Sadly, crimes such as break-ins and thievery will always be a part of our society.
Sometimes, they’re simply the result of the ingenuity of crooks. But other times, they could also be a result of mistakes we could have avoided.
So to ensure you don’t fall prey to the latter, we’re letting you in on several common home security mistakes in this article.
The Most Common Home Security Mistakes
Are you making any of these mistakes right now? Let’s find out!
1. Not trimming your yard
We know that plants serve to brighten and decorate a house’s outdoors. But too much can act as hiding places for crooks who wish to remain invisible.
So next time you trim your grass, include your bushes, shrubs, vines, and so on. But if you don’t have time to maintain your yard, we suggest calling professional landscaping experts for the job.
They can provide a wide range of landscaping services, such as weeding, grass cutting, planting, garden design, even litter removal, power washing, among others.
2. Keeping a spare key outside or in hiding places you found on the web
Even if you’ve got the most secure hiding place to keep that spare key, the fact remains that you have a key out there for thieves to find and use.
Moreover, another mistake would be to keep your spare key in hiding places you found on the internet.
Experienced burglars would also be searching on the web for those ‘ideal’ hiding places, so it’s better to come up with your own key hideout.
3. Not rekeying your doors
This is especially needed if you’re not the first homeowner of your house. In other words, you don’t know who else has a copy of your home keys aside from the former owner.
Hence, to make sure your family’s the only one who has access to your doors, go call a locksmith. If you don’t know anyone, you can see our top choices from these counties: Cork, Dublin, and Galway.
4. Not making preparations for an empty home
Remember, crooks would love an empty home. The thing is, there will always come a time when we’ll have to leave our house for quite some time with no one in it.
The problem lies when we don’t prepare enough to ensure it doesn’t become a burglar’s next target.
One way you can secure your home is by asking trusted neighbours to routinely check on your place whenever you’re away for a long time. This way, your house wouldn’t appear deserted.
Or, try requesting some friends or relatives to come sleepover for the time being. Meanwhile, if you prefer tighter security, one tip would be to hire a security company to secure and monitor your home.
5. Letting others know that you live alone
If you live on your own, never share this information with just anybody, no matter how friendly they may be. This includes people you’ve just met on your commute, on social media, in your workplace, and so on.
And whatever you do, don’t let this be known on social media, no matter how subtle your post may be.
6. Being complacent
This isn’t to scare you, but just because you’ve never been burgled doesn’t mean there’s no chance of it happening. Or just because you live in a peaceful and quiet neighbourhood, everything’s clear.
Sure, sometimes securing your home can be an investment, but imagine what a burglary can potentially do to your savings.
For tips on how to make your home safer, check out this guide on ways to secure your home.
7. Hiring shady service providers
There will come a time when you’ll need some home repairs done, such as plumbing, TV repair, roof repair, carpet cleaning, gutter cleaning, and so on.
Remember, more often than not, you’ll be letting these people inside your home, allowing them to discover what it’s like inside.
So, don’t be swayed by low service fees. If they can’t show any certificates, documents, samples of past work, testimonials, and so on, better to steer away from them.
That’s it for now for this list of common home security mistakes! Hopefully, you won’t be making any of these mistakes after reading this article.
Moreover, for a more secure home, you can check out our other articles on the following topics: