Home Security Tips Every Homeowner Should Know

Your house is your sanctuary. It's the place where you make fun memories. It is where you spend your evening relaxing after a busy day. Your house is a haven where you and your loved ones feel comfortable and protected. Unfortunately, it might compromise the security you feel if your house had a recent burglary. Home break-ins and burglaries can be more common than you think; and according to reports, around 160 break-ins happen every hour in the US. That is around 3,800 break-ins each day. While this statistic can be frightening,there are a lot of preventative measures you can use to improve the security of your house and protect your family. Using some simple home security tips and tricks, you can improve your home's security, prevent any would-be thieves from breaking in, and protect your belongings. Here are a couple of home security tips every homeowner should know:

Prepare for Power Outages

Keep in mind that criminals attack when they get the chance. They do not rest during a power outage or a storm. Thus, you should be extremely cautious if the weather is bad and your view of your lawn is blocked by fog, snow, or rain. You've got to ensure you lock every door to the outside during power outages in your area. If you've got an electronic gate, you have to be careful during a power outage since it ceases to function. A burglar can easily push the gate without alerting anyone.

Organize a Neighborhood Watch

It could be beneficial to think about forming a committee for neighborhood watch if your neighborhood does not already have one. This committee can be accountable for talking about the things that are happening in the neighborhood. It may also be responsible for creating crime awareness and talking about any suspicious activities. Furthermore, you can join social media pages or online forums dedicated to your neighborhood.

Keep Your Lawn Clean

If you don't want to give a burglar an advantage, you should keep your lawn clean. Most of the time, burglars will gain access to your house via a broken window. Thus, it's ideal that you do not give the thief a tool to do this. After a storm, you should get rid of broken tree branches on your lawn. Make sure your children store their toys away once they're done playing outside. You should not leave a ladder outside on your lawn since a burglar could use it to gain access to a higher window. You should use the same idea for your tools by storing your tools when you're not using them whether they're for the barbeque or gardening.

Disrupt Any Place a Thief Might Hide

You should trim bushes and trees that might provide a thief with a place to hide or unnoticeable access to your windows. Always trim back any plants that are high enough to obstruct your window. Also, you should think about the lighting of your home. Search for areas around your property that are extremely dark and might enable a burglar to access your house hidden under darkness. Think about installing lights in different areas. The ideal option to use is motion detection spotlights.

Light Up Your Lawn

Burglars, vandals, thieves, and other criminals do not like to be in the spotlight. You can keep away these bad people with enough lighting outdoors. Install lights around your back and front yards, near the garage, along pathways, and other outdoor buildings. Aside from making thieves nervous, you will also lower the threat of a trip when you're walking up the front steps. To make your security lights more effective, here are some tips to consider:

Place outdoor lights on a timer.
Use solar-powered lights to save energy.
Use motion-activated lights.
Hide your lighting components using enclosures.

You can also draw safety inspiration from factories that use a CNC robotic arm to avoid the risks of electrocution and put their workers' hands out of harm's way. This acts as a robotic arm that holds the wirings in place of your own hands. You may also wish to bring hand sanitizers with you and use them every time you hold something dirty.

Secure the Doors

It is said that around 34% of break-ins happen at the front door. Thus, you shouldn't allow this one to happen. Check every exterior door to ensure the frames are sturdy enough. Here are several other tips to consider to improve your door's security:

Install a video doorbell to increase security.
Upgrade to smart locks.
Add a strike plate.
Install a deadbolt.

Install a Home Security System

A home security system might not stop a thief from gaining access to your house. However, the alarm might scare them off before they can get anything from you. You can also have an electrical enclosure like the ones from Eabel to store all the electrical switches, breakers, and main controls in a safe place to prevent fire or electrocution. You can check this website to learn more about Eabel's electrical enclosures. In addition to that, security systems also offer you a notification that someone has breached your house and trigger a call to the authorities. This will greatly lower the amount of loss you experience from a break-in. Nowadays, modern systems can even offer you notifications when your children get home from school or if someone left the door unlocked so you can monitor the safety of your family from afar.

Do Not Advertise That You Are Away

You should ask your neighbors to pick up your mail and newspapers if you're on good terms with them. You should also ask if they can clear the snow or mow your lawn when you're away on a long vacation. An overgrown lawn and piles of newspapers in the driveway are noticeable to passersby. You should not leave empty garbage bins on the curb for days. This will let a thief know that nobody is around your property. Also, you shouldn't talk about your travel plans when you're out in a public area. You can never be too careful.

Keeping your home, belongings, and family secure and safe is important if you want to live a happy life in your home-sweet-home. It might seem to take a bit more of your time and money, but that's totally worth it knowing that everyone is in safe hands. And remember that even simple things like this can go a long way in having a safe and secure home. Several simple changes such as the tips we mentioned above can protect you and your property for years to come.