6 Tips To Keep Your Home Secure
Home security can get you paranoid especially after watching one of those chilling infomercials about rising crime rates and burglaries. A quick search about it on the web will have you staring at dozens of DIY tips to make the home more secure: But we do understand that you’re not an expert at these types of things, so you won’t be required to dig a moat around your perimeter wall or install missiles on your rooftops to blow the bad guys out Hell.
As a matter of fact, the guy who lives in a shanty and is overzealous about security suggests to the curious mind that he’s hiding something valuable inside. The following are proven, practical tips to help keep your house burglar-resistant, provided by our friends over at www.parkerlocksmith.org.
#Tip 1: Appearances matter
The answer to the question how can I make my house more secure? People don’t realize it but the image your house presents to the public says a lot about the people living in there. What that means is don’t leave the front open when the sound system’s blaring and your Bentley is parked out-front. That might just give some people ideas. Here’s what you can do:
- Secure the air conditioners if they are installed in-window.
- Have a guy replace the doors in your house that have glass near the doorknob. (Have you seen that episode of This Old House where they install an elegant glass door in a torn down part of Boston? That’d be crazy simple, like smash and twist.)
- A large dog door can easily fit a motivated thief: secure it soon if possible.
- Also generally, try not to look like a dumb target.
#Tip 2: (At night) Exaggerate the lighting on your compound
The idea here is to make it threateningly difficult for an intruder to hide behind a shrub on your front door. While you’re on that remember to trim wild plantations around your house so they don’t cast all manner of shadows.- Shrubs should be kept low around windows and doors, and privacy fences should be neat too.
- Be strategic about where you put valuable items so that you can keep an eye on things.
#Tip 3: Smash-proof the windows
- There are a few good window break systems out there (The Mace 80202 for instance), and they cost peanuts. It’s a way enhance and diversify your current alarm system.
#Tip 4: Get a guard dog
If you can find a bulldog that gets annoyed easily and is particularly distrustful of strangers and barks a lot. Even a tiny, yappy Corgi can be more of a deterrent than you think.
#Tip 5: Turn stuff on, (remotely, randomly)
- Even old gals who don’t know much about fancy security systems can get this done- just hire a contractor to install a system that you can access from your phone. You can get creative here and set the lights to go on or off at specific or random times during the night so your neighbors think you are a raging insomniac.
#Tip 6: Post a sticker on your front door from a respectable security company, or use two, or three generic stickers from different companies to confuse people.
- If you can put a picture or other artifact in your compound that gives the impression of a very informed and paranoid home owner, it might dispel curious passersby. Remember most intruders only want to grab the first valuable item they can and promptly exit your compound. When you think along that line you will find a way to make it challenging for them.
- Or, alternatively you can buy a $5 imitation of a laptop at the flea market and leave it in the entrance hall. You probably won’t notice the intruder coming in or walking out with it.