Securing Your Home the Old Fashioned Way – With Common Sense
There are lots of expensive tools and gadgets available that are designed to help ensure the safety and security of our homes. Home alarm systems, CCTV cameras, and noise detectors and that is really just the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, one of the most effective home security tools, and one of the most basic, is sadly lacking these days – good old fashioned common sense. With that in mind, here are some very easy and rather effective ways you can beef up your home’s defences without actually going broke doing so and, as an added bonus if you happen to be planning to sell your Waterloo Region home a feeling that a home is secure is a big selling point.
Review All Points of Entry
A simple fence is an good tool to help keep out unwanted guests, but there are several other important considerations you should look at outside your home. It is not the best idea for example to have too many large obstructions in your yard, -large decorations or hedges – especially if they block your view from the window, as such things make approaching a home undetected far easier.
You also need to remember that criminals are not exactly planning to saunter up to your front door to let themselves in, so you need to consider possible entrances to your home that an ordinary person would not take. Criminals count on the fact that the main entrances to most homes are alarmed and well defended. However, a bit of climbing usually won’t deter your average crook so make sure your safeguard the upper floors of your home by eliminating things that are easily scalable, like overhanging tree branches.
Outsmart lock-pickers
To prevent bad guys (or girls) from picking your door locks, there are two very effective tricks you can employ . The first is to have locks reinstalled upside down, so that the jagged part is facing upwards, which makes them much harder to pick, even for an ‘expert’. this way. You should also lubricate your locks regularly to make it harder to keep to maintain the steady grip needed to pick a lock.
Watch the Windows
Windows are usually the first target of the slightly less savvy burglar, as often the only thing keeping them out is a couple of centimetres of easily broken glass. You can make their lives harder though by installing a simple catch screw that limits how far the window can be opened. You should also ensure that any windows near entry doors have some kind of obstruction that prevents easy reach to the door’s lock. Something as easy as a small shelf can do the trick.