How to Protect Your Home Before Traveling During the Holidays
As you plan your impending trip and triple-check your luggage, you should also prepare your house for your absence. Taking a few minor precautions beforehand can make a big difference when you return from vacation. These measures can range from tossing out perishable food to ensuring everything is safe and secure.
Here are some measures you should take before your upcoming vacation:
Install a Monitored Security System
This should be your first defense strategy regarding home security when you are home or on vacation. Smart security systems are a popular investment choice among homeowners and are effective as long as you can access your mobile phone. However, monitored home alarm systems provide an additional layer of security if you go to a remote destination or leave your phone at home.
The surveillance system can detect motion when your doors or windows are opened through sensors installed in your home. This will then set off an alarm, which will notify your alarm company, who will notify the authorities if there is a breach, as well as your neighbors and, hopefully, scare the intruder away.
If your home is burgled while on holiday, you should hire an experienced attorney to handle the case. A local attorney is more knowledgeable about the legal system and laws in the area where the incident happened. In Philadelphia, Wieand Law Firm offers top-notch legal representation in case your home is robbed.
Pause Your Mail Deliveries
A vacant residence will undoubtedly have an overflowing doormat. You can ask a neighbor or trusted acquaintance to stop by and collect your mail and letters while you are gone, but only if you can genuinely trust them.
Alternatively, you can request that your mailman delay his visits for a while until your return. You can execute this from home by going to the USPS website. They will halt mail delivery to your home and retain it until you return.
If you are going to be gone for a more extended period, you should also stop receiving any other regular deliveries you may be receiving, such as monthly subscriptions.
Avoid Posting Your Travel Plans on Social Media
Posting photos of you and your family relaxing thousands of miles away from home is a clear invitation to robbers and others out to get you.
Checking in at the airport only informs people that your home will be unoccupied for the next week or two, although it may seem like a fun way to flaunt on Facebook or Instagram. Keep your memories and photographs for private sharing.
Double-check that your home address is inaccessible on your social media profiles, and remove any posts or invitations to parties that include your phone number. Apart from the people you know and trust, who won’t be searching for it on social media in any case, no one has to know any of that information.
Maintain a Mowed Lawn
Requesting a neighbor to trim your lawn for you might be worthwhile if you have a front yard, an open backyard, or any other outdoor space. A vacant house can be identified by its unmaintained, overrun lawns or gardens.
You might also ask a friend to sweep up leaves from your porch or shovel snow if it has fallen, based on the season and how long your trip is. Keep your home well-kept from the outside, and no one will suspect you are away.
Keep Your GPS Hidden
It is easy to forget that the navigation system in your vehicle can serve as a red carpet to your vacant home for thieves. When you leave your GPS in plain view while parking at an airport or hotel, burglars will break in, steal your car, and then use it to find your unoccupied house. Don’t leave your portable GPS in the vehicle when you are traveling if you have one.
If it is not portable, delete or change the “home” configuration to point to a random location (such as a park, shopping center, or business location). It will ensure that nobody can access your vacant house while you are on vacation.
Make sure you have adequate mechanisms in place to care for your home while you are gone so that you enjoy your well-earned vacation. You should take these measures before you leave if you want to return to your house just as you left it. You can ask a neighbor to stop by and collect your mail or go the extra mile and deploy a security system.
