Keeping our homes and families safe means implementing some basic security routines. It’s not a matter of paranoia. Instead, it’s simple common-sense. It’s known that most intruders simply walk in, taking advantage of unlocked doors and a too-casual approach to home security. In general, you won’t need to turn your home into a suburban version of Fort Knox. Use these simple measures to keep intruders at bay.
1. Automate Gates and Garage Doors
It’s an all-too-common scenario. You get out of your car to open your garage door, and while your back’s turned, someone makes off with your car. If miscreants have been watching your home, the time when you get home in the evening is a moment of vulnerability. Look for the best garage door openers you can find to ensure that you don’t have to leave your car until you’re in a safe space.
2. Turn Locking Doors Into a Habit
Unless you live in a very bad neighborhood, thieves aren’t constantly lurking. It’s all-too-easy to become casual about basics like locking doors – until you discover that someone slipped in and grabbed your phone or laptop. It’s a chilling moment. What would have happened if that person were also a rapist or an indescriminate murderer?
Make a habit of locking access doors as soon as you go through them. You’ll soon be doing it without thinking, and it’s much better to cultivate this habit than it is to risk being attacked in your own home by someone who simply entered through an unlocked door.
3. Make Forced Entry a Difficult and Noisy Business
Most criminals want to slip in quietly, do their dirty work without being detected, and go. Make sure that they’ll have to struggle and make a great deal of noise if they want to enter your house. Burglar-proof trellis doors and good burglar proofing on windows are great deterrents. If you don’t like the idea of living behind bars, go for unobtrusive, clear burglar bars – or turn your burglar-proofing into an ornamental feature.
4. Let Your Fur Friends Patrol the Yard
If you love dogs and have enough time to give pets the attention they deserve, your dogs are also a great deterrent. They don’t need to be vicious, in fact, it’s better if they aren’t. All they need to be is noisy when they see something unusual or out of place, and dogs do that without any special training! If they’re larger breeds, they also look as if they might be scary, even when they’re the sweetest animals anyone could hope to meet.
5. Get a Noisy Alarm
If you can afford it, by all means get an alarm system that alerts a security company. If you can’t, just make sure it’s noisy enough to “alarm” anyone who sets it off. After all, intruders don’t know that your alarm hasn’t summoned help, and they will know that your neighbors, and anyone in the house, have been alerted to their presence.
Don’t Wait to be a Victim
Living in fear of crime and constantly looking over your shoulder shouldn’t be necessary for most of us. At the same time, a few simple measures can save you from becoming the victim of criminals. If all of this isn’t necessary most of the time, at least you can know that on the rare occasion when someone attempts entering your space with criminal intent, you won’t be making it easy for them to turn you into a crime victim. Looking to add layers of security over these basics? Fond of gadgets? Check out the latest home security devices.
