Even easier on the wallet than the last set of tips were, most of these tips are free! That’s because they’re all about your behavior. After all, it doesn’t matter how expensive your locks are if you leave the door open!
Routine
Make a routine that you follow every night before bed and every time you leave the house (or are the last one to leave the house):
- Close all curtains, or at least the ground-floor ones.
- Make sure they are actually closed all the way; even a few millimeters of gap in the middle or side may be enough for someone to see inside and realize that nobody is home.
- Make sure you regularly put your valuables in a hiding spot and/or safe.
- Alternately, you can take them with you, but weigh this against the risk of those items being lost, broken, stolen by a mugger or car prowler, etc.
- If putting things away is too much hassle, choose a more accessible spot. Even if it’s a less secure spot, it’s still more secure than leaving it out in the open because you were too busy/lazy to put it away.
- Lock all windows and exterior doors (including deadbolts) and place dowels in the frames, if applicable. Also close the garage door(s), if applicable.
- If you have an alarm system, arm it.
If you have trouble remembering to do some of these things, you can get alarm systems and/or smart devices that can remind you and sometimes even do them for you (e.g. automatically locking your deadbolt, notifying you if your garage door is open, etc.). LINK to alarm system and smart devices sections.
Hiding spots for valuables
Most people probably don’t want to bother with a safe, especially since a good one is always expensive (several hundred dollars at least) and difficult to install (you have to bolt them to your walls or floor to prevent a thief from just walking away with the whole thing).
So why not just hide your belongings instead? Most people keep their valuables in the same non-hidden places, and burglars want to get in and out quickly… so they usually will just check the most common and easily-accessible areas and then leave. So put your valuables where they won’t look! No burglar is going to spend hours rooting through all of the boxes of Christmas lights in your attic or the old paint cans in your garage. So get creative! Here are some ideas:
- In old food boxes, cans, jars, etc. in your kitchen—nobody ever expects the ol’ “laptop in a cereal box” trick!
- Inside a big bag of pet food or cat litter
- Way in the back reaches of your kitchen cabinets (e.g. back of a corner cabinet)
- In your fridge
- In boxes that are clearly labeled as something boring, e.g. “old baby clothes” (preferably with some actual baby clothes on top, just in case they check)
- Inside air vents
- Inside fake power outlets (yes, you can buy these—or just get a real outlet+box and don’t put any wires in it)
- In general, mixed in with anything that is not considered valuable
Just don’t get too crazy when hiding, because if your spot is too difficult to access, you won’t actually bother to hide your items there regularly. And that defeats the entire purpose! So save the most difficult-to-access spots for items that are extremely valuable and/or not needed often (e.g. family heirloom jewelry). Save the more convenient spots for items that you use often, e.g. laptops, spare cash, etc. Even if it’s less secure, it’s still more secure than being too lazy to hide it at all!
Also, if disguising your valuables, remember that a burglar is likely to just grab boxes/drawers and dump them out on the floor. So put actual worthless stuff in the boxes that are most easily accessible, in order to discourage them and make them start looking elsewhere. A burglar might also just dump stuff into their bag, e.g. the entire contents of your kitchen junk drawer, because they hope that they’ll get lucky. So make sure that your hidden stuff is in a bulky-enough hiding place that this can’t happen, and also is not next to (or mixed in with) other kinda-valuable things.
Oh yeah, and make sure that your hiding places are all safe from the elements, not just burglars! Try to avoid any places that will cause your valuables to be damaged by water, heat, cold, bugs, smoke, etc. You can put them in bags or something first to help protect them.
And just for fun, here are some places to NOT hide things:
- In your nightstand
- In your underwear drawer
- Under your bed/mattress
- In your desk
- In your medicine cabinet (burglars often look here for prescription drugs that they can use or sell)
Seriously, don’t do it. These spots are so obvious that it hurts.
Spare keys
If you have a spare key hidden outside, do yourself a favor and don’t. Or at the very least, just like with hiding other valuables, do not put it in one of the Most Obvious Spots™:
- Under the welcome mat
- On top of the door frame
- In the mailbox
- In/under a planter
- In a “Hide-a-Key”
- Under a fake rock
- Under a real rock
- Anywhere near the front or back doors
- Sitting in a shed (at least not out in the open—hide it inside something else)
- In a combination key lockbox like the kind often found on the doorknobs of Airbnbs and houses that are up for sale. These are easily cracked open.
If you’re worried about locking yourself out, or need a key available for housesitters/cleaners/guests/etc., consider an electronic lock that can be opened with a key code, or even a smart lock that can be opened by a phone app (even remotely). LINK to smart devices section. Consider giving a spare key to a friend or neighbor that you trust.
If you still insist on having a backup key hidden outside for special occasions, then do something creative and inconvenient (hopefully you won’t be needing it often). I’d recommend burying it in a spot that is not obviously marked, but where you will still remember where it is. For example, buried one foot from your water spigot, or under the third rock near your driveway. It doesn’t have to be deep, just an inch or two; deep enough that it isn’t likely to be uncovered accidentally or by a cursory search. Preferably, the key would be inside a bag or something so it doesn’t get dirty, as dirt might damage your lock. Ideally, you would also be able to remove it without it being obvious to neighbors/passersby what you’re doing.
If you have an apartment instead of a house, you obviously won’t be able to hide a key in your (nonexistent) yard, so your best bet is somewhere farther away from the building.
Fly under the radar
Don’t look like a target. To the extent that you can, try not to show any signs of wealth, e.g.:
- Don’t park a fancy car out front
- Don’t keep a 60-inch TV in the window
- Don’t leave the box from your brand new Macbook Pro sitting out on the curb with the recycling bins.
Additional tips for travelers
- Remember to double check that all windows/doors are closed and locked.
- Make sure that your blinds/curtains are closed (so that the house isn’t obviously unoccupied).
- Consider putting some lights on a timer. Some smart light bulbs have a “random” mode to make a house look occupied while you’re away.
- Have someone you trust house sit for you, at least for part of the time. They should take in mail/packages/newspapers regularly, both to prevent them from being stolen, and so it doesn’t look like the house isn’t being watched. If you can’t have someone house sit, see if you can temporarily stop deliveries.
- If your car(s) will be gone, consider asking a neighbor to park their car in your driveway (especially if they have more than one). People will probably assume that a house with no vehicles is empty.
- If you have an enclosed garage (with no windows), this might not be necessary, as a burglar might just assume that your car is in there.
- Also consider asking your neighbors to keep an extra eye out. If they know that you’re gone, then noise or moving shadows in the next house over might tip them off to a burglary in progress. Remember to do the same for them! Friends are, well, your friend!
- Don’t be obvious about your absence; if you’re blasting social media with all your vacation pics, an unscrupulous friend of a friend could easily look up your address and decide to help themselves to your belongings. In general, you should practice good internet privacy and security hygiene.
Conclusion
I hope these tips help you think about ways that you can improve your home’s security! And remember, you don’t need to do everything at once, or even ever. You have to draw the line somewhere, after all. But I do think these tips provide a decent baseline level of security, so I hope you’ll consider working your way through them.
The Readyist 
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