15 Ways To Protect Your Home While Travelling
It’s time, time to take the trip you’ve been dreaming about and planning for half the year. Your bags are packed and you’re ready to leave. Have you considered what happens to your house while you’re gone? Are you aware that burglars often times will case neighborhoods to look for homes whose occupants are on vacation, or away for an extended amount of time? It would benefit you to ensure you have a trusted alarm company watching over your beloved family home, but they would encourage you to take it a step further; you need to appear as though you are home, even while you’re on vacation. The following is a list of 15 things some commercial alarm companies recommend you do to make it appear that someone is home even when you’re away.
1. Spruce up Your Exterior
Homes who have occupants often times appear clean and orderly on the outside. So it appears people are there you should put extra care into the exterior of your home before you leave. Make sure the grass is cut, shorter than normal, so that as it grows it won’t become overgrown before you return. Leave a porch light on, or something else going that you normally would that can be seen from the exterior of the home.
2. Prep Your Interior
Remember you are going away. You don’t want to return home to funky smells, so throw out anything that would ruin while you’re gone. Make sure that blinds and windows are how they would normally be. Nothing advertises absence like irregularity, so if you normally leave curtains open, leave them open.
3. Put Things On Hold
If you receive mail daily, newspaper subscriptions, or anything that could physically pile up and alert people to your absence, place it on hold. Usually, this can be done with a quick phone call or a trip to the post office. This just prevents things from piling up in the driveway, or mailbox and telling anyone watching that your home is empty.
4. Put Everything Else On Auto
Make sure the sprinklers are timed to come on at normal times, and anything else that normally would automatically turn on, don’t turn it off. The absence of those systems could be a clue to others that your home is temporarily vacant. This is a good time to make sure your alarm company has installed motion detectors and driveway floodlights as a part of your wireless home security system. These types of security measures are automated and will work solely on motion, which could make it appear people are moving around your home, but better it could scare those would be thieves away.
5. Move Your Vehicle
If you have a carport or driveway it may be tempting to leave your car parked there. If a car hasn’t moved in a few days, it will signal people that you are gone. Arrange for your vehicle to be parked elsewhere while you’re away, or have a trusted family member or friend come by and move it a few times.
6. Have Someone Drop In
It may seem odd to have someone come to your home in your absence, but it’s very useful. It makes your home seem like business as normal. While they’re there they can do things like placing your garbage bins on the curb, with trash in them. Again this helps your home look like it’s business as usual. Plus they can turn on your Scentsy or burn some candles for you while they’re there and help keep your home smelling fresh.
7. Leave a Key
Instead of stashing the hide-a-key in a fake rock or under the matt, leave it with a trusted friend. Perhaps the same friend who is willing to drop in. Burglars check hide-a-key spots for spare keys in homes they think are temporarily vacant, so this will prevent them from just waltzing in your front door. Well, this and your home alarm system. You should give the passwords and codes for your system to your trusted friend. This way they can disarm your system when checking on your home, and contact the alarm company should the need arise.
8. Time Your Lights
Your lights can be placed on a timer so that they come on and go off at certain times in the evening. This gives the appearance that people are doing normal life things in your home while you’re away. Consider letting the desert alarm company tie your lights to your wireless home security system. This would allow you to control set them when you’re home as well.
9. Lock Everything
This may seem elementary, but there are points of entry to many homes that people don’t consider. For instance, did you lock your automatic garage door or all of your gates the last time you left your home? Garage doors may seem like they don’t need to be locked, but they are a favorite among thieves as a point of entry into your home. So make sure all points of entry are locked before you leave your home.
10. Unplug
No one wants to come home to get the call from their alarm company that their home is burning while they’re on vacation. Reduce the risk, by unplugging all appliances while you’re away. Anything that you can get to unplug it. It reduces the risk of fire, so it’s a good thing to practice every time you leave your home.
11. Don’t Procrastinate
Trying to book kenneling for your animals at the last minute can be dangerous when you are about to leave. You never know what kind of person is at the other end of the phone, so make sure you’ve done everything that needs scheduling well in advance of your vacation.
12. Reconsider Social Media
Social Media is used by mostly everyone in our current society. Consider the ramifications broadcasting your temporary reprieve has on your home. If your accounts are not set in such a way that only friends can see it; you are broadcasting the vacancy of your home for all to see. In some instances your posts may be shared, further increasing the risk that the burglar down the way now knows your house is empty at the moment.
13. Turn Off Non-Essentials
Water can cause major damage to your home while you’re away. So consider turning off the water going to the hoses in the washing machine and the dishwasher. If this is not possible in your home, make sure you have leak sensors installed in properly coordinated places as a part of your wireless home security system.
14. Prepare for the Worst
Despite every attempt, you make to seem home, sometimes a burglar would’ve stricken whether you were home or not. So just in case make sure all your valuables are stored in a safe. Things that you won’t be taking with you like spare keys, extra small electronics, jewelry, firearms, and other similar valuables should be stored in the safe.
15. Check Your Security System
It is vital to do a check of your whole wireless home security systems before you leave. The desert alarm companies can send a qualified technician out to check all sensors, the keypad, and every component related to your system. You will be gone after all, and this is the first line of defense against anything that may threaten your home while you are away.
Sometimes life happens, and break-ins can’t be avoided altogether. They can be minimized, by following some of the tips above. The most important thing is to plan and check everything before you go away. You can put faith in your wireless home security systems, and those watching over everything you hold dear while you’re away.