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Home Safety While You Are Away
One of my favorite movies at Christmas is “Home Alone.” I love the part when Kevin wakes up and thinks he made his family disappear, and the part where his parents realized that they forgot their son at home, as they are picking up their luggage in France!”
Now I love to go on vacation, but just as in Kevin’s family in the movie, they were all a little stressed getting ready to leave for France, the next morning. There are a lot of things we must remember to do before we can just walk out the door and be gone for the next week, or two.
We do not want to get on that plane, or drive down the road and suddenly think; “Oh no!” “Did I lock the door?” “Did I unplug the toaster?”, “Do I have all my children?” You get the picture.
Now, Kevin in Home Alone, did a surprisingly decent job of keeping the burglars from getting in his home while the family was away, but I do not think you want to leave your home to chance to an 8 year old. Perhaps there is a better way.
In my interview last week with Mr. Doug Parisi, (The Director of Training for SafeDefend), he gave me vitally important tips on how to keep your home safe while you are away.
HOME SAFETY WHILE YOU ARE AWAY
I hope these home safety tips given by Mr. Doug Parisi, will give you more confidence as you prepare for your next vacation. If you follow these tips, you should be able to relax, revitalize and simply enjoy yourself. Safe travels always.
- Social Media. Do not post on social media while you are gone. Wait and share all those fun photos until you get home. If you must post, he said to change your settings to private.
- Home Access.Someone you trust, should have access to your house in case of an emergency.
- Have someone check on house. Designate a trustworhty person to come check on the house, do a walk around, make sure the doors and windows are closed and locked from the outside. This does not take long.
- Avoid Vacant Appearance. Arrange for someone to water your lawn, flowers and mow the lawn when necessary. If you are gone in the winter, have them shovel the walk and driveway. Make sure you have some lights on automatic timers, that will come on in the evening and shut off in the day. These can be bought at Home Depot, Lowes, even Walmart for very little price but a big return on your money so your home looks lived in.
- Mail. Put a hold on your mail. This can be done on your computer from home. You go to the USPS website and fill out a form that tells the post office when to stop and when to start delivering your mail. It is that easy.
- Newspaper. If you have your newspaper delivered to your home, call the newspaper office, and let them know you would like them to hold your newspaper. You give them the dates of when to stop and when to start the paper. You can have all your papers delivered once you are home, or you can have them donated to a classroom for students to use while you are gone. Or, you can have a neighbor pick up the paper daily, and let them have it.
- House Sitter. If you are going to be gone longer than 5 days get a house sitter. They can take care of the things we talked about, bring in the mail, newspaper, water the lawn and flowers. You may still need to have someone else do the heavy work of mowing the lawn or shoveling the walk.
- Courtesy Patrol. You can call your police department, or sheriff’s department and ask for a courtesy patrol. If you live in the city, you call the police department, if you live in the county, you call the sheriff’s department and ask them for a courtesy patrol. Make sure you call the non-emergency number. The dispatcher or desk person will ask you for the dates you will be gone, and then when the officers are on duty and they are slow, they will drive by your house, shine the spotlight, and make sure everything looks okay. There is no charge for this. This is offered as part of their community policing but done when they have time.
- Hot & Cold. If you are planning on being gone in the winter and you live in an area where pipes tend to freeze, you may want to turn off the hot and cold water to your washer. This can prevent those pipes from bursting in case there is a deep freeze while you are gone.
- Security System. If you have the ability, it would be an excellent idea to install a security system. There are several that you can install and check on your home remotely with your cell phone while you are gone. It may be money well spent and give you peace of mind.