Top 12 Home Security Tips to Help Protect Your Family

All houses are vulnerable to thieves and intruders, which may pose dangers for the family. Keeping the home secure makes members live their lives stress-free and safe. Burglars enter a home every fifteen seconds according to research. They do not only steel properties, but also get every house owner its peace of mind. Here are some home security tips to protect your home from intruders:
1. Always lock the door. Intruders often step in when the doors are unlocked and you may not even notice it.
2. Install a home security system. A security system helps in monitoring burglars.
3. Ensure that all wiring of a security system is concealed. When these are not visible, burglars would not be able to disconnect them when they plan to enter the house. Intruders now are skillful and cut the connections to allow them to enter without noticing.
4. Make your home appear occupied all the time. Install a system that would switch lights or radios on and off to depict that someone is inside the house.
5. Try to intrude your own home. Detect any weak points of your home security system and try to improve security of your home.
6. Change locks every now and then. Previous burglars may have duplicated the keys. If keys are missing, change the locks immediately.
7. Avoid using spring-latch locks. These types of locks are easy to open by just slipping a plastic card against it. This is the easiest locks a professional burglar can open. Instead, use deadbolts.
8. Never leave a house cleaner unattended. Some house cleaner firms do not have reputable personnel. To make sure, contact authorities to check the firm’s reputation.
9. Do not keep spare keys in the mailbox, behind the garage or under doormats. Burglars already know these places where keys are found.
10. Inform an honest and trusted neighbor when going out of town. This ensures that someone will look after your house when you’re away. This also prevents some “alleged” relatives going inside the house and taking things.
11. Ensure adequate lighting outside the house at night. Burglars often do not intrude well lit yards. Also, install infrared detectors and cameras to monitor everyone entering the house.
12. Consider a landscape that would not shield any burglars. Remove trees near windows because these may be a hideout for them.
• Do not let every sales person enter your house. Professional burglars use this tactic to check out houses. Request for a valid credential before letting them in.
• Never list your complete name and details on the telephone book to prevent stalkers from finding you.
• When other people request to use your phone, never let him or her in. Rather, make the phone call yourself.
• Keep a pet dog on the house. Every dog is a good house guard. Even toy dogs create noise by barking when they smell someone other than the members of the family. Intruders usually avoid houses that they can be detected. Also, consider having a trained guard dog outside the house.
• Create a peep hole in all doors. This will allow you to check who is outside even without opening it.
• Ensure that doors do not have enough space in between the frame and the door itself.
• Replace old rotten doors and windows with new ones. Rotten materials are easy to open and destroy.
• Use small panes instead of a large glass area. When the large area is broken, a burglar can fit himself though it. Also, place a glass break alarm system on windows.
• Consider a frosted glass window on the garage. This will prevent burglars from looking into your car.
• Always lock the garage even when the car is not inside. The garage is the most common entry point for burglars inside the house.