Exotic Vacation Places

Whether you live by yourself or already have a family, there must be a time when you need to go traveling and leave the home empty. Most people don't concern much about leaving their home, as they think that rely on their neighbors is enough. However, there's a fact that burglary more often happens in June-July, just around summer holiday when many families left their home for a vacation.

Whatever your traveling purpose is, either for business or pleasure, you need to always make your home safe. Not just from crime or burglary, but also from fire, flood, power surge, etc. You don't want to find out that most of your valuables are gone when you got home after expensive honeymoon or sealed a million dollar business deal, right?

So, here are some tips on how to keep home safe during travel time:



Don't Preach - Why people always so proud when they go traveling, that they blabbing around social networks about it. Never think that criminal is a poor and retarded men that don't know how to use Internet and read Facebook or Twitter. You can always tell your traveling experience later, when you already at home, not before! Also, tell only the necessary people about your plan, which include family, trusted friends, and probably few neighbors.

Ask for Help - From the trusted few that you told about your vacation, you should ask one or two of them to regularly check your home. Not just the outside, but also the inside. You can ask him/her to turn on/off the lights, watering your plan, feed your pets, etc. Remember to tell when you have more than one person to visit your home during your travel, as you don't want them shooting at each other because they think that they meet a burglar.

Extra Locks - Repair all broken/frail-old locks. Install quality deadbolt door locks. It's actually very easy to lock-picking a door without deadbolt (check on YouTube if you don't believe).

Timer - Lights, on or off? Many choose "on" as burglar rarely act on daylight, so the thief will think that someone's at home if the lights on at night. However, this is not eco-friendly, as it isn't wallet-friendly either. If you don't have someone to take care of your lights, use a timer that can automatically switch them on/off on a timely based. Timer also can be applied for television or radio.

Take Care of Mail - Pile of mails and newspapers on your porch is the easiest sign to tell that the house is empty. Again, if there's no one can help you take care of this, just notify postal and newspaper service to stop sending mails during your travel time.

Take Care of Phone - Set the ringer volume to minimum, as unanswered phone can be heard from outside the house. Also, don't leave a message that you're on a vacation on your answering machine.

Pull Electrical Plugs - This is not just useful for avoiding power surges, but also will save some money from electric bill. There are many appliances that using "phantom power", meaning that they still consume electricity even when they are turned off.

Don’t Leave Valuables in Plain Sight - Store your valuables and important documents in safety deposit box at a bank if you can. If you have to leave them at home, make a listed documents of your valuables that including pictures and videotape, for insurance purpose. You also should make a copy of important documents, and store them at your friend or family.

Prevent Fire and Flood - Besides unplug electronic devices, to prevent fire you should make sure your rain gutters are clear of dry leaves and evergreen needles that can easily catch fire. If you have a fireplace, be sure there the flue is completely closed, ashes are cooled, and there is no potential for fire. Turn off all faucets, including the ones outside the house. If your pipes are in danger of freezing during winter, keep the heat inside the house. Also ask your friend to turn on and check all the faucets.


So, that's all about how to keep home safe during travel time. Keep in touch with this blog for more useful travel tips and guides!