How to keep your home safe while on vacation?

You are hundreds of kilometers away, what now? There's not much you can do at that point. For example, you can ask a neighbor to check on the situation and ease your worries. But you can learn a lot from this lesson. The next time you go on an extended vacation, you can make your home a lot safer while you're away.

What can you do to keep him safe? The thought of spending extra after you've already had to pay an astronomical price for an apartment or house these days isn't very appealing, but in some cases it's the only option. Fortunately, there are budget-friendly solutions that can help you insure your home and save yourself many gray hairs.

Security solutions where technology and money do not play an important role

Mind games can be a very powerful tool in our security portfolio. If we manage to convince the thieves that we are home when we are not, or if we can make them doubt, then we have won an important battle in the war.

Maintaining good neighborly relations can also be a very important advantage in this case. Approach a good-hearted neighbor, preferably with a delicious treat or a surprise basket, and ask him to "cast one eye" on your home as well. You can advise him to check the lock regularly, as thieves use adhesive tapes that they stick on the lock and thus monitor whether someone has entered the house in the meantime. Let him pick up any mail. If you have more than one car in your household, your neighbor can also randomly move it. If your driveway is empty, you can ask him to park right in front of your house every other day. This gives the impression that the house is not alone.

Never leave a message on the door for delivery people or anything like that. The packages will be waiting for you at the post office, but you can also divert them as a precaution. We like to cover the curtains and thus prevent thieves from easily looking into the rooms. At the same time, this can be an indication that we are not at home, especially if we usually don't close the curtains.

Have a neighbor, friend or family member make sure that the municipality always empties the garbage containers. Full containers left in the driveway for a long time are an immediate indicator of your absence for thieves.

Uncut grass is also an immediate sign that you are not at home. Have someone mow it, or maybe consider a robotic lawnmower if you have a larger property. Some also allow you to monitor what is happening around the home through their camera.

Camouflage your absence

It only takes one chance to run out of valuables. Most thieves do what they do because they see an opportunity at that moment that they should not miss, but there are fewer miscreants who take their time and watch your home for weeks.

Smart devices offer many ways to make it look like someone is in your house, and setting them up can be very simple. Sometimes all you need to do is download the app to your smartphone.

Simply put, smart sockets are on/off switches. You can connect other devices to them and add some gray cells to them. They also enable the creation of schedules or timelines. You can set the TV to turn on a few times a day or the speaker to play loud music for an hour or two. You can also make a chain reaction, when, for example, a motion sensor on a window or door detects human movement, lights and other devices are turned on to scare away miscreants.

Smart light bulbs are another cheaper solution to deter thieves. You can buy them for less than 10 euros, and most importantly, they allow you to set timers or remote control. Place them in the yard as well and make sure they turn on randomly.

Smart shutters and blinds are not so cheap, but they have a double function. When you're at home, they block out the light, and when you're on vacation, you can set them to open and close at specific times, such as morning, noon, or evening. If you connect them with smart bulbs, the effect will be even more authentic. Their problem, as already mentioned, is the high price, and sometimes they have to be custom-ordered, which is an additional cost, and you also have to pay for installation.

The strongest defense is offense

We don't mean you have to go Rambo and set up death traps around the house. There are more humane solutions to attack thieves.

Smart locks have become very sophisticated. Our homes are protected with biometrics or classic passwords. We can also manage them with applications through which we can change passwords for each individual, receive notifications about arrivals and departures and more. Together with the video intercom, we have the first weapon against intruders at the front door. The video intercom allows us to have a two-way conversation with a potential visitor, it can distinguish between human and animal movement, and at the same time it records a high-quality video if you want to use it to identify thieves. You can also use it to finally find out which neighbor's dog is polluting your beautifully manicured yard.

There are all-in-one kits that include locks, video intercoms, sensors and everything else you need for home security. The advantage of this is that you don't have to worry about whether different devices will work well with each other. The downside is that you are then stuck in this ecosystem. In most cases, you will not be able to freely add any new devices.

Subscriptions are getting harder and harder to resist. Before buying, check whether, for example, the view in real time is a basic good or you will have to pay an extra few euros per month for it.

Surveillance cameras are the most popular security solution. We can install them ourselves (with rare exceptions), there is a huge selection and their price is also not excessive. We need to decide whether to install wired or wireless. Wireless cameras are more expensive and require regular charging. The batteries last a long time, some also have the option of charging with solar energy. Security cameras allow us to have an insight into what is happening at home or in the surroundings at any moment. They have a 360-degree view, high definition, microphones for talking, and it's really not hard to see why they are so popular with homeowners.

You can be extra sneaky and give thieves a hard time by placing one camera on the ground and pointing it up. Thieves expect the camera to be installed somewhere on the facade or in a higher position, so they wear hats and look down. While they are looking down, they will be captured by your hidden camera that you have hidden in flowers or something similar.

Thieves aren't your only concern

Although you successfully chased away the thieves, you were not without enemies. Even mother nature can be fair to us - or, for example, our clumsiness. Storms, floods, fires and other disasters can cause enormous damage. There is nothing worse than following the news that something like this is happening around your home, and you are on another continent. You have to do a lot of other things, but with the aforementioned devices you can at least monitor whether everything is fine at home. You can also ask your loved ones to check the situation and let you know.

Then there are other accidents, such as short circuits that can start a fire or burst pipes that can flood your home. There are sensors that you can place in critical places and they will warn you in time that something is wrong in the house or apartment.

How do you insure your home?