10 Holiday Safety Tips for Homeowners

Holiday safety tips surely are on your priority list this time of year. We are all excited to go on holiday, but what about what we leave behind when going on holiday? To have the best holiday is to have peace of mind about your personal belongings back at home.

Ensure that your home and personal belongings are safe on your return. Follow these holiday safety tips as a guideline.

Special items need special attention

Do you have personal belongings that you do not want to take with you on holiday? Ensure you have a safe in a secret and safe place where you can store away your most personal belongings. The other alternative is to ask a close relative/friend to safe-keep your belongings while you are on holiday.

Have a good security system in place

A good security system always wins. Make sure you have secure burglar bars all around the house where burglars might try and enter. Connect your burglar bars to an alarm system that can be triggered and your security provider notified when a burglar tries to break in. Ensure good perimeter protection around your home with gates, electric fencing and beams where necessary.

Inform your security provider

Ensure that you have a trusted security provider that can monitor any alarm activation and inform you while you are away. Should the unthinkable happen and your alarm is activated you can at least have peace of mind that the armed response will respond quickly enough to check it out and determine what set it off.

Security lights

Set a light or a few lights in your home on a timer, so that it goes on at night when you arrive home from work and switch off again when you go to bed. This will look like there is someone at home. Otherwise, you can choose to leave one light on for the duration of your holiday.

Close all curtains and blinds

Close all curtains and blinds so that no one can look through the windows into your house. The less they see, the less they know and the less likely they would want to target your home if they don’t know what is inside to steal.

Neighbourhood watch

If you are fortunate enough to have a neighbourhood watch in your area then you are lucky. This can be very helpful to notice suspicious people and behaviour lurking around. Let one or two trusted neighbours know you are going on holiday. This will help someone to act if necessary if they suspect unsuspicious behaviour near your home.

Switch off utilities

Switch all your electric appliances off at the plug and unplug them. Make sure your gas is switched off.

Test your Alarm System

This is one of the most essential holiday safety tips. Make sure your alarm system is in working order by testing it before you leave on holiday. This will ensure that the alarm is triggered correctly and your security provider is notified. You will need to call your security provider and set a time to test the system to ensure it is also in working order on their end.

Get a House Sitter

This is one of the best ways you can have peace of mind while on holiday. A house sitter stays at your house while you are on holiday, looking after your belongings. This is especially helpful if you have pets and plants that need daily love and attention.

Don’t post to Social Media

Criminals have a lot of tricks up their sleeves and one of them is monitoring your whereabouts on social media. Never post to social media that you are on holiday or how long you will be gone.

Conclusion

Use some of our holiday safety tips to make a nifty list of things to do before going on holiday. As you complete them you can check them off one by one on your list. Enjoy your holiday with peace of mind!