6 tips for enhancing home security during the holiday season
The holiday season is a time for celebration and joy, but – unfortunately – it’s also a time when burglaries and home break-ins tend to rise! With all the festive shopping, traveling, and entertaining that goes on during December and January, it’s easy to let your guard down and leave your home vulnerable to intruders.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to enhance your home security. Follow these six tips and keep your loved ones safe during the festivities and into the new year:
The holiday season is a time for celebration and joy, but – unfortunately – it’s also a time when burglaries and home break-ins tend to rise! With all the festive shopping, traveling, and entertaining that goes on during December and January, it’s easy to let your guard down and leave your home vulnerable to intruders.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to enhance your home security. Follow these six tips and keep your loved ones safe during the festivities and into the new year:
Be security-smart
Use a smart home security system. This will certainly provide an extra, intelligent layer of protection for your home. The Monitoreal system connects with new or existing security cameras, and detects the objects they see. Users receive real-time customisable alerts when people, cars, animals and objects move around the property perimeter, allowing homeowners to take preventative action if activity is suspicious.
Let there be light
Keep your home well-lit. As simple as it sounds, burglars are less likely to target a home that is lit from both the inside and across the perimeter, as this makes it much easier for neighbors and passersby to notice suspicious activity. Make sure to keep your exterior lights on at night and consider connecting smart lights around your property to your security system.
Connect your devices
Integrate smart accessories with your security system. Monitoreal, for example, connects with your smart electronics and triggers various accessories (alarms, speakers, gates, sirens, strobes and more) at different times of the day or night based on specific detections, giving the appearance that someone is home. This can prevent a break-in attempt before it even happens. As the old adage goes – prevention is better than cure!
Lock up tight
Secure your doors and windows. Make sure they’re properly locked whenever you’re preoccupied inside your home and potentially out of earshot of the front door, or are out of the house (even if you’re just taking a walk around the block). Consider installing deadbolts on exterior doors, and adding window locks to your windows.
Think before you post
This one goes for homeowners and their children alike: don’t advertise your absence from the property. If you’re going to be away, even for a few days, avoid letting people know that your place will be unoccupied. This means no posting your vacation plans on social media! Consider asking a trusted neighbor to keep an eye on the home while you are away – and collect any promotional flyers sticking out of your mailbox or piling up on your doorstep, often a dead giveaway that homeowners are out of town.
Hide the jewels
Keep your valuable items out of sight. Burglars often target homes that have jewelry, electronics, cash, credit cards, and designer items lying around and plainly visible from the property’s windows. Put your high-value items away, close the drapes, and if you’re going out of town for a while, consider investing in a safe to keep them extra secure.
By following these simple tips, you can enhance your home security and protect your loved ones during the holiday season.
Stay safe and enjoy the festivities!