Happy New Year! As we greet 2019, it’s not uncommon to start making resolutions on slimming down, hitting the gym, quitting smoking, making more money—the list goes on. Of course, the problem with New Year’s resolutions is that they are seldom followed through after a few attempts to make real change. However, one area where the effects are immediate and can give peace of mind with minimal effort is home security. In this article, we’ll cover how to make home security better this year!
Why Home Security as a Resolution?
The installation of better home security measures has a number of benefits. These include:
- crime deterrent: Many would-be criminals are wary to deal with a well-defended home. This is because there’s a high likelihood that your home is prepared and could mean guaranteed prison time.
- protection for your family and assets: As the most valuable things in your life, home security allows you to ensure that they are protected from home invaders and other criminals with an intent to cause harm. While your assets are replaceable, properly-installed home security measures can avoid the heartache and stress of losing prized possessions.
- peace of mind: Emotionally, home security
- ease of implementation: The best part of installing a home security measure is that it is usually a one-time solution, rather than hitting the gym several times a week. This means that even if you are prone to forgetting what you said you were going to do in January, at least you know that an installed door barricade (such as the Nightlock® door barricade) is in place long after you’ve moved on to another concern.
Ways to Implement Home Security Measures
Home security is a fairly broad topic, so it makes sense appraise your home accordingly. First, evaluate weak spots of your home where you could reasonably guess that criminals would target first. Chances are that if you can see it, they can see it. For starters, let’s look at some common ways to add home security measures to your home this year:
- Well-crafted doors are the best defense against home intrusion, which happens an estimated 3.7 million times a year. Nearly every door that faces the outside should have deadbolt locks and not simple push-button ones, which can be bypassed with the clever use of a credit card. The door itself should be made of solid wood or steel, not hollow wood doors (which are meant for interior doors, like bathrooms and bedrooms). Make sure that the door has no glass windows that are within arm’s length–criminals can break the glass and disable your lock easily. And when installing the door to the door frame, the hinges should face inward and not outside, as criminals can dismantle it by knocking out the pin. Last for the ultimate protection for your home, installing Nightlock® doors barricades can also save your home from intruders, particularly if they are actively trying to get into your home while you’re inside or you want to bolster the strength of the lock to industry standards.
- Appearances are an important deterrent to would-be thieves and home intruders. This includes not leaving valuable assets in plain sight (ex. parking your motorcycle in front of the house instead of the garage) but can also be extended to making sure that regular maintenance is performed, indicating that your home isn’t left vacant. Also, don’t leave shrubs and bushes so overgrown that criminals can hide in them—if a person could hide in them, then you may need to grab your sheers to reduce the coverage. Last, make sure that your mailbox isn’t overstuffed and packages are taken inside immediately.
- Lighting is an incredible home security measure that works very well as a deterrent. After all, committing crimes in plain-sight is often the last thing a criminal wants to do. Motion-detection lights can be effective to thwart criminals that try to use unlit areas as a way of surveilling your property for weak spots, only to be caught red-handed while they snoop. You should look to install lighting around every part of your home, even if you don’t regularly use them at night. This may include backyards or the sides of your home—perfect places for criminals to start their entrance into your property.
- Windows are particularly susceptible to criminal trespass. First, ensure that every window in your house has a lock—and remains locked unless there’s a definite reason not to. Next, you may want to install window sensors, which will sound off when a window is unnaturally opened (broken, forced, jimmied, etc.). When you’re going on vacation, you can use window locks or sized pieces of wood that impede movement from the outside.
- Installing surveillance systems is one of the best ways to boost your home security this year. While they may not offer much in physical protection, cameras can ward off would-be thieves and document their activity, even if it’s just criminal trespass. With the vast availability of IoT-based solutions, you can monitor your home at all hours from the convenience of your smart phone. When installing cameras, you will want to make sure that they are pointed around every available edge of your home and you don’t neglect any blind spots. Last, if a full-fledged camera system is too expensive, you can use “pretend” cameras that are much lower in price and can still do a decent job of discouraging intruders.
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