You don't need to spend a fortune to keep your home safe from burglars. Granted a fancy alarm system with motion activated cameras and all will help but here are some more cost-modest ideas to try...
1. Install a "dummy" surveillance sytem...
It would be nice to spend a few thousand dollars to install a complete home surveillance system with battery back-up and off-site recording and hosting but not everybody has those kinds of extra dollars laying around...Purchasing a couple of cameras and simply installing them in plain sight next to doors and other blind spots can serve as a deterrent as many burglars will look for properties that don't appear to have a system in place...
2. Install timers on lights...Even when your home...
There are always those evenings when we may go to dinner or a movie and it has been shown that a lot of the times when there is a burglary, it is that rotten kid down the street that learns our habits more so than some random seedy character that drove across town to target your house. Having lights in the front living room or a lamp in another window of the house that clicks on at 7:15pm give the indication that somebody might be in the house making it much less a target...
3. Keep your landscaping tidy and cut back...
Burglars don't like to climb through a window when everybody from the street or neighbors can see. Overgrown shrubs or bushes give great cover to the nefarious if they are cut back, it will generally give pause to a thief looking for an easy target.
4. Don't let the mail or flyers stack up on your steps/at your door...
We have all driven down the street in our "hood" and see a house with 5 newspapers and a few of those take-out food menus hanging on the front porch. At the same time, we all know that means the owner is OUT. Have a neighbor pick up your mail and other stuff daily when you go out of town and offer to do the same for them. Better yet, ask the post office to hold your mail during the dates of your travel. Nonetheless, get to know your neighbors as not only does this help you and them during that travel time but it is a good reason to introduce yourself and get to know those around you. Good relationships build good deterrence to violations...
5. Use wooden dowels or metal bars on doors and windows...
It is a cheap and easy investment to buy inexpensive wooden dowels to brace sliding glass doors or windows to keep them from being pried open. Paint them yellow or another bright color so they can easily been seen from outside so a burglar will think twice about even trying to pry something open. As we talked about earlier, they look for easy targets and something as simple as a stick can sometimes deter an opportunist.
6. Hide valuables...
Not everybody will be immune from that determined thief but if they do make it inside, don't make it easy for them to grab and run. If you go out of town, hid the expensive jewelry in a zip-lock bags placed in a dirty paint bucket in the garage. Thieves don't take time to go through garages except looking for tools they can hawk quickly. Think about what a thief would take and move it to where they wouldn't look.
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