If you’re jetting off on holiday in the next few weeks, you may be wondering how best you can protect your valuables while you’re not at home. Burglaries are a worry for many people who own valuable items, but is there anything you can do to make them less likely? There are actually quite a few steps you can take to try and make sure everything in your home stays exactly the way you left it, here are some tips:
Install security cameras
Security cameras are a great deterrent and will put off many thieves. Make sure you have some outside your home as well as inside. Some cameras even operate on Wi-Fi, meaning you can keep an eye on your home while you’re not there. This can give you a whole lot of peace as you’ll be able to see that everything is as it should be while you’re sunning yourself on the beach.
Take out home insurance
While home insurance won’t actually stop your valuables from being stolen, it can help you replace them if the worst should happen. Before rushing into a policy, make sure you shop around and find the best price for home insurance, especially if you need to take out extra cover to protect your valuables, specifically “big” items. Always check to see if your insurance has a single item limit or certain categories of items that are exempt from protection.
Hide valuables
Leaving valuable items on display will often attract burglars to your home, so try to make sure everything is not in full view of windows. If you have a small safe, that’s an even better place to stow away important documents and jewellery. Wall and floor safes are better options than free-standing safes, but any kind of safe makes it harder to get at your belongings than no safe at all.
Ask a loved one to visit your home
If you have a friend or family member you trust living close by, you could ask them to stay in your house every now and again. This will show onlookers that there’s someone keeping an eye on things, making your home less likely to get broken into. If you don’t have anyone available, you could hire a house sitter or simply set your lights and curtains on timers to at least give the impression of someone living there.
Don’t advertise you’re going away
While it’s fine to tell a few of your nearest and dearest you’re going on holiday, try to avoid posting your holiday plans on social media. Your plans will reach a huge number of people and some of those may know your address. While we all like to think the people on our social media care about us, the information may reach some people with bad intentions.
Most of the time, our valuables will be just fine when we go on holiday, but it doesn’t hurt to take extra precautions to give us that extra bit of peace of mind.
