Five Fundamental Tips for Securing Your Home

This article covers the five fundamental tips for securing your home. 

Why is Securing Your Home Important

Your home is your castle. It's the place where you and your family should feel safe from the uncertainties outside the world. 

Unfortunately, though, the bad actors of the world feel differently. They couldn't care less about the sanctity of your home. Criminals and others see you and your family as a means to an end. That end may include making a quick buck, fulfilling a sick and violent fetish, or many other possible criminal desires. 

Regardless of the bad actor's intent, they all typically spell trouble for you and your loved ones. 

The Strategy of Securing Your Home

Fortunately, there is a solution to securing your home against those who wish you harm. That solution is the five d's of home security, which are: deter, detect, deny, delay, and defend. 

The five d's provide a strategy for protecting your home by first establishing a perimeter around your home. Your perimeter can be mental, physical, or a combination of both. 

Furthermore, your boundary does not necessarily need to be owned or controlled by you. Instead, it is the area you designate as the area you will apply the five d's to for securing your home.

Additionally, it's essential to understand that the five d's of home security can apply to any location you want to feel and be safe and secure. In short, your perimeter is a boundary you mentally establish around you and your loved ones, and then apply the following five d's of security too.

The Five D's of Home Security

Once you establish your perimeter, it's time to start applying the five d's of home security to your bad guy no-go zone. 

Deter

The best method of securing your home is to make the bad guys want to stay away. In other words, keep the bad guys from ever getting to your door or window. If you do, they won't get into your house and do you harm.

Deterring someone from trying to break into your castle is simple. You deter criminals by turning your home into an undesirable target. You can make your home an unwanted target by making the criminals believe the risk of targetting you isn't worth the reward. 

Depending upon your budget, there are many techniques available to make your home appear as a more difficult target. Of the methods available, there are three that provide an excellent deterrence foundation at a low cost.

The three foundational techniques for securing your home by deterring bad actors are:

1. Security Signs: Security signs are typically the most simple and least costly of home security deterrence techniques. The great aspect of security signs is that you do not need an expensive security system for your signage to be effective. Security signs themselves often instill enough doubt in criminal's minds to cause them to bypass your home. An easy and effective way to implement this strategy is by taking a drive around your neighborhood. As you do, please take notice of the security signs and stickers that others have in their yards, windows, and elsewhere. Then, use their signs as an example to help protect your home. 
2. Vehicles in Your Driveway: Most bad actors try to avoid a confrontation with a property owner. Therefore, they keep an eye out for any clues that tell them someone might be home. Besides actually being home, a vehicle in the driveway is one of the best ways to make a criminal believe someone is at home. With that, moving the vehicle on a fairly regular basis will help keep the bad guys guessing and your family more safe. 
3. A Dog. Most dogs make noise, and some dogs like to chew on unwanted guests. So, if you have the resources, time, and desire, consider getting yourself a four-legged security alarm. If you can't own a dog, placing a bowl, a leash, or other dog stuff at easily observable places in your yard can help discourage bad guys. 

Detect

Unfortunately, your best efforts will not deter every criminal. Some criminals are so unobservant or reckless that nothing will deter them. 

When deterrence fails, criminals seeking to cause you harm must be dealt with in other ways. The first step to coping with un-deterred criminals is to discover their presence inside of your perimeter.  

You can detect bad guys' presence by using high-tech, low-tech, or a combination of both methods. 

Low-Tech and High-Tech Detection Systems

Low-tech detection systems include things such as a family dog and trimming plants away from your home. A dog in the yard is simple. Dogs will often bark and alert you to the presence of someone who isn't supposed to be there. 

Another low-tech detection aid includes trimming plants away from your home. Trimming the bushes and shrubs back from your house denies bad guys the hiding places they love to use. They love these hiding places because it lets them watch you from a safe and secure place within your perimeter. 

High tech detection methods come in various packages, including alarm systems, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), and motion detection lights. You can use these systems independently or in conjunction with one another to create a layered detection system. 

Deny

The next step in the process of securing your home is to deny access to your home. In the middle ages, a moat, drawbridge, and tall stone walls would accomplish that. In today's world, denying access happens with thorny bushes, deadbolt locks, reinforced door frames, secured windows, and other options.

Security Plants

Earlier I discussed cutting back the plants around your house because bad guys like to hide in them. A means of denial is to ensure your plants provide bad guys with a thorny reception. Thorny plants such as holly bushes, rose bushes, cactus, and others make entering your home a struggle for the would-be intruder. 

Door Locks

There are many things to consider when it comes to door locks. First, it's essential to know that many criminals are skilled at defeating locks. One of the common ways to beat a deadbolt is to kick in the door. Ultimately, the best door lock is only as good as the door frame you set it into and vice versa.

Fortunately, many methods are available to increase your door's resistance to someone kicking it in. First, increase your door's strength by switching out all of the door screws for longer, three-inch screws. 

Make sure to remember the hinges when switching out screws. 

Another excellent security upgrade is to reinforce your door frame with Door Armor. At less than $100, Door Armor is a fast and low-cost way to secure your door. 

Oh, and while I'm on the door security topic, please don't hide a key near your front door. Bad guys know all of the hiding spots!

Lock Your Windows!

Lastly, another way to deny unwanted guests access to the inside of your home is to lock your windows. Bad guys typically don't like breaking glass because it makes noise. So, close and lock your windows. 

Delay

As the old saying goes, locks only keep an honest man honest. Therefore, if your attempts to deny intruders access into your home fail, the next best thing is to delay their entry. 

The longer you delay someone, the more time you have for help to arrive. Additionally, if assistance isn't coming, slowing the bad guy provides you with more time to find safety. If safety doesn't involve leaving your home, delaying the intruder gives you more time to prepare a defense.

Delaying someone's access to the inside of your home utilizes many of the tips I discussed earlier. Techniques such as reinforcing the door increase the time it takes to get the door open. 

Likewise, a locked window makes the bad guys break the window's glass to enter. Breaking glass is not only more likely to alert you to the intruder; it delays his entry as well. 

With most home robberies taking place in under twelve minutes, the delays you create reduce the amount of time criminals will spend in your home. In turn, reducing the amount of time criminals spend in your home reduces the risk posed to you and your family. 

Defend

Physically protecting your home should be your last resort! It is a decision that you and your family should discuss in advance of a lousy situation occurring. 

Remember that physical confrontations often result in injuries to both sides of the action. So, think twice before confronting someone in your home because you may put yourself and your family at risk when you do. 

Should you decide to take action against an intruder, take whatever action you determine is appropriate for the situation. Then, when taking that action, execute it with confidence, speed, and precision.

The Bottom Line of Securing Your Home

There are no guarantees in life or home security. However, implementing the five d's of home security provides you with a system to protect your home and loved ones. It's that system that will give yourself and your loved ones the best opportunity to lead more safe, secure, and confident lives. 

Stay safe,