How to Make Your Home Safer
There are any number of simple things you can do to make your home safer, including from the threat of intruders. Here are just a few things you should think about:
Keys: Where do you keep your house or car keys? It may be tempting when you walk through the front door after a hard day’s work to just empty your pockets and throw down your keys on the nearest table or work surface. STOP! Check: Are your keys visible from the letterbox or window? And if so, could a potential intruder reach through with a stick or wire and pluck them out? This may sound implausible, but it has been known to happen! Keep your keys out of sight!
Whilst talking about keys, it’s worth noting that you shouldn’t be tempted to hide a spare set of keys anywhere around the outside of your house (for emergencies, leave a key with a neighbor, friend or relative instead). Hiding places are likely to be fairly limited, and it wouldn’t take someone thinking: If I was hiding keys, where would I put them? long to locate them. If you use a key-hiding place regularly, someone may easily observe you hiding or retrieving the key, or if you purchase a widely available key-hiding device, these may be well known to any potential intruders.
Other valuables: To return to the inside of your home, whilst you shouldn’t keep keys in sight of doors or windows, this rule also applies to other valuable objects, such as phones, laptops, mp3 players or other electronics. Opportunist intruders may be encouraged to take the risk of breaking in to your home if they can see a definite reward! Whilst it may not occur to you, household documents such as utility bills or bank statements are also valuable items to ‘fraudsters and identity thieves’ – keep these in a safe place out of sight!
At the end of each day, after tidying away valuable items, remember to check your doors and windows are locked, your curtains closed, and lights turned off (while you are at it, you can turn off all electrical items at the plugs to save electricity, and reduce the risk of household fires!).