Protect Your Home: Home Safety Tips While Traveling This Summer

You’re planning your vacation, and it’s the first time in over a year that you get to get away. Since it may have been a while since you last left the place, it’s only natural to be concerned about the safety of your home while you’re away. Before you leave, here are some measures you can take to protect your home while you’re away. 

Protect Your Home on the Inside

Home safety while traveling takes a bit more than it used to, but you can take steps to minimize the chance of someone breaking in. Here are some steps you can take to protect your home on the inside:

• Double-check the windows and doors to make sure all of them are locked when you leave the house.
• Don’t post about your location on social media. People will be able to see that you’re not home.
• Set interior lights in various rooms on timers. Instead of setting just one light to come on at the same time every day, set several lights to come on at different times. For example, you might set an overhead light in the dining room to come on in the late afternoon, then lamps in the living room to come on later in the evening.
• Put any valuables in a safe or a safe deposit box.
• Make sure people cannot see any valuables, such as computers, from the windows. Even if you close the blinds, put items that you can move out of sight.
• Disconnect electronics unless you have them on a surge protector.
• If you have an alarm, let your alarm company know that you are going on vacation. 
• Set the air conditioning or heat to a temperature that keeps it comfortable in the house. You might set the air conditioning to about 80 degrees since you will be gone. It is enough to keep the house cooler, but you’ll save on cooling since the unit won’t run as much. If you are vacationing during the winter, you might set the heat at 60 degrees to keep the house warm enough so that the pipes don’t freeze should the temperatures drop below freezing.

Protect Your Home on the Outside

Home safety while traveling doesn’t just mean protecting the inside. You can take steps on the outside of your house to make it look like there’s someone home. Protect your home by taking the following steps outside:

• If you will be gone for a more extended period of time, mow the yard right before you leave, then arrange for someone to come trim it in a week.
• Arrange for someone to show up every day to pick up the mail or newspapers. You can also pause those services until you get back.
• Don’t keep spare keys outside. Everyone knows the most common hiding places like flowerpots or under mats, so it’s best to avoid doing this at all.
• Set outside lights on timers to come on at dark.
• Lock the garage and any outbuildings you have. If the garage is attached to the house, make sure the garage door and the house are locked, preferably with a deadbolt.

Contact Cathey’s Audio Visual Entertainment

Cathey’s Audio Visual Entertainment can install a security system for your home – a system that allows you to see what is going on in your home by checking your phone. Contact one of our stores today to discuss your needs. You can also visit one of our three locations to learn more about our home security cameras in Tucson, AZ.