Tips to Keep Your Home Safe While You Are Away on Vacation

While you are planning your vacation away from home, don't forget to get your home ready for your vacation too. Use these tips to help safeguard your house while you are gone.

-Write up an itinerary of where you will be and the dates you will be gone. Be sure to include phone numbers you can be reached at in case of an emergency. Then make a couple copies and give them to a neighbor you know and trust. Give another copy to a family member or another friend. That way you will be doubly protected.

-Leave a house key with someone you trust, just in case they need to get in the house for you.

-If you are not taking the car, leave them a car key too. If you don't park in a garage, purchase a safety device to lock your steering wheel while you are away.

-Arrange with the post office to hold mail deliveries. They have forms you can fill out telling them when to stop deliveries and when to begin them again.

-If you have newspapers delivered to your home, make sure you call the newspaper and arrange for no deliveries on the days you are gone. Old newspapers, piled up outside of your home, are a sure sign no one is home.

-One alternative to the mail and newspaper delivery, is to have someone come over daily and bring in the mail and newspapers.

-Close your curtains so no one can look in. It is much more difficult for a possible intruder to tell if someone is actually in the house or not, if they can't look in the windows.

-Purchase a few light timers to set in a different rooms around the house. Set them to go on and off at random times. Even of your curtains are closed, light can be seen around the edges of the curtains.

-Don't waste unnecessary electricity when you aren't even there. Unplug things like microwaves with clocks, computers, and other items that are not needed while you are away.