Programmable TimerWhether you’re away for the day, the weekend, or a week, there are things you can do to protect your home. The best, and also the most obvious way, is to make your home appear to be occupied. Some tips are obviously for those times when you’re on vacation, but other tips work well anytime you’re gone:

  • Don’t tell people you’ll be out of town, what your work schedule is, or any other personal information about your habits, unless they need to know
  • Put different lights in your home on programmable timers so they come on automatically, and vary the program so that different lights come on at different times on different days.  (This is also really nice if you work later in the evening….you’d never have to come home to a darkened house again.)
  • Instead of putting the car that you’ll be leaving at home in the garage, leave it parked in the driveway while you’re gone. 
  • Cancel your newspaper delivery and your mail.  Even if you have someone who could come over and pick it up for you, cancel it while you’re gone.  The person who may come over to pick it up may not come until late in the afternoon, leaving it in the driveway (or mailbox) all day, tipping off a would be burglar that the house might be vacant.