Preppers do what they can to have some control amid the chaos in an uncertain world. That’s why going on vacation for an extended period can be nerve-wracking. Imagine the anxiety of those stranded somewhere else during the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a fresh reminder that society can stop functioning normally overnight due to a single event.
Being away from your house when something terrible happens will make you feel helpless and powerless. Before leaving, you should do everything possible to reduce your property’s vulnerability to threats. Learn from the rookie mistakes of others and adopt smart strategies to ensure your residence stays as it is when you return.
Common Home Security Mistakes to Avoid
The mishaps we all make–preppers are no exception–when securing their properties are generally behavioral. The seven errors below are excellent examples.
1. Talking About Your Stockpile
It’s natural to feel proud about your supply since storing adequate essentials to sustain your family in an emergency takes rigorous planning and flawless execution. While you should compare notes with like-minded individuals, bragging about your stockpile is a sin. Even if you can trust the person you’re speaking with, you never know if anyone else within earshot may be listening and plotting to steal from you.
Observe operational security. Make it a mission to keep your operations a secret at all costs. Limit the number of souls who know about your business to prevent costly information leaks.
2. Worrying About Burglars Only
All self-respecting preppers think about various specific threats and plan to neutralize them individually. Burglary is a significant cause for concern, especially when your residence will be unoccupied for a while. However, it’s just one of the many types of property crime you should sweat about.
Prepare your house for natural disasters, including hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, floods and earthquakes, and artificial catastrophes like chemical spills or nuclear accidents. Wildlife intrusion can leave your place in shambles, making it susceptible to other threats.
If you did your homework, you might have chosen a safe location to live in and survive the end times. Sadly, no place is 100% immune to threats. Identify the unavoidable local menaces to know which hazards to prioritize preparing for.
3. Hiding Keys Outside the House
Hidden spare keys are just that — hidden. They’re still discoverable and accessible. They can compromise your home security when they end up in the wrong hands.
Experienced burglars know where to look no matter how good you think your hiding spots are. Refraining from leaving your keys in popular, obscure locations — under the doormat, in a flower pot near your front door, beneath a fake rock, inside the mailbox or on top of the window trim — may delay the inevitable. If you live in a secluded area, an intruder will have more time to look around your outdoor space and find your hidden keys.
4. Skimping on Quality Security Equipment
Installing a security system is one thing. Buying a substandard or outdated one is another. Surveillance cameras are physical deterrents that can discourage anyone with malicious intent from breaking into your property. However, some criminals will be bold enough to take the risk and intrude on your residence despite the possibility of being caught on tape.
Low-quality cameras lull you into a false sense of security. They may have tiny sensors that capture little light and produce imperceptible footage in conditions with minimal illumination.
Surveillance equipment designed to collect clear images and videos around the clock may still fail to generate solid evidence for law enforcement to identify the perpetrator. It may have a limited field of view, be prone to weather damage or lack enough storage.
5. Leaving an Alarm System Deactivated
A burglar alarm that doesn’t ring is only as useful as a fake security camera. It can play tricks on an intruder but offers no real protection. Turning your alarm system off is a significant blunder, but forgetting to activate it before leaving town is a catastrophic oversight.
6. Relying on a Single Line of Defense
Home security is multifaceted. Some methods are more effective than others, but nothing can singlehandedly protect your property from various conceivable threats.
Making your residence as impregnable as possible requires lots of resources. Cutting corners is tempting to save cash, but you shouldn’t put too much faith in a single line of defense and pray nothing wrong happens. Cover all the bases to frustrate an unwelcome guest as much as possible and reduce the reward of targeting your empty residence.
7. Sharing Whereabouts on Social Media
Posting about your travel in real time for the world to see is self-inflicted harm. Anyone seeing your escapades can learn about your absence, giving them a clue that your property is empty.
Although you can control who can view your content, you can’t regulate how everyone else behaves on the internet. You can’t stop others from taking a screenshot of your posts and sharing them as they please. The people you’re with can also compromise your privacy by posting images and videos with you.
Every social media platform has features that can publicize your whereabouts. For example, Instagram supports geotagging, enabling you to disclose where you are for your followers when you post Stories.
Turning off your devices’ location services can help, although they have practical value. Even with them disabled, prying eyes can still solve your location puzzle by studying the landmarks you’re in. Never underestimate online stalkers because they can glean insights from unexpected places — like reflections on your eyeball when taking selfies.
13 Tips on Protecting Your Home During a Long Absence
Keeping your residence secure while you’re gone takes much work, but it’s possible. Use these 13 pieces of advice.
1. Coordinate With Couriers
About 44% of Americans have fallen victim to porch piracy, but opportunistic criminals can view your empty house as a bigger prize upon seeing your pile of packages or overflowing mailbox. Even if you don’t order anything during the days leading up to your vacation, you will still get things in the mail.
Speak to your local courier service provider or go to your post office to stop deliveries to your address until you return. You may have to use a temporary mail forwarding service if you’ll be away longer.
Consider using a virtual mailbox service provider when you expect but can’t wait for important items to arrive. This company can get your packages on your behalf for safekeeping. You can discard the items in its custody from anywhere.
2. Unplug Electric Appliances
Keeping electrical items plugged into a power source is dangerous on many levels. Appliances may overheat when they continuously draw current. They may also come into contact with water during a storm or a quake, starting a devastating fire. Such an event jeopardizes your possessions and leaves your surviving valuables free for the taking.
Outages can also damage your appliances. The sudden surge of electrical energy can wreak havoc on their sensitive components when power returns. Devices on standby mode still consume energy — called phantom load — and inflate your utility bill.
There are exceptions to the rule. For example, you may keep your fridge or freezer running when you’ll only be away shortly. Unplug anything that serves no purpose while on your trip for safety and energy conservation.
3. Turn Your Water Off
Switching off your water valves can protect your home from moisture damage. Plumbing fixtures that are shot can leak and flood your interior. Water leakage and plugged-in electrical appliances spell disaster for your residence’s structural integrity and security.
4. Create an Illusion of Occupancy
Leaving your house empty doesn’t mean it has to look that way until you return. Set light timers so your home comes to life at night. Illumination can make anyone question whether you’re there or not from afar. Make sure to cover windows, especially those at ground level, to hide your interior from view and prevent nosy individuals from verifying your presence.
Leaving your car parked in your driveway is another tried-and-true trick. An empty carport indicates you’re not present. An unattended vehicle is vulnerable to theft, so equip yours with various security devices — such as a steering wheel brake lock, a wheel lock, a guard plate, a locking fuel cap, a tilt switch, pin switches and a siren — to thwart criminals. Installing multiple car anti-theft solutions may seem like overkill, but it’s better to overdo it than to risk losing an expensive possession.
5. Fence Your Property
Enclosing your residence discourages intrusion. Climbing over a fence increases the degree of difficulty of burglarizing your property and the risk of injury.
Zoning ordinances impose fence dimension restrictions, but some towns let you build up to 7 feet high if you secure a variance.
6. Use Thorny Greenery as an Obstacle
Planting bushes with thorns can make criminals think twice about jumping over your fence. Some of your best bets are the devil’s walking stick, crown of thorns, flowering quince, eastern prickly pear, bougainvillea and trifoliate orange. Choose the ones that suit your climate zone to ensure they can lacerate any trespassers.
7. Defend Against Wildlife
Aside from building a fence, having cayenne pepper in your garden can protect your crops from hungry wild animals. Making a spray from this spice or sprinkling it on your produce can work wonders.
If you make compost from surplus produce and food scraps, cover it tightly to avoid attracting critters that want to snack on it. Ensure your compost bin is sturdy enough to prevent breakage.
8. Eliminate Outdoor Hiding Spots
Invaders — humans or wildlife — find safety in obscurity. Darkness can hide their presence and identity, emboldening them to ransack your empty house.
Installing motion-activated floodlights to take away their source of comfort. Use a picket or metal and wire mesh fence instead of a solid one to make anyone visible from a distance when they’re on your property. Intruders and wild animals can use vegetation for cover, so give your trees and shrubs a haircut before leaving.
9. Clear Your Yard
An intruder can use anything lingering in your yard to break into your property. Before you hit the road, declutter, place all tools in your shed and lock them up. Don’t forget about outdoor furniture. A burglar can use your chairs and tables as a ladder to access your roof and enter your home.
10. Install Smart Home Devices
Investing in smart home technology can give you peace of mind. Smart devices, including indoor and outdoor cameras, door locks and alarms, do context-aware computing autonomously. This capability allows them to sense environmental elements and behave accordingly when they detect something.
Smart home devices can monitor various aspects of your home and immediately alert you when something’s amiss wherever you are. The sooner you learn about a potential threat, the faster you can respond to neutralize it.
11. Reinforce All Entry Points
Locking all doors and windows before heading out should go without saying. However, adding reinforcements can make them unbreakable.
For instance, sash pins can prevent crooks from opening double-hung windows. Cose both panels and drill a hole on a slightly downward slant in each corner of the inside sash without going all the way through the second panel. Inserting a sash pin, a long nail or an Allen wrench into the hole renders your double-hung windows burglarproof.
12. Hide Your Valuables
Keeping your prized possessions in safes is home security 101, but buying the right type of safe for various items and selecting inconspicuous locations to hide them is just as important.
Building a secret room is worth consideration, too. A windowless spot with little traffic near where you usually spend time or sleep is an excellent candidate for a secluded storage area. Covering the passage to this hideout with a hidden door that blends with its surroundings — like a bookshelf in the living room or a closet mirror in the bedroom — will avoid drawing attention and protect your secret.
13. Use a House Sitter
Having someone to stay and look after your house when you’re on vacation is wise when you have a pet you can’t bring or a garden that requires regular maintenance. Consult loved ones and friends first before hiring a stranger to have one less thing to worry about.
Prep Your Home for Your Long Absence
Anything can happen when you’re away from home, so leaving your residence for an extended period will almost always induce anxiety. Avoid the usual mistakes of others and use these tips to help calm your nerves and enjoy your trip.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
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