7 Tips to Keep Your Home Safe While on Vacation

Vacations are a great way to spend time with your friends and family, take a break from your normal routine and relax in a place far away from home. After spending time on a relaxing vacation, the last thing you want to do is come home to a ransacked and robbed house.

Unfortunately, some people leave for vacation and leave their home open to predators. The following tips will help ensure that your home is safe while you're away.

Photo credit: melodi2

1. Don't broadcast your vacation.

Too many people today brag about upcoming trips via social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. While you'd like to think that that the people you follow or friend on these sites wouldn't do anything to harm you, it's not always the case. When you broadcast your vacation via these sites, you're letting the public know that your house will be empty for a specific length of time, making it easy for them to know when to target your home. And since some people choose to put all of their information on social media sites, it is easy for these predators to find out where exactly you live.

Even if you don't use social media, it's important to carefully choose who knows that you'll be gone. You may only want to tell a few close friends or family members in the area and have them keep an eye on your home while you're gone.

2. Get a house sitter.

Rather than leave your home empty for the duration of your trip, see if a friend or family member would be willing to house sit for you. This way, your house will still be occupied, and nobody from the outside world will know that you're gone. Your house sitter can do minor upkeep while you're away, such as bring in the mail or take care of pets, and they can keep an eye on things until you get home.

3. Tell the police.

Before leaving for vacation, let the police know that you will be out of town. This way, they will know to keep an eye on your house for you by driving by at least once a day and checking for signs of robbery. Knowing that your local law enforcement has their eye on your home can help you relax while on vacation.

4. Cancel the mail and the newspaper.

If you're going to be gone for a while and you don't have anyone to get your mail or your papers, it is best to stop these services for the duration of your trip. You can call your local post office and let them know that you'll be out of town and to please place a hold on your mail delivery. Your mail will then be kept at the post office until you return and pick it up.

Along with the mail, it's a good idea to stop newspaper delivery while away too. You can usually call your newspaper provider and let them know to hold your delivery until a specific date.

Canceling mail and newspaper delivery is a great way to make it seem as if your empty house is still occupied. If a predator saw a large amount of mail falling out of your mailbox or a week's worth of newspaper sitting at the end of your driveway, they would know that the house was empty. If you have anything else delivered to your home on a daily basis, it is also a good idea to put a hold on those as well.

5. Invest in timers.

If your home looks lived in, it will keep predators at bay. Before you leave, place timers on your outside lights as well as on one or two inside lights. Set the timer to go off at dusk, which will turn the lights on and to turn them off around the time you would usually go to bed. This small step can make it appear as if someone is home. Without timers, your house would be dark the whole time you were gone, which is another sign to predators that your house is empty.

6. Set up lawn care.

If you are going to be gone for an extended length of time, hire a company to take care of your lawn while you're away. If you usually keep your lawn cut on a regular basis, an overgrown lawn while you're away can be a sign to predators that you're not home. By having a company come and take care of your lawn, it can help keep thieves away.

7. Lock up and use security systems.

If you have a home security system, be sure to turn it on when you leave for vacation. This can help keep your home safe from predators, and it will alert the police right away if anything out of the ordinary were to occur.

Before you leave, go through your home and make sure that every window and door is closed and locked. While this may seem obvious, some people may leave for vacation and forget to close a back window that now serves as an entryway for predators.

If you take these seven precautions before leaving on vacation, you can be sure that your home will be intact when you return.

Carrie Johnson is a travel agent and dedicated mother. She loves spending quality time with her family. Carrie knows how to keep her home safe while she's gone and recently enjoyed a relaxing vacation at the bahamas vacation resort.