Our homes hold the most precious things we own. Not stuff, but people. Keeping my kids safe is a top priority in my life.

When I lived at home with my parents we had a burglar alarm.  We never needed it, thank goodness, but every time a door would open there would be a little beep beep and I would feel safe.

When we lived in Kansas it was a small town. It was a safe town. So safe that people would just leave the keys to their cars in the ignition when they went into the store, knowing their car would be there when they were done shopping. We might have been the only people in the town to lock our cars and our home.

Now we live in Missouri. The town is a little bigger than where we lived in Kansas, but it still feels safe. We bought a home with a burglar alarm already installed, but we haven’t ever activated it. I have an internal struggle with this because on one hand nothing unsafe has happened in our neighborhood, but on the other hand if we wait to activate it, it might be too late. What if we are the first house to experience some kind of intrusion?

Case studies have shown that homes with a burglar alarm are less likely to be broken into. The criminals are more likely to pick a house that doesn’t pose a challenge like a burglar alarm gives. This means that you should always display you alarm company’s sticker in your window or banner in your yard.

Here are some other ways to keep your home safe from invasion:

• Keep your yard tidy. A home that looks lived in than one that doesn’t. Be sure to pick up your newspapers and fliers that end up on your doorstep so that everyone knows someone has recently been to your house.
• Use your front porch light at night. A burglar doesn’t want a spotlight on them while trying to get into your house. With a porch brightly lit, no one without a key will be trying to get in.
• Install a storm door or security door. In the midwest we call them storm doors, but on the west coast we called them security doors. That is just another barrier between you and a bad guy. It is hard to hold open a storm door while kicking in, or picking the lock on your front door.
• Have quality deadbolts on your exterior doors.
• If you are going away, don’t announce it to the world. Tell a few trusted friends and neighbors so they can be on the look out while you are gone. Set lights on timers so your house looks lived in while you are away.

By taking preventative measures you can increase your chances of staying safe and avoiding a costly home invasion!

What other precautions would you add to my list?

This post has been brought to you by the team at SDFireAlarms.co.uk