Your home should be your place of comfort, and you want to feel safe and secure within its walls regardless of what might be happening outside.
Many of us are happy to invest in new furnishings and decor to improve the aesthetics of our homes, but practical updates for home security purposes often fall by the wayside.
Perhaps you don’t want to spend a fortune on the latest security cameras or electric gates. But there are still affordable ways to improve your home security and enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that your family and valuables are better protected.
Install a Security Alarm
Security alarms are a major deterrent to burglars, for one simple reason: they’re noisy. Alarms draw unwanted attention to a crime that needs to be committed as surreptitiously as possible.
There’s no necessity to buy the latest smart alarm – any sort of visible alarm (even a secondhand one) should be enough to direct a criminal away from your property and towards one that won’t make their attempted break-in so obvious.
Change Your Locks
Changing the lock on your front and back door can cost less than $100 but is one of the best moves you can make for improving your home security.
This is especially important if you’ve recently moved into a new property – you have no way of knowing how many times the previous inhabitants got their keys duplicated, and how many strangers still have access to your home.
A good locksmith store should point you in the direction of a reliable locksmith who can provide a quote on changing your locks.
Illuminate Your Drive & Garden
Another affordable way to deter intruders is by installing security lights in your driveway and garden.
Again, these don’t have to be super high-tech – even a few solar-powered lights are better than nothing.
If you can stretch your budget a little further, motion-activated security lights are a great investment, warding off anyone who prefers to operate under the cover of darkness.
Store Spare Keys in a Lockbox
Many of us grew up knowing we could find a spare key to our home beneath a plant pot or under the doormat. But hiding your spare key in plain sight is a quick and easy way to give unwanted visitors access to your home.
Wall-mounted key lockboxes are very affordable, costing less than $15, and they give the extra security of key-code access.
Having a spare key on hand offers peace of mind in knowing you or a neighbor can enter your home in an emergency scenario, but keeping it safely locked in a code-protected box will stop it from falling into the wrong hands.
Final Word
Home security might not be the most exciting investment – but lucky, you don’t have to spend a fortune on the fundamental security solutions for your home.
Start with the basics, and once you have those sorted, you can look to invest in bigger and better home security improvements over time.
