According to experts, there are approximately 2 million burglaries in the United States annually. This means that someone is breaking into a home once every 15 seconds. During the summer months, especially July and August, home burglaries tend to increase because people are on vacation or generally out of town.
As terrifying and troubling these numbers might seem, you don’t have to panic. There are plenty of ways to protect your home and your property, and you don’t even have to break the bank for some of them. Below are some affordable ways you can dissuade thieves from breaking into your home.
Trim All Greenery
Protecting the edges and borders of your property is essential. Durable metal fencing and gates can prevent direct access, but you could be overlooking something that gives thieves an advantaged: untrimmed greenery.
If your property has hedges, shrubbery, and trees, you should subject them to regular trimming. Overgrown greenery provides thieves with perfect places to hide and scout out your home. Worse, they can lie in wait in them until you leave your house. These plants can also prevent passers-by and neighbors from seeing burglars and alerting the authorities.
Put Up Curtains and Blinds
Burglars routinely scope out their potential targets, to see if anyone is home and to ascertain what sort of valuables they can take. You can make this more difficult for them by installing heavy curtains and blinds on all exterior facing openings.
Drapes and curtains increase the privacy of your home, meaning burglars and other would-be intruders will have a harder time monitoring your activities and planning their intrusion.
Add More Light
Just like how removing cover from plants and trees is essential, so too is increasing the visibility in and around your property. Visibility is the enemy of criminals. With strategically positioned lights outside your house, you can ensure that neighbors, passing motorists, and pedestrians can see if anyone is trying to break into your windows and doors.
Indoors, you could put your house lights on timers. This is especially useful when you and your family are planning on going on vacation. Bright lights in your home can dissuade burglars as it appears there are people inside.
Know Thy Neighbors
Your community can be the best defense against burglars and thieves. Getting to know your neighbors and building a friendship with them ensures you have people looking out for your home when you go on vacation. When you’re out of town, you can ask them to collect mail and packages, because if left unclaimed, they indicate to thieves that you aren’t home. You can ask them to keep an eye on your property, and you can even return the favor later.
Don’t Forget the Garage
Garages aren’t usually inhabited, and that makes them a weak point in your defenses. Because they’re generally far away from bedrooms, even if you are home, you might not hear someone breaking into the garage. You can make it more difficult for burglars to break in by putting noisy items in front of windows. Put an array of tin cans filled with nails on a row in front of windows as an impromptu burglar alarm. You should also make sure that any door connecting the garage to the main house has unpickable locking mechanisms on the inside, such as a deadbolt or a chain.
Protecting your property is a primary concern of anyone who owns a home. But so often people believe that safety can be bought only at a hefty price. These tactics prove that you don’t have to break the bank to keep your home safe.