The thought that your home might be vulnerable to home invasion is frightening. If you've ever been through a home invasion before, you know that it can leave long-lasting psychological marks. Securing your home, then, is key to maintaining peace of mind.
In order to secure your home and sleep easy at night, the Department of Justice recommends several home security steps:
- Assess your home. Walk around your yard both during the day and night. Look to see whether every entrance can be seen from the street, and whether there are landscaping features that could hide a burglar. Identify places where it's too dark, and consider adding motion-sensitive lighting. Think about what things visible from the outside might tempt a burglar to enter the home, such as expensive furniture or the presence of expensive electronics.
- Use an alarmed lock. Even if you can't afford or don't want to have a full home security system, an alarmed lock can help. This will startle burglars and, in many cases, send them running. The last thing a burglar wants is to draw attention to what they're doing.
- Check window safety. Your windows need to have quality locks. Make sure they're locked when you're not at home and at night. There are a number of safety windows, such as double-hung windows, too. You might consider glass break sensors if you already have a home security system.
- Secure entrances. That means using a home alarm system on your doors and windows. It also means using high-quality deadbolt locks on your doors. Deadbolts aren't impenetrable, but they do take a burglar a lot longer to get into, meaning that they'll have to stand there that much longer and risk being seen.
- Keep tabs on your home when you're not there. That could take the place of a helpful neighbor, or it could take the form of a home security camera system that you can actually view through an app on your smartphone.
Your home security – and your peace of mind – are in your hands. Take some of these steps today and protect yourself and your home.
