Vacation Checklist: 7 Tips for Home Security

Are you going away for sum­mer vaca­tion? Don’t leave your home unpro­tect­ed! Bur­glars are look­ing for vacant homes, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the sum­mer when fam­i­lies trav­el. Your home could become a tar­get if you don’t take the right steps before retir­ing. Use this sim­ple vaca­tion check­list to strength­en your home secu­ri­ty and deter bur­glars away from your prop­er­ty.

1. Don’t let mail or packages pile up.

A pile of uncol­lect­ed mail or pack­ages indi­cates nobody has been home for a while. That’s exact­ly what bur­glars want to see! Before you leave, have your mail paused or redi­rect­ed, and con­sid­er can­celling the deliv­ery of any pack­ages. Alter­na­tive­ly, ask a friend or neigh­bour to col­lect every­thing while you’re gone.

2. Let a neighbour know you’ll be gone.

Even if you don’t need your mail col­lect­ed, inform­ing at least one trust­ed neigh­bour that you’ll be gone is a good idea. So if they see any activ­i­ty on your prop­er­ty, they’ll know it’s sus­pi­cious. Let the neigh­bour know what dates you’re leav­ing and return­ing, and pro­vide a phone num­ber where you can be reached.

3. Keep your lawn mowed.

An unkempt yard is anoth­er sign to bur­glars that the home is prob­a­bly vacant. Have some­one mow the grass for you while you’re gone. And if you’ll be gone for an extend­ed peri­od, ensure any shrub­bery is main­tained as well.

4. Use timers or smart lights.

Sched­ule some lights to acti­vate auto­mat­i­cal­ly so the home doesn’t appear dark and vacant. This can be done with inex­pen­sive timers or Inter­net-con­nect­ed smart lights/bulbs. If a would-be bur­glar sees that a light is on, they’ll be like­li­er to skip your house and look for a com­plete­ly dark one.

5. Close and lock all doors and windows.

This tip may seem obvi­ous, but you’d be sur­prised how many fam­i­lies acci­den­tal­ly leave a win­dow open or a back door unlocked on vaca­tion. Before you go, take the time to check every entry point and win­dow to ensure they are secure­ly closed and locked.

6. Arm your home security system.

Hope­ful­ly, you already do this every time you leave home, but it’s essen­tial before trav­el­ling. If your home secu­ri­ty sys­tem is trig­gered, the alarm will help to scare off intrud­ers, and author­i­ties can be alert­ed by your alarm mon­i­tor­ing cen­ter.

7. Turn on your security cameras.

If you have secu­ri­ty cam­eras, ensure they are acti­vat­ed and func­tion­ing prop­er­ly before leav­ing. If your cam­eras have a motion-acti­va­tion fea­ture, ensure it’s enabled so you’ll be alert­ed if any activ­i­ty is detect­ed.

While you’re on vaca­tion, the last thing you want is to wor­ry about your home being bro­ken into. Use the tips above to secure your home before leav­ing, so you can relax and enjoy your time away!

Need some home security expertise?

Con­tact us at PROTECTION PLUS to request a no-oblig­a­tion secu­ri­ty sys­tem con­sul­ta­tion today.