7 Tips For Making Your Home Look Occupied

Mak­ing your house look occu­pied is one of the most effec­tive ways to keep thieves and bur­glars away. These pet­ty crim­i­nals are always on the look­out for an easy prey and hav­ing to deal with who knows how many peo­ple in the house is a huge deter­rent for them. They just want to grab your stuff and run as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

The best way to make your home look lived in when you’re not there, is to leave it look­ing as close to the way it always is when you’re in it!

1. 1. Keep Your Lights ON

Although it may add a bit to your util­i­ty bill, leav­ing the lights on inside and out­side when you leave the house is one of the surest ways to avoid a break-in. If you are going away for an extend­ed time, con­nect some lamps in var­i­ous rooms vis­i­ble from the street and the back­yard to auto­mat­ic timers to turn them on in the evening and off dur­ing the day.

1. 1. Can­cel Or Arrange For Pick Up of Any Deliv­er­ies

Few things speak loud­er “nobody is home” than piles of news­pa­pers on the porch and an over­stuffed mail­box. Arrange with a friend —or ide­al­ly a neighbour—to pick up your dai­ly mail. You may also be able to get the Post Office to hold your mail, and your news­pa­per pub­lish­er to sus­pend their deliv­ery ser­vice for the length of time you will be away.

1. 1. Keep A Vehi­cle In The Dri­ve­way

It’s always a good idea to have a car parked in the dri­ve­way – this makes a thief reluc­tant to risk break­ing into your home because some­one just might be inside and call the police. If you are leav­ing for an extend­ed vaca­tion and you’re using your car, ask one of your next-door neigh­bours if they wouldn’t mind park­ing in your dri­ve­way for the few days you will be gone.

1. 1. Keep Your Lawn Well Main­tained

Over­grown lawn sug­gests the home­own­ers are either lax about their curb appeal (in which case this sug­gests that they might be care­less about oth­er things as well, such as secu­ri­ty), or away, but most like­ly the lat­ter. Arrange for your lawn to be tak­en care of while you’re away.

1. 1. Have Your Dri­ve­way Cleared Of Snow

A smooth lay­er of snow on the dri­ve­way is a sure tell­tale sign that nobody’s been going in or out of the house. Ask your neigh­bour or friend to come and snow plow your dri­ve­way while you’re away.

1. 1. Gen­er­ate “Lived-In” Nois­es

If you’re just going out for a few hours, you can leave the tele­vi­sion or radio on to make it sound like the fam­i­ly has set­tled in for the night. For an extend­ed absence, the same kind of timers you use on lights can also be used to turn a radios or TV on and off. There are also dog bark­ing CDs avail­able that can be pro­grammed to go off at cer­tain times.

1. 1. Main­tain The Same Dai­ly Pat­tern

Bur­glars often observe a house for a while to get a feel for the res­i­dents’ com­ings and goings and dai­ly pat­terns. Try to main­tain the same pat­tern for the time when you’ll be away. For instance, have your drapes and cur­tains raised and low­ered at the same time (you can use an auto­mat­ic timer or ask your next-door neigh­bour). Leave your fur­nace on so the fur­nace smoke stack forms at the usu­al time. Ask your neigh­bour to leave some of their recy­cle bins and garbage at your curb on the col­lec­tion day. And even such small details as a cup of cof­fee left on the porch or an old toy (meant to be thrown out any­ways) left in the front yard will say to the bur­glars that this house is occu­pied.