8 Winter Home Security Tips Everyone Should Follow

Our homes are our safe havens in which we keep our fam­i­lies, belong­ings, mem­o­ries, and valu­ables. With this in mind, it is of the utmost impor­tance to pro­tect our homes from break-ins or bur­glar­ies. The win­ter months can put our homes at risk for these inci­dents due to the short­er, dark­er days of the sea­son or hol­i­day trav­el. To ensure the secu­ri­ty of your home, pay atten­tion to the fol­low­ing 8 win­ter home secu­ri­ty tips to keep in mind this year:

1. Have vis­i­ble secu­ri­ty mea­sures- Install an alarm sys­tem and con­sid­er a secu­ri­ty cam­era sys­tem such as CCTV.
2. Lock up- It may sound sim­ple enough but sur­pris­ing­ly, some peo­ple for­get to lock up when they leave the house. Make sure to check that all of your win­dows and doors are locked every time that you leave your home.
3. Speak­ing of locks, invest in a good one- Make sure that your doors are pro­tect­ed with a sol­id, dead­bolt type lock. You want to make sure that you have a lock that is pick-resis­tant to a crim­i­nal and dif­fi­cult to repli­cate.
4. Give the illu­sion that you are home- Use timed lights that you can pro­gram to auto­mat­i­cal­ly turn on and off. This can give the illu­sion that some­one is home if you are trav­el­ing or are just out for the night. Also, be sure that you keep your dri­ve­way and/or walk­way clear. This makes it look like you are at home so even if you aren’t, hire some­one to do this chore for you.
5. Inspect your out­door secu­ri­ty mea­sures- Check-up on your motion sen­sors or out­door light­ing to ensure prop­er func­tion­ing.
6. Have bright­ly lit entrance­ways- Any access points that a crim­i­nal may have to your home should be well lit as this could aid in dis­cour­ag­ing a break-in.
7. Secure any out­door belong­ings- Items that you may typ­i­cal­ly keep out­side should be kept locked up or out of view. Some items may include your sum­mer patio fur­ni­ture, sports equip­ment, or lawn and gar­den­ing equip­ment.
8. Inspect your win­dows- If your win­dows are old­er, they may track mois­ture and freeze in the win­ter which makes them not func­tion or close prop­er­ly. This can give a crim­i­nal an easy access point. Con­sid­er replac­ing old­er win­dows this win­ter. You might want to con­sid­er remov­able secu­ri­ty win­dow bars for your base­ment win­dows and even secu­ri­ty win­dow film for your patio doors and oth­er vul­ner­a­ble glassed areas.

Safe­ty and secu­ri­ty are impor­tant for any sea­son but espe­cial­ly for the win­ter months. By fol­low­ing the above tips for win­ter home secu­ri­ty, you can rest assured this sea­son and pro­tect your home and fam­i­ly.