Home Security Hacks – A lot of people have this false notion that upgrading their home. Making it smarter, prettier or safer – means having to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars. However, in reality, there are many ways you can improve your home without breaking the bank. Here are some practical home security hacks you can do in 2020:
Home Security Tips : Empty Your Mailbox
An overflowing mailbox is a sign of an empty house. Moreover, when a home seems empty, it becomes more enticing to thieves and burglars. Therefore, you should make it a habit to empty your mailbox and clear your porch of fliers and door hangers, at least every week. If you are away for a long time and won’t be able to do it yourself, ask a friend or a neighbor to do it for you.
When disposing your mail, Family Handy Man advises shredding any paper that has sensitive information on such as credit card offers and statements. Better yet, sign up for electronic statements to reduce the chances of your information being compromised.
Landscape Entry Points
As much as possible, you want your lawn looking well maintained. This means ensuring that there are no overgrown bushes, vines, trees or other things that can provide burglars a place to hide. Regularly trimming and cutting shrubs, trees, and other foliage, especially around entry points (like your windows, doors and garage), can help increase the safety of your home without costing you an arm and a leg.
Most burglars choosing their target house based on how quickly they can get in and out. Therefore, an article on ‘Improving Your Security‘ suggests creating obstacles such as hedges that are high enough to slow burglars down but low enough for you and your neighbors to notice any unusual activity.
Check for Water Leaks
Maintaining your home goes beyond just ensuring that burglars and thieves don’t get in; it also means making sure that your house is not a safety hazard. Whether you are renting or living in your own home, there is always the possibility of hearing that annoying sound of dripping water in the bathroom. It could also happen in your basement – which could lead to a number of potential accidents.
A feature on detecting water leaks by HomeServe suggests a number of hacks ranging from checking for any sudden increase in water usage and taking notice of much drops in water pressure, to even checking your boiler.
Related : Smart Water Sensor Tools
Get to Know Your Neighbors (Cheapest Home Security)
When it comes to home security hacks, getting to know your neighbors is always a good idea. When you’ve built a meaningful bond with them, more often than not, they’ll be willing to keep an eye on your house whenever you need to be away for extended periods of time. Another inexpensive way to make your home and your neighborhood safer as a whole is by joining the local neighborhood watch. In fact,
Best Life even recommends instituting one if your community doesn’t have one. This way, you can encourage everyone to take on a more active role in preventing neighborhood crime. And, at the same time, build a more meaningful relationship with everyone in your community.
Related: Home Warranty - How it works
Keep Your Travel Plans to Yourself
A straightforward way to ‘Keep Your Home Safe From Burglars‘ is by keeping your travels and vacation plans to yourself. Roughly a third of us mention our holiday plans on various social media platforms. Even, around 40% us tag our location in our photos. This sends a clear message to burglars who have been eyeing your home for a long time that your house is, in fact, empty.
Oversharing, in some cases, can also invalidate your home insurance policy. In addition, insurers expect you to take ‘reasonable care’ when it comes to your home’s security. Keep your posts to a minimum or better yet, post them after you’ve had your well-deserved vacation.
Best Home Security Ideas : Secure Your Doors and Windows
Although intruders prefer unlocked doors and windows, a lot of them can swiftly and silently pry entry points open even if you remembered to lock them. Hence, it pays to check the sturdiness of your locks regularly. Also immediately replace any that look like they can be compromised.
You can even use smart locks that notify you whenever your door is opened. You can use video doorbells that send you alerts whenever someone approaches your house in real-time. Moreover, the advances in technology have made these products much more affordable than they used to be.
To keep your home secure, a feature by the Washington Post advises going as far as to replace weak doors. Replace the doors with solid core doors and tweaking windows in such a way that they are more resistant to prying attacks. You can also coat your windows with security film that makes it really hard to break the glass. They also make it harder for burglars to enter your house by brute force.
Conclusion
Our homes are precious spaces where we relax and rest after a day hard at work. Spend valuable moments with our families and get much-needed comfort. It only makes sense that we would want it to be as secure and safe as possible. And, fortunately, there are affordable ways to do this. Home improvements have a variety of purposes; so if you’re thinking of making the most out of your home, consider adding something functional like a home gym. For some ideas on how to do this in a budget-friendly way, check out our post on ‘Home Gym Ideas’.