The Best Security Tips For Protecting Your Home

By Author: Peter Rich
Total Articles: 4762
Comment this article

There's no place like home, but unfortunately accidents can happen anywhere - including your house. While most of us feel relatively safe in our homes, preparing for the unexpected can make us even safer. The need to feel safer is just as important as the need to be safer. According to a report from the Home Safety Council, fire is the third-leading cause of injury-related deaths in the home. Other injury related deaths, like falls, drowning, and accidental poisoning, are directly related to the age of inhabitants but still alarmingly high. Your home is your refuge and protecting it and the people who live in it is a worthy cause.

In addition to home safety and accident prevention, protecting your home from intrusion or vandalism is another concern. Approximately 97,000 homes are victimized each year and just as with home fires, many could be prevented. Protecting your home from incidents like burglary, vandalism, fire and other accidents is as easy as taking an assessment of your home and making a few simple changes.

When it comes to protecting your home against unwanted intruders, a home alarm system is the ...
... best way to prevent an incident. You may have heard that a sign, such as a security monitoring sign or "beware of dog" sign, or even a fake video surveillance camera may be enough to deter a would-be thief but many crooks have gotten wise to this practice and will call your bluff. An active security system is the most effective way to prevent home invasion. There are still other steps you can take to make your home less of a target.

Start by assessing the access points to your home. Trim away tall bushes or brush by doors and windows that could provide cover for anyone trying to access your home inconspicuously. If you do not have deadbolts on your doors, install them. Also make sure windows are secure with working locks and that screens are not easily removed from the outside. Use locks on gates, especially to privacy fences, that provide access to the backyard. An intruder will always look for the easiest, least conspicuous house to enter. Don't let it be yours.

Home lighting is another area where you can help make your home more secure. Install motion sensor lights outdoors near obvious access points and make sure there is adequate outdoor task lighting to avoid injuries at night. If you plan on leaving your home for a business trip or vacation, set at least two interior lights on timers to come on at different times of the night.

Protecting your home from outside threats is important but most accidents happen inside the home. To protect your home against common household accidents, install working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Replace the batteries in your alarms twice each year. In most cases, home fire fatalities could have been prevented if a working smoke alarm had been present.

If you have a pool or spa, secure the area around it. If you have children in the home, you might consider a pool alarm and cover or an alarm system on the access gate. Accidental drowning is the second-leading cause of death for children and it often happens at home. Take whatever steps are necessary to make sure no child has access to your pool or spa without your permission.

An unprotected home can present many dangers to small children. Make sure you secure all areas of the home that could pose a danger to kids, including medicine cabinets, cleaning supply storage areas, liquor cabinets or bars, knife drawers, and gun cabinets. Remember that kids are curious and often resourceful, so consider installing alarm sensors along with locks if necessary.

As a homeowner, it is essential to protect your home and the people in it against all possible threats. While some statistics are frightening, the reality is that most people are perfectly safe at home. Accidents happen though, and being prepared by taking safety precautions ahead of time could make the difference between a situation that could have been bad and a situation that becomes a tragedy. Home safety measures like deadbolts, smoke alarms and security systems are easy to put in place. These measures can even save you money on your homeowner's insurance in addition to providing extra peace of mind.
About Author:
An Alarm.com system is much more than an alarm. In addition to forwarding any home alarm monitoring to the monitoring center for emergency response, Alarm.com lets you remotely monitor non-alarm activity at the property around the clock, even when the system is disarmed. Fully customizable settings ensure you get exactly the information you want, only when you want it.