Believe it or not, the holiday season has arrived again, and with it comes shopping for gifts, decorating your home, and for many families, traveling to visit loved ones. If traveling is included in your holiday plans, it’s important to take several safety precautions to ensure that your home is secure before departing. Review the following tips we’ve designed to help you better understand how to secure your home if you’ll be going away for the holidays.
Double check to ensure that all locks, especially deadbolts, have been locked and do not hide a spare key outside. Instead, ask a neighbor you trust to hold onto it for you.
- Maintaining a trusting relationship with your neighbors is beneficial in more ways than one, especially when you’re traveling. In addition to holding onto a spare key for you, good neighbors will likely also be willing to keep an eye on your home while you’re away. Talk to a trusted neighbor about your travel plans and see if he/she is willing to watch over your property for you, and bring in the mail and any newspapers you receive if you haven’t stopped this service. Considering that a stack of newspapers in your driveway is a sure sign that no one is home at your residence, relying on a neighbor to take care of this will help you feel confident that your home will remain protected in your absence.
- Don’t share your plans on social networks. Although you may be tempted to let your Facebook friends know about your upcoming exciting travel plans, it’s best to keep this information off of the Internet until after you’ve returned home. Once you post information online, you never know where it could end up, and news of your travel plans getting into the wrong hands could leave your home vulnerable while you’re away for the holidays.
- Along with making sure the mail and newspapers aren’t piling up outside, keeping your home well-lit is another recommended way to give off the false impression that someone is home. If your lights have timers, set an outside light to remain on overnight, and set several indoor lights to turn off and on throughout the day. Although this may not save you as much on your electric bill, it’s an important safety precaution to take when attempting to adequately secure your home.
- If it’s a service your local police department provides, ask for an officer to check on your property and conduct a security survey while you’re away.
- Keep valuables, from jewelry to laptops and other expensive electronics out of sight if you’re leaving them behind. The last thing you want is a potential intruder to spot these types of items from a window.
- Another precaution you may choose to take when preparing to secure your home for holiday travel is to leave a vehicle in your driveway to create the appearance that someone is home. However, if you decide to leave a car outside, be sure you haven’t left any items of value in it, and that you’ve locked all of the car doors.
The holiday season is a special time of year, and if you’re traveling to be with loved ones, it’s important for you to feel confident that your home will remain protected in your absence. When it comes to better understanding how to secure your home when you’re away, keeping these safety tips in mind is a great place to start.
Even after taking the necessary safety precautions, accidents can still happen, and having an up-to-date home inventory of your possessions, along with comprehensive home insurance coverage, can also provide you with the peace of mind you need to know you’ll be protected in the unfortunate event of a loss. For additional safety tips and valuable resources, please read our blog, or visit us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
To get a free quote for home insurance in Hillsboro NH and the surrounding area, please call us today at 603-464-3422 or submit our online quote request form.
