20 Tips for Home Safety
When it comes to home safety, it’s important to protect your home against threats like burglary, intrusion and fire. Having a monitored home security system is one of the best ways to start protecting your home against all of these threats, but there are additional safety precautions you can take as well to help keep your home safe.
Below are 20 home safety tips to help bolster your home’s security as well as help protect your home against fire threats. Put these into practice starting today to help protect your home.
Home safety and security tips
The first 10 home safety tips focus on improving your home’s security. Use these tips along with your home security system to help protect your home and your loved ones.
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Create the illusion that someone is at your house.
If you plan to be away for an extended period of time, leave a TV or stereo on in a room near the front door or other entry points like side doors or first-floor windows. Use exterior lighting and motion detectors to minimize places where a burglar could easily hide, as well.
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Make sure all exterior doors have reliable locks.
Install 1-inch deadbolt locks on all exterior doors, and lock all doors before leaving your home or going to bed. You can also use optional home security equipment like smart locks to lock and unlock doors remotely using the ADT Pulse® app.
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Always look before opening the door.
If you get an unexpected knock at the door, check to see who it is before opening it. You can also keep your home security system’s wireless keychain handy when there’s a stranger at the door, in case you need to call for help in an instant.
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Don’t leave spare keys in obvious locations.
Don’t leave extra keys under doormats, potted plants or any other obvious outdoor location. Thieves will generally find them. Find an inconspicuous place to hide the keys, or give a set to a neighbor you can trust.
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Secure your sliding glass doors.
Burglar-proof your glass patio doors by setting a pipe or metal bar in the middle bottom track of the door slide. The pipe should be the same length as the track. You can also use optional home security equipment, such as a glass break sensor to alert you if a glass door or window is shattered.
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Keep garage doors closed at all times.
Your garage door leads directly into your home, so it’s important to keep it closed, including when you’re at home. Home security system components such as an overhead garage door contact can also provide added protection to your home.
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Keep drapes and blinds shut.
Don’t allow intruders to easily see what’s inside your home – especially in rooms where there is expensive equipment. Drapes and blinds obscure a potential intruder’s view, making it difficult to see which rooms hold high value items, or even whether someone is inside the house.
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Store cash, jewelry and other valuables in a safe or safety deposit box
Keep your valuables out of reach for an intruder. Use a secured safe or safety deposit box in a bank to stash away your valuables when they’re not in use. In addition, remember to arm your home security system every time you leave your house to ensure your home, pets and valuables are safe.
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Don’t leave notes on the door for others when you’re not there.
Leaving notes for service people or family members alerts potential burglars that you may not be home. Instead, check in on your home using your cellphone or laptop with ADT Pulse®.
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Adjust your telephone ring to its lowest volume setting.
If you’re going to be away from home for a few days, an unanswered phone may tip off a burglar that no one is home. Also, have a neighbor or friend collect your newspaper and mail. Never cancel delivery – since you don’t know who will get that information.
Courtesy : securitychoice