Australia’s ‘typical’ lifestyle really is a suburban lifestyle. Some 70% of us live in a surburb, mostly in a freestanding house with a backyard. Most house alarm system and general security advice is aimed at suburban dwellers, so you might think that you know all this stuff already! However, today we give you a quick refresher on the basics of suburban home security, then look deeper to tell you a few things you probably didn’t know about keeping your suburban home safe!
Break the Psychological Barriers to Safety
The first and most important step in keeping your family safe is to stop thinking that “it could never happen to me”. Suburban dwellers often fail to secure their homes because they believe that living in a ‘good area’ is enough. Start looking for the weak points. Start putting measures like house alarm systems in place to protect yourself. Start today … after you’ve finished reading this!
The Basics of Suburban Home Security
You have probably heard many of these tips a dozen times, so we’ll just give you a quick refresher:
- Secure your home and its perimeter by: Installing deadlocks on doors, locks and grates on windows, building high fences which are hard to climb and using a locking gate.
- Improve visibility by: Trimming or removing plants close to the home, installing movement-activated lighting outside.
- Protect your possessions by: Keeping irreplaceable valuables in a safe hidden in your home and bolted to the floor, engraving all your appliances and other valuables with your name, keeping easily stolen items out of view, and photographing everything and ensuring your insurance will cove you.
- Protect yourself and your family by: Keeping any guns you are licensed to own in a locked cabinet, and installing a house alarm system which is monitored so that in an emergency, someone will come to protect you.
Go for the Gold Standard
The pinnacle of safety for suburban homes is a house alarm system. Make sure you have it monitored – a non-monitored alarm may either be ignored by neighbours and passers by (because there are so many false alarms), or encourage an innocent bystander to try to stop the burglary, putting them in a very dangerous position.
Depend on Your Neighbours for …
You shouldn’t ask your neighbours to step in to stop a burglar in your property, but you can ask them to conceal the fact that you’re on holidays! For your holiday times, ask your neighbour to put your rubbish bin out and bring it in, bring your mail in, switch your porch lights on and off… and perhaps mow your lawn, if you’re very good friends!
Use the strong community spirit of suburban areas to help protect your home … but don’t let the illusion of protection in a ‘good suburb’ fool you into ignoring essentials like a house alarm system!