By the time you will be reading this, I shall be travelling overseas and seeing the Cambodian sights. It’s a trip we’ve been planning for a long time – I absolutely adore Asia and can’t wait to experience another beautiful country over that side of the world. But leaving our home and all our worldly possessions for a long period of time can be quite daunting. We’ve been very fortunate that (touch wood!) we’ve never experienced a burglary, but that definitely doesn’t make us any less worried about the security of our home. After all, it’s taken years to build up our home, both in renovating it and just in the things we own.
Here’s a few things we do to keep our home secure whilst we’re away, as well as some ideas we’d also like to incorporate in the future too!
1. Tell Your Neighbours
Asking your neighbours to keep an eye on the house is the best way to ensure no suspicious activity goes un-noticed. It can be all too easy for neighbours to turn a blind eye to weird goings-on, thinking perhaps someone dodgy lurking around the house is just someone you know. You could also ask your neighbour to put the bins out on bin-day to make it seem like someone is home and ask them if they mind keeping the lawn cut during summer too. One thing we realised after our trip to Thailand last year was that a sudden overgrown lawn was a really obvious clue that nobody was home.
2. Upgrade Locks
Certain locks on doors are not very good at all, namely older wooden doors with standard locks. Add additional locks for extra security on older wooden doors, or if you have the space, you could even add a secondary door, (as we have) which will be sure to come at an unpleasant surprise to any intruder. Multi-locking mechanisms are the most secure types of locks, usually found on uPVC doors – so it may be worth looking into having a whole new door altogether. It’s not the cheapest option, but it will be the most secure. We’ve recently had a new french door fitted to add some security to the back of our home, you can see the new door and read about its installation here.
3. Add Security Lights
Supposedly, one of the biggest things to deter burglars is security lights. No one wants to be lit up like a Christmas tree during their break-in hour, so making sure you have sensor-operating security light is a great way to deter burgulars from entering your premises. We have a high-quality solar security light (this one) in the back garden (review coming soon) which should help with this one. It’s solar powered, so no need to worry about power cuts, but it even works during winter too!
4. CCTV
Adding CCTV to your home is becoming increasingly popular and it’s pretty obvious why! It’s a really obvious deterrent, as no burglar wants their image captured and shared throughout police stations in the country! But should anything ever happen to your home, you have the evidence to help convict a criminal and stop this kind of crime happening again. CCTV cameras like these smart IP cameras from Umix have a static IP which comes with a hosted package to store footage and data via the cloud. This also means you can view, access and control the camera and its data anywhere in the world, it will always be connected and nothing will get lost. It’ll even alert you via phone during detected activity and you can be sure your data is safe and secure, all managed for you. There are different sized cameras and packages, dependant on usage but we’d opt for something like this camera for personal usage. For the more tech savvy, you can of course, buy the camera without hosting and manage everything yourself too.
5. Store Garden Items Indoors
Burglaries don’t just happen inside the home – outdoor burglaries happen to! Make sure you store any expensive garden furniture and bikes indoors or in a locked shed whilst away. Some home insurances wont cover objects in the garden, so it’s definitely not worth the risk leaving outdoors if you know you’re not covered. It’s also really important to make sure you don’t leave any ladders outdoors either which could help assist any burgular in their objectives.
6. Use Timers
Timers are quite an old-fashioned method of keeping your home secure, but they’re a really cheap way to simulate the appearance of someone being home. In the past, timers would only come on at the same time every day and over time anyone watching your house would easily cotton on – but nowadays timers are vastly improved! Many have different settings for every day of the week, (like this one) so you’ll be sure to confuse anyone who might be keeping an eye on the house. They can be used on almost any electronic, from lights the TV!
7. Fit a Burgular Alarm
New technology burglar alarms aren’t all about sending off sirens when activity is detected indoors, nowadays they’re much smarter and can send you instant notifications right to your phone, giving you the option to quickly call a neighbour to check in and you can even de-activate the alarm away from home. This kind of system would work really well paired together with CCTV. It allows you to maintain some control over your house whilst being miles away. And of course gives you that peace of mind too. Yale have a whole variety of different alarm sets, some even incorporate a smoke detector too!
Do you have any extra tips for keeping your home secure whilst you’re away?
*Collaborative Post
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