Most Common Home Safety Mistakes

Noth­ing could be more impor­tant than pro­tect­ing your home. But are you doing enough? Are you avoid­ing some of the most com­mon home safe­ty mis­takes?

You might be sur­prised to find out that you’re over­look­ing some of the basics of pro­tect­ing your prop­er­ty. In fact, you may be acci­den­tal­ly giv­ing would-be thieves the green light to invade your home.

The fol­low­ing will help you rec­og­nize which home safe­ty mis­takes you can avoid for long-term secu­ri­ty.

Locks, Alarms, and Home Secu­ri­ty

Most homes these days have mul­ti­ple points of entry. Your front door is the most obvi­ous, and you no doubt keep it locked. But your garage, back­yard, and any side entrances could be vul­ner­a­ble.

The most com­mon mis­take in home safe­ty involves for­get­ting to lock any of these doors. Entry­ways that are less fre­quent­ly used should be the most heav­i­ly pro­tect­ed. Before you leave your home, check all entry points quick­ly to ensure they are secure.

If your home has an alarm sys­tem, you must per­form reg­u­lar main­te­nance to ensure it is work­ing prop­er­ly. Make sure to call up your mon­i­tor­ing sta­tion and place your sys­tem on test before you start set­ting off the alarm. Depend­ing on your sys­tem, it’s some­times bet­ter to have a pro­fes­sion­al review of your sys­tem to address any issues that might exist.

While at it, ensure all fire alarms and smoke detec­tors are in work­ing order. These are essen­tial to your home safe­ty all year round.

Announc­ing Vacan­cy

Bur­glars are good at spot­ting an easy tar­get. Any house that indi­cates vacan­cy will be more appeal­ing to intrud­ers. Many home­own­ers turn off all of their lights when they leave. This not only lets oth­ers know that you’re gone, but the dark­ness is a per­fect cov­er for entry.

This is even more impor­tant when you leave for an extend­ed vaca­tion. Use timers for your lights to allow them to turn on at night. This will sug­gest that there’s activ­i­ty inside the home and ward off any intrud­ers.

It’s also a good idea to have a fam­i­ly mem­ber or close friend vis­it your house every few days to keep your house look­ing occu­pied. Land­line phones should be shut off. Intrud­ers who stake out prop­er­ties will take a ring­ing phone as a sign that no one is home.

Pro­tect Your Valu­ables

Your valu­able items should be kept some­where secure. Any fam­i­ly heir­looms, per­son­al doc­u­ments, or jew­ellery should be locked away. Be care­ful not to keep every­thing stored in one place.

This can be dev­as­tat­ing if a bur­glar does man­age to access it and take it all out in one shot. Heavy-duty safes that can be secured to the ground are less like­ly to be tak­en.

If you have mail or news­pa­pers deliv­ered to your home, have some­one come by and pick them up. Not only does a full mail­box let oth­ers know that nobody’s home, but it can also con­tain valu­able per­son­al infor­ma­tion.

Final­ly, if you’re sell­ing per­son­al items on Craigslist or any sim­i­lar web­site, be cau­tious about buy­ers com­ing to your home. Have some­one present with you and meet buy­ers out­side or at a pub­lic place to pre­vent them from becom­ing famil­iar with your prop­er­ty.

These are the most com­mon home safe­ty mis­takes. Avoid­ing them will keep your fam­i­ly and home safe from theft. Keep your home look­ing occu­pied while you’re away and ensure that all valu­ables are stored secure­ly.