Maintaining the sanctity of our homes is the top priority for all of us. We want to make sure that our homes are safe places where we can live in peace. We want our families to be safe. We also want to protect our assets. When there is a burglary, people talk about the things you lose. People talk about the jewelry, the cash, and the electronics that get taken. The reality is that these aren’t the biggest things you lose if someone burgles your home.

No, the biggest thing you lose is the sense of security. Home is one place where you feel safe, where you can go and just relax and let all your stress melt away. Knowing that someone broke into it is a violation of this safe feeling. Home doesn’t feel like home once it has been broken into. It keeps making you think that it might happen again and keeps you on edge.

The good news is that it isn’t too hard to make your home more secure. If you want full security, you can always get a home security system. These systems are the best way to make your house safer. However, there are many other ways to increase the security of your home. You can do little things that will pay off in a big way. We aren’t talking about complicated or expensive projects – we are talking about small things you can get done in a day. Let’s look at ways you can make your home safer for you, your family, and your belongings.

Light up your home

Having a well-lit home is a great way of keeping it safe. It may sound strange – how does having more lights make you safer? But it definitely works. Here’s the simple reason why it works: thieves prefer places they can go in and out without anyone noticing. That is why so many burglaries happen during the night. Thieves and other criminals know that the dark provides them with a great cover. It is surprisingly easy to completely disappear in the dark.

On the other hand, a well-lit home is notoriously difficult to break into without anyone noticing you. Unless you live in a place where the roads are always empty, anyone will be able to see that someone is trying to break into a house if there is proper lighting. That is why you need to make sure your house is well-lit.

The first thing you need to check is your front door and the way to your front door. This is the main area you need light in. We would recommend installing some motion activated lights. Motion sensing lights are very cheap and can be easily bought online or from any home improvement around your home.

Motion sensing lights are such a great idea because they offer multiple benefits. One is that you save energy. No one wants to waste electricity by keeping the lights in the front all the time. Motion sensing lights ensure that whenever anyone is in your doorway, it will be lit up. When no one is there energy isn’t being used to keep the lights on needlessly.

The bigger advantage though is that motion activated lighting deters thieves. The last thing that thieves want is to be the center of attention. Them stepping on your porch and immediately being washed in bright lights is the exact opposite of what they want – they don’t want to be under a spotlight.

The door isn’t the only thing you need to look at. You should also look at how much lighting there is around your house. Sure, you may not be able to install more streetlights if the road in front of your house is dark, but you can definitely make up for it by increasing the lights on your home. Make sure no obvious entry ways to your home are dark – and that includes windows too!

Test your locks

Once you have looked at the lighting you need to take care of the locks. You need to make sure that you have good quality locks on all the doorways to your home. By good quality, we don’t mean expensive locks – we mean locks you can depend on. You should have two types of locks on your door. One lock which you use all the time, even while you are in the home, and a bigger, more serious lock for when you’re not at home.

One more thing – NEVER leave a key around your home. You may think you are being smart leaving a key below a pot or a rock. Someone may see you putting the key in there and then they won’t even have to break into your home – they will be able to simply unlock the door and walk in! If you are worried about locking yourself out of your house we recommend keeping a set of keys with your neighbors. You can also leave an extra set of keys in your car, so if you are locked outside you can simply get the keys in the car.

Check for entryways

People obsess so much over their doors that they completely forget about the windows. If you have any windows on the ground floor they are a much more convenient entry way for thieves than the front door. Test the security of your windows. How easy are they to open from the outside? Are all the windows even locked? Make sure you check the locks of windows before you go to sleep. Also make sure that they are made from sturdy materials. Try to get windows that are designed so that a person cannot enter through them just by breaking the glass. Anything with a grill or any design will be able to accomplish this.

If you do these small things your home will be much safer. If you want full security you should invest in a home security system. Make sure you test your locks, check for entryways, and light up your home.