Ensure Your Wilmington Home Is Safe While You’re Away With These Pointers
It’s that time of the year again when many of us are making holiday travel plans. With all of the preparations underway, it can be easy to overlook plans for securing your home during the vacation. But the fact is, people are often watching for unoccupied houses during the holiday season, as well as for an opportunity to break in.
Here are some things you can do to diminish the chances of your home being one of the unlucky ones:
- Having neighbors watch your home while you’re away can be a big help. Ask them to collect the mail, take mailers off the door, bring in newspapers, take out the trash and even open and close blinds so the home looks occupied. You might even ask them to park a car in your driveway now and then and move it frequently. A neighbor can also keep an eye out for potential emergencies, such as frozen pipes.
- Don’t broadcast travel plans on social media. Refrain from posting pictures while on vacation or telling how long you’ll be away. If you must share pictures, adjust settings on social media so that only friends and family can see.
- Among the ways to turn lights on and off while you’re away is a programmable light switch, or one that can be operated by your smartphone called SmartPlug.
- If you don’t have a home alarm system, put up a sign that suggests you do. Most burglars are looking for easy pickings and a perceived security system may deter them.
- Don’t tempt burglars by advertising what you received for Christmas. You can do this by disposing gift boxes where others won’t be able to see.
- Set up WiFi security cameras so you can watch your home, inside and out, wherever you are, from your computer or smartphone.
At Sobieski Services, Inc., our goal is to help our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey learn more about energy and home comfort issues – especially HVAC and plumbing issues – so that they can save money and live in healthier, more comfortable homes.
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