Last-Minute Home Security Tasks To Perform Before You Travel
When you're getting ready to leave your home for a vacation, it's easy for your mind to be occupied thinking of the trip ahead. However, it's responsible to devote a bit of time to thinking about the security of your home. If you already have a home security system, the last thing you'll do upon walking out your door before a vacation is to set the alarm to keep your home secure while you're away. Shortly before you press the appropriate buttons on the security system's display panel, here are some other last-minute tasks to perform.
Close Your Curtains
This task is pretty self-explanatory, but it's smart to keep your curtains -- especially those on the ground floor -- closed while you're away from your home. This simple task ensures that there's a barrier between the contents of your home and anyone who might be attempting to peek inside.
Set Your Lights Timer
Having a series of indoor and outdoor lights on timers is a useful way to give your home a lived-in feel, even when it's currently unoccupied. Take a few minutes to ensure that a selection of your lights are hooked up to timers and that the timers are set. When performing this job, it's ideal to set some of the lights to random times to make the lights seem as though they're being operated by you and your family, rather than at a set time. For example, instead of having an exterior light come on a 7 p.m., have it turn on at 6:51 p.m. -- this makes it seem more likely that a human switched on the light.
Hold Your Mail Delivery
When a significant amount of mail begins to pile out of your mailbox while you're away, it's a pretty clear indicator that no one is home. You can prevent this telltale sign of an empty house by putting a hold on your mail delivery. You can easily do so by filling out an online form.
Remove Any Outdoor Keys
A key hidden outdoors can be convenient if you're ever concerned about losing the key to your home, but you don't want it to be found by anyone who might be checking out your yard while you're away on vacation. Take a quick moment to remove any of these keys that you might have under the "Welcome" mat, sitting on top of the door frame or hidden in a hollowed-out false rock in your flowerbed.
For more help, contact a company like Tim's Alarms Service.