Our homes give us so much wonderful comfort, and they shelter us throughout our lives. A lot of our hearts are in our homes and all our things that we hold dear are inside them. So the thought of strangers breaking into our homes and rifling through our things is unthinkable yet still a possibility. And with so many duel couple working households, our homes are prime targets in the mid morning hours as well as in the night. But there are simple anti theft strategies that can make your home safe from intruders without costing a lot of money.
Look Around Outside
First, walk around the perimeter of your home and make note of possible places intruders can hide. Is all the vegetation trimmed away from the house? Is the ladder leaning against the side of the house? Do you have sturdy trash cans, stackable boxes, or patio furniture that could help a thief inside?
Even a metal drain pipe can give access. My personal favorite of mine is to smear the drain pipe with a coating of petroleum jelly ground level. An intruder looking to shimmy up the drain pipe will just slide to the ground.
Intruder Proof Your Doors and Windows
Next, check your doors and windows especially ground level. Sliding glass doors are the most vulnerable to a break in. You can easily secure your home against intruders simply by placing a dowel rod or a simple metal bar in the lower door track.
Do you know who is knocking on your door before you open it? Instead of trying to look through your living room window, you can make your home safe from intruders simply by installing a peep hole. If having one installed is too costly, you can try placing one yourself. Just make sure you choose a fish eye lens peephole and your porch light is at least 40 watts.
Now make sure your spare key that is hiding outside is in a secretive location than under the door mat. This is a simple but important technique to secure your home against intruders. Outside house “oops” keys that are placed in an obvious location can spell out trouble.
Mouse Trap the Safe
I like to place set mouse traps into any hidden safe I may have. Intruders are usually in a hurry and are careless. And mouse traps can capture finger prints, painfully to the intruder, but you still get fingerprints.
Finally, photograph or better yet videotape everything of value in your house. Keep records, receipts of all your things especially entertainment systems like DVD players and Home theater systems also jewelry. You can engrave your initials in manual and power tools, so if an intruder steals them you have a chance at recovering. Sometimes thieves will store stolen goods in a storage unit. Sometimes I see ads in the paper from the police stating they have recovered stolen items.
Either way you can be as creative as you like to make your home safe from all kinds intruders, people or the occasional animal, running up the ladder or rearranging your outside boxes and garbage.