Your home should be a paradise. A place you always return to unwind, relax, recharge, and enjoy your free time or family time. It should never be a place where you feel scared or insecure. But that can happen, especially if you don’t have the appropriate support. To combat such a thing, a smart home or reliable security system goes a long way.
Most people think of advanced security as being this all-in-one encompassing system, which, yes, that does exist and there are providers you can go to who will handle all of the work. But there are also some things you can do on your own to beef up home security. Investing in your security can help prevent break-ins, theft — both indoors and out — and keep you informed about what’s happening on your property. The good news is that technology has come a long way, making it truly convenient to set up a security system and improve protections.
Here are some excellent tips for upgrading your home security:
1. Get a Smart Doorbell
By embracing the smart home revolution, a series of internet-connected and remotely-accessible devices, you can certainly improve your security. While there are many options, including smart locks, security cameras, alarms, and beyond, one of the best ways to get started is to install a smart doorbell, also sometimes referred to as a smart security doorbell.
You’ve surely heard of Ring, one of the more popular options. There are many others to choose from though, and how they work is the biggest factor. When someone comes to your door, you can see exactly who it is, talk to them thanks to two-way communication, and sometimes interact with other smart home devices. If it’s your family, for example, you can unlock the door if you have a smart lock and let them in.
Like a security camera, the doorbell records all motion alerts and interactions, and you can check in remotely using your phone in real time. If a package courier is at your door you can communicate with them or make sure they put your package(s) where you want it. If a salesman or solicitor is at your door you can identify them before opening it, and choose to ignore them or send them away.
2. Modernize Your Locks
It’s surprising how many people don’t realize the value of changing their locks. Previous tenants or past homeowners lost keys, and other timely factors make it possible for those locks to be compromised when you move in. But there’s another reason to swap out those locks, and it’s to benefit from greater and smarter security. Modern-style door fixtures do make it easier to replace locks, thanks to sleeker hardware and improved balance and form, aesthetically. However, any type of home, old and new can benefit from modern, smart locks.
Not unlike the smart doorbell, a smart lock merely replaces your dumb deadbolt or existing lock with one that offers keyless and remote entry. You have full control over the lock and can see who comes and goes. Some even allow you to create temporary passcodes that you can give out to guests or family to allow in — and you can track when those codes are used too. Often, you can unlock the connected doors using your phone, like say, when your hands are full of groceries and you have your phone in your hand but not your physical keys.
3. Install a Security Floodlight
At night, there are likely areas of your home that are basked in darkness, which create something of a blind spot. Maybe out front of your garage, for example, or just outside your front door stoop or porch? The go-to solution is to install a motion-sensitive light or floodlight to make things a lot more visible and prevent anyone from sneaking up on your property. We’d like to propose an alternative.
Instead, you can install a security floodlight camera. It combines two security-conscious devices into one, offering both a motion-sensitive and controllable light and a real-time security camera to capture and record nefarious activities. In true smart home fashion, you can connect to and monitor the camera feed remotely from your phone, but you can also access recording material you might need, or control the light. Security floodlight cameras are available from several manufacturers.
4. More Smart Home Upgrades
Because there are a lot of them, and to prevent this guide from focusing entirely on smart home upgrades, we’ll cover a few additional changes you can make here:
- Install a remotely accessible smart garage door opener.
- Place smart home security cameras around your property and set up motion alerts.
- Install smart bulbs or connected lighting around your home — smart switches work too — that you can schedule. This is great for when you’re away as it makes it look like someone is home.
- Install window, glass, and door sensors that sound an alarm when tampered with. This way, you always know when someone is coming or going, or when one of the windows has been opened. Glass sensors can detect the sound of breaking glass.
5. Strengthen Entry Points
It may seem like overkill, but you can replace your doors with ones that are bulletproof and stronger, and that includes changing out the hinges so they can’t be easily broken or bypassed. You’d be surprised how easy it is to kick in a door even with multiple locks, and that’s before you even consider how easy it is to smash a window, especially one on the side or the back of the house where no one is really watching. You can do several things here like swapping out for a solid material door, reinforcing the door frame, or adding extra locks.
You might even go a step further and create a safe room, internally, that’s protected from danger, as well. You don’t have to rearrange or remodel your home to do this either. You can reuse an enclosed space like a cupboard, closet, or bathroom.
6. Mind Your Landscaping
The style of your home is important, for many reasons, the most obvious of which is that it’s your home, it should look good to you. From a contemporary option to a colonial or italianate, there are so many styles to know, but almost all deal with both the exterior of the home and the landscaping. Someone who really wants to get in your house isn’t going to be deterred by much. However, many thieves are opportunists that look for an easy score. Unkempt landscaping can make their jobs a whole lot easier by helping them stay concealed.
It may not seem like it, but keeping your landscaping clean and trimmed can help your security considerably, especially taller trees or bushes that offer quite a bit of concealment around your home’s borders. You should always keep greenery trimmed that’s near a window, door, or entry point of some kind, that way everything is in plain view.
Great Security Is Consistent
There are a lot of things you can do to shore up security for your home and property, many of which aren’t even mentioned on this list. That’s okay because the most important thing to take away from here is that security, great security, is always constant. In other words, it’s not something you should think about once, install a bunch of devices or security measures, and then never consider it again. Instead, you need to remain vigilant, continue maintaining those devices and the measures you’ve taken, continue monitoring your home and family’s safety, and continue looking for ways to improve.
That said, every opportunity on this list is a viable place to start, from installing a smart security doorbell to keeping your landscaping cleaned and trimmed, and upgrading your entry points — like swapping outdoors for a solid and more secure option.
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