How to Secure Your Home While Away on Summer Vacation

Keep your home safe.

Summer time is the perfect time to go away for a relaxing vacation.  An unguarded home, however, is a perfect target for thieves.  Take a few precautions before you leave for vacation to provide you peace of mind and true relaxation

Secure your important information.  Purchase a removable or external hard disk drive for your computer.  Save all important files and financial records on this hard disk drive only and not on your primary hard drive.  This portable drive should be removed from your home when you are away for extended periods and may be stored in a safe deposit box.  All important hard copies of deeds, licenses, birth certificates, social security cards, unused credit cards, etc. should be kept secure in an off-site safe deposit box as well.

Secure the perimeter of your home.  If you have a sliding glass door, place a broom handle or stick in the track of the door to prevent it from being opened.  The latch on a sliding glass door is very easy to bypass.  Drill holes in an upper corner of all lower wooden window panes and insert a long nail, which will make opening the window difficult from outside the home.

Ask a friend or trusted neighbor to collect your mail each day while you are away and to walk around your home and look for anything strange.  If possible, leave at least one car parked in your driveway and leave a few lights on inside the home.  Purchase several timers and set them to turn on at dusk and turn off around the time you would normally go to bed.  If a crook is watching your house, this may fool them into believing that someone is home.

Perform a walk-through of your entire home and film everything using a video camera.  Store the tape along with all other important items in your safe deposit box.  This evidence will be useful to provide to the police and your insurance company if someone does manage to break in and steal or damage items in your home.

Walk around both the inside and outside of your home one last time before you leave.  Unplug any dangerous or energy inefficient appliances and raise the temperature slightly on the thermostat.  Check that your oven is turned off.  Close all blinds or curtains, making it difficult to see into the home from outside.  Make sure all exterior doors are locked and place padlocks on all gates, storage buildings, and crawlspace doors.