With summer swiftly approaching, many will be turning their attentions to finding and booking a well-deserved holiday. Whether you’re jetting off as a family, couple or individual, holidays offer a time to relax and enjoy quality time with those closest to you. Being safe in the knowledge that your property is left secure, and the possessions within protected, will give you ultimate peace of mind to enjoy your break without worries of what’s going on back home.
Unfortunately, most burglaries happen when nobody is home, with the majority taking place between 10.00am and 3.00pm, not at night. Your property needs to be secure the entire time you’re away. In this post, we offer our top tips for ensuring home security while you’re on holiday.
Keep prying eyes at bay
The privacy of your property is of the utmost importance whether you are away from home or not. Our recent article on increasing the privacy of your windows and doors offers a number of tips.
There are several other measures you can take to keep prying eyes at bay. Keep valuables out of sight, and make sure coveted items like laptops, car keys and jewellery are hidden from view.
Make your house look occupied
An empty home is an easy target so make sure your property doesn’t look vacant. Although it adds to the electricity bill, try keeping your lights on. Leaving a vehicle parked outside is a good idea, alongside cancelling any regular deliveries is important. As Protection Plus describes:
“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.”
Good relations with your neighbours come in handy here, whilst nearby family and friends can also help. Let them know you will be away, and even give them a spare key so they can open and close your curtains or take out your bins. Asking a neighbour to park on your driveway is a great tip for making it look like people are passing in and out of your property on a regular basis. Timer switches are another worthwhile investment for creating the illusion that someone is home.
Fine-tune your home security
Not everyone can afford the pricey security systems that provide an essential deterrent. You can however improve your door security to make it more difficult for unwanted intruders looking to gain access to your property. Now couldn’t be a better time to upgrade any old front, back or patio doors that are putting the security of your property at risk.
Here at Unicorn Windows, we provide the highest quality doors with the latest security features so you can lower the likelihood of burglary and enhance the look of your home.