7 Easy Ways to Protect Your Home While You are Travelling

So you have all your stuff and vacation essentials packed. You also booked your rental car and arranged with a neighbor to water your plants or feed your pets.

But as you prepare for that long-awaited trip, you still need to take the necessary precautions to secure your house while you are on vacation.

Here are seven practical ways to ensure that your house is safe and secured while you are gone:

1. Set the timers

To secure your home, you need to ensure that it looks like someone is home. You can set the timer on lights, radios, and TVs. That way, they’ll turn on automatically at different times during the morning and the evening.

At Maid Sailors Cleaning Services NYC, we recommend checking that the house is in order. This includes a freshly mowed lawn and having someone park their car in your empty parking lot. Position blinds and curtains as usual, and they don’t expose expensive appliances or home furnishings.

You can also ask a trusted neighbor to collect your mail or request to stop your newspaper delivery.

2. Pause all deliveries

A mailbox that’s fully stuffed and newspapers on the driveway are also dead giveaways that no one is home.

If you don’t have someone available to stop by at your home to bring in the mail, make sure that you contact the nearby post office. Ask them that you want to hold all your deliveries while you are away.

Also, while you can put a hold on newspapers and mail, you can’t predict when someone leaves random flyers or drops your Amazon orders on your front door.

You can ask a trustworthy person to stop by at least a day or two. This helps you avoid unexpected deliveries being left out. Make sure that you compensate them for helping you!

3. Lock all entryways

This one is a no-brainer. Please make sure that you lock all your doors before you go on a vacation. You should also secure other openings, like mail slots and pet doors. This will prevent burglars from using tools to reach in and unlock your door.

If your garage has an automatic door, you might want to disconnect the electronic opener. Place a padlock on the garage door track instead.

4. Be careful on social media

It might be tempting to share photos and other details of your vacation on social media. So, while you’re making your friends jealous with that exotic vacation you’re on, you might also reveal to prospective thieves that you aren’t home.

To keep the burglar away, avoid publicly sharing the details of your trip up until you return. If you can’t resist posting, you can remove the geotags on your social media posts or turn off your phone’s geotagging feature.

Also, see to it that your sharing settings switch to private or “Friends Only.”

5. Check the weather

As you’re checking the weather forecast for your vacation destination, make sure that you also check the forecast where you live.

If there’s a storm coming, then see to it that you clean the gutters. That way, your basement won’t be flooded while you’re away. If it usually floods up when the weather is terrible, test your sump pump. Don’t leave until you’re convinced that everything works well.

To avoid power surges and electrical fires, make sure that you unplug all your appliances that are non-timed. Think of your lamps, TVs, coffee makers, and so on.

Also, see to it that your smoke alarms are all working. It will also help if you have a fire extinguisher in case a blaze needs to be extinguished.

Since disasters can strike anytime, even in the most prepared household, consider getting homeowners or renters insurance.

6. Have a home monitoring system

Fortunately, there are now plenty of home security options available in the market.

There are home security systems that let you view live videos remotely using your phone. This allows you to see what’s happening in real-time while you’re away.

Having this small investment is definitely worth your peace of mind.

7. Place your valuables in a safe

Any average thief knows that the bedroom is the first thing that they need to check for valuables. So, make sure that you get a small safe to keep your valuables safe and secure.

If you have a limited budget, consider placing your valuables in unusual places like the kitchen pantry or the bathroom closet. You can also keep your small valuables in an unassuming container.

Over to You

The last thing you want to happen is to return from a vacation, only to see that someone breaks into your house.

Encountering problems like these can cause hundreds of dollars to fix and cause you a lot of stress. Fortunately, the home security tips listed above can help you prevent this misfortune from happening.

They are also excellent ways to secure your home while you are on vacation.