targets. Some people tend to publish their whereabouts during the holiday season. This lets burglars know when your house is going to be empty.
Really Informative…
These notions on keeping your office and especially your home premises safe and secure are really commendable. II feel there are thousands of ways to protect ourselves, our surroundings, home, family and our loved ones from bigger mishaps.
We just need to be alert and must get a good home security alarm system installed to keep a check, when we our away from home or from our workplace.
Thanks you for sharing these methods.
In order to avoid any break ins on your house, applying these helpful tips is a great thing to do. The best part is that having a dog to back you up on your house is the best thing you must do. Also, having a monitoring system will be good too. To make sure that who ever breaks in through your house, you’ll be able to figure out their identity.
“Better Late Than Sorry?” You’re right! The term that fits perfectly in security purposes. We don’t have to compromise our family’s safety with a one-term procurement of a security device like alarm systems. Our family is the most important we have in this world.
The advice to invest in reinforced windows was really helpful and something I hadn’t thought of doing before. It’s also a good idea to make sure and illuminate the outside of your home like you mention. Do you have any advice on how to hire a good locksmith if you get locked out of your home?
Thanks for this great article. There are a lot of things we can do to boost home security and make our house burglary resistant. These tips can help keep our family safe ..
These are some really great tips about how to keep our home safe. I really liked the tip about keep windows and doors locked. That would be a great thing for me to get because I am always forgetting to close that thing. I am thinking about to install door timer that automatically closes after a preset period of time.
Are important tips, because we must always be vigilant about the safety of our family and our home, and protect it from theft and damage. Thank you for this information
These are really great home safety methods. Protecting your home and your family is so important, so it’s always great to discover different ways to make sure everyone is safe. Nice work! Thanks for sharing!
Great tips! I never tire of letting people know the importance of having a good home security system. Crimes and accidents can happen anywhere and it is always best to be over prepared rather than under prepared. Thanks so much for sharing, I will definitely have to pass this on!
Great
2.5 million home break-ins certainly does suggest the need for some offensive moves. Your “don’t advertise” and lighting statements are valid. Making it appear easy for someone to do something is similar to inviting them to do it.
The break in cases are really increased lot in previous time. It’s always good to be prepare before you got this kind of accident. Home security cameras are really good option to keep security and stay safe from the breakins also.
This is great advice for anyone who is looking to make their home more secure and protect their valuables and loved ones. Making sure your doors are reinforced and always locked when you are not home is such an easy way to keep your stuff protected.
Recently i`ve read a case where a family got robbed because they posted in facebook their future trip.
So, a sidenote and 11th tip: do not trumpet anyone about your trip – you can post your lovely pics when you come home.
And do not forget to connect with you local locksmith (i`ve been calling Toronto locksmith 365 for a while http://locksmithtoronto365.com/ ) to prevent your home from break-in.
I’ve broken my home key but I’m really afraid to make a copy. I need a really trusted locksmith company!!
Can someone recommend me a good one? http://24-locksmith-miami.com/
Great tips! Investing in a security door and good home security can go a long way in protecting your home from break-ins. And I never thought about how acquaintances could scope out your home for valuables. Thanks for sharing!
This is what I do before leaving out my home on a vacation or business trips. For instance, if you’re leaving town for a while, let the police know and request that they drive by your property to check on things. Police can help you stop crime before it happens, rather than just responding to it.
I like the last two point most because this way we can keep our kids safe fro thief. I preferred quality lock for home.
Be aware that if an estate agent puts pictures or videos of your house online, thieves will know exactly what you own, where you keep it, and the exact layout of your rooms.
Great points and thank you for sharing them. Soon I’ll be living on my own and I really need to be more secure and prepare how can I keep my home safe from break-ins or any. Anyways, amazing post!