How to Keep Your Home Safe While Away (Updated for 2024)

When you take a much-needed vacation, the last thing you want to worry about is a disaster robbing you of house and home while you’re away. But thieves and disasters honor no PTO requests.How can you keep your home safe while you’re away at a work conference or backpacking through Europe? It takes a bit of planning, but you can decrease your chances of losing all you own. Here’s what to do to keep your home safe.

1. Phone a Friend

When you go away, mail piles up on your front porch or in your mailbox. If you subscribe to a newspaper, it remains lying in the driveway. Even if you wait to post your vacation pics on social media until you return home, these items lay out the welcome mat for those looking to break and enter.You could hire a house sitter, but if you have a friendly neighbor, ask if they’d pick up your mail while you’re away. Of course, offer to return the favor when it’s their turn to go on holiday. And call your paper and ask them to halt delivery. If you have no friendly neighbors and have a smallish budget, you can have the post office temporarily hold your mail for a nominal fee.

2. Unplug All Devices

You don’t want to risk a fire while you’re away. If you have pets, this can mean losing beloved companions. If you lack adequate insurance coverage, you could lose everything you own. Before you leave, unplug all electrical devices. This will help avoid fires started by faulty outlets and wiring problems you may remain unaware of. Obviously, you’ll need to leave some, like refrigerators and deep freezers plugged in, but if possible, strive to eat as much as you can before departure, so you don’t lose $100’s in food if the power goes out while you’re away.

3. Shut Off the Water

Water sits in the pipes until you turn on the faucet and shower or flush the toilet. These pipes can break or leak while you’re away and cause serious water damage. 

If you live in a cold climate, you risk your pipes freezing and bursting if you turn off the heat and a snap hits. Locate your water shutoffs where pipes enter the house — even a small leak can cause pipes to burst — and keep the thermostat turned to at least 55 degrees indoors. This way, you can reduce potential damage and keep your home safe.

4. Clear Bushes and Debris

If you have trees overgrowing your roof, a storm could send a branch crashing through it. If you have bushes hiding front windows, a thief could gain access under cover of darkness with no witnesses. Before leaving, trim everything away from windows to allow neighbors to witness any unsavory activity around your property. They may not stop a break-in but can help identify the culprit. Hire a tree company to trim overhanging branches.

5. Check Your Garage Door

Did you know freezing temperatures can impact the battery life, tire pressure and spark plugs in your vehicle? Keeping your car outdoors while away makes it a target for burglars, and exposes it to the elements. Even your paint oxidizes faster when exposed. Park your car in the garage when you leave and test your automatic garage door opener. If you’ve given out your keypad combo to others like contractors in the past, change it before you depart.

6. Hide Valuables Away From Home

Do you have an heirloom diamond handed down through generations? Consider transporting such valuables to a safe deposit box at a local bank prior to departure. The bank offers an enhanced security for your fine jewelry, sentimental keepsakes and important documents. It has alarm systems and 24-hour CCTVs that may not be available at your home. It’s also an ideal solution if you need to travel for a period. Renting safe deposit boxes costs little and could save you a fortune if you suffer a break-in.

7. Un-Hide Your Spare Key

If you keep a spare key under a rock or in a garden pot, make sure to take it with you when you go. If you’re hiring a pet or house sitter, give them the key after conducting a background check and request it back when you return. You can also purchase an inexpensive lockbox for an outdoor key and provide the combination only to authorized individuals.

8. Double Lock All Entry Points

Ensure to leave all your worries behind by reinforcing the locks in all entry ways. Seasoned burglars can tamper with them by snapping the cylinder lock in half. It only takes them between five and 10 seconds to do this. If you have two on each door and window, it won’t be as easy for them to gain entry into your property.

9.  Change Curtains to Motorized Blinds

Besides giving you privacy, blinds can protect your valuables from the greedy burglar’s eyes that may target them. The best thing is they’re remotely controllable via an app. You can raise or lower the blinds at random times, which tricks thieves that someone is home. 

10. Park a Car in the Driveway

Break-ins are well-planned — intruders wait patiently for that perfect chance to raid your home. They’ll observe your daily routines and schedules for days or weeks, including when and where you park your car. A sudden change in your habits, like an empty driveway, could signal a green light for invasion. They’ll take it as an opportunity to backdoor their way into your home. Since you can’t leave your car outside, ask a friend or a neighbor to temporarily park at your house until you return to keep your home safe.

11. Install Outdoor Lighting

Don’t let the darkness make your property vulnerable. A simple trick to outsmart burglars is to install outdoor lights throughout your abode and keep them on from dusk until dawn. These options are available online. Some have motion sensors that will flash intimidating lights if someone tries to intrude and send a notification to your phone. After installation, connect them to your smartphone by downloading an app so you can control them remotely. This way, you can turn them on and off wherever you are. 

12. Put Up Security Signs

Thieves look for easy targets. They don’t want to get caught. If a criminal sees one home that reads, “Protected by a home security system,” and one without such signage, which property do you think they’ll target? Order things online which haven’t arrived before you depart? You can buy porch security cameras for less than $50. These connect to your cellphone, and you can monitor your delivery and call a responsible party to take them in when they arrive. If nothing else, if someone does swipe your items, you have valuable evidence to provide to the police.

Keep Your Home Safe While Away

It’s difficult to fully relax on vacation if you haven’t taken precautions to protect your property from the worst in your absence. By following the tips above, you can get some much-needed R&R while out of town.

Original Publish Date: November 18, 2019 — Updated August 10, 2024