Tips to Keep Your Family Safe at Home
Our homes are important to us. Home is where we eat, sleep and live with our families. Above all, we want our families and our children to be safe and to feel safe, especially at home.
Following are some tips you can use to keep your family safe at home:
- Change exterior door locks. When purchasing a new home, be sure to change out the exterior door locks as soon as you take possession. Also, be sure to reprogram the exterior garage door opener if there is one. Whether it's a new home or a previously owned home, chances are that there are people you don't know who have copies of your house key and who may know codes to exterior door locks or openers. Once
you change out the locks, don't spoil the effort by leaving a spare key outside under a planter or rock. Instead, give a spare key to a neighbor you trust or to a family member who lives nearby.
- Improve your home's exterior lighting. Statistics show that homes that are well-lit are less likely to be burglarized. Install floodlights around the exterior of your home, especially around entries. Consider installing an automatic timer so the exterior lights are always on in the evening, even when you forget to turn them on. Also, when you're not home, turn on lights on the inside of your home especially
those near entryways and stairs.
- Install a security system. Today's security systems have options that go beyond just alerting the homeowner of a break-in. With a home security system, you can be alerted to a variety of emergencies including fire, flood, high levels
of carbon monoxide and low temperatures which may cause water pipes to freeze, just to name a few.
- Develop an emergency plan. Be sure to discuss with your family an emergency plan in case of a fire or break-in. Make sure everyone knows how to get out of the house and where everyone is to meet afterwards. Make time to actually practice your emergency plan so that in case of emergency, you and your family are prepared.
While these suggestions will help keep your home and family safe all year round, when you're going out of town take extra precautions. Be sure not to announce your travel plans or other plans to be away from your house on social media sites and monitor your children's activities on the same sites to ensure that they aren't posting family information. Also, ask a neighbor or friend to pick up newspapers, mail, packages and door
hangers
so they don't pile up while you're gone, announcing your absence.
With a few precautions, you can keep yourself, your family and your home safe and secure.
