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There’s no reason for you to not to leave enjoy long holidays like Holy Week or Christmas when you know what to do to better keep your home safe during your long vacations
In the Philippines, domestic travelers are currently tallied at almost 56 million, which, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT), will increase in 2017 due to a large number of scheduled national holidays and long weekends during the year. The national holidays and long weekends are an opportunity for you to take lengthy trips out of town or out of the country.
As you prepare for your next long trip, keep in mind that vacation plans also mean safety plans. Be it theft, fire, or flood, nothing can quickly break your post-vacation high and overall spirit than coming back to a home that’s been burglarized or damaged. Taking precautions will not only ensure your property’s safety, but also allows you to better enjoy your vacation.
Enlisting the Help of a Temporary Caretaker
A simple but effective way to keep your home safe as you travel is to ask someone you trust to look after it or occasionally check on it while you are away. This can be a friend or relative, but, with the way traffic and commuting is in some areas in the Philippines, can also be a trusted neighbor with a more convenient proximity to your home.
Provide this person a key so that he or she can put your mail inside, feed your pets, water your plants, check on possible leaks to avoid flooding, etc. If you have house sans a garage, providing keys to your car may also be needed if you’re not traveling with it because you never know when your vehicle may need to be moved. Your chosen temporary caretaker should also have your contact information and a copy of your itinerary in case of emergencies.
Locking Your Home
Be sure to lock up every possible entry into your home In the event that you are unable to enlist the help of a temporary caretaker. Although you often lock the front and back doors when you go to work, there are windows and other doors that are usually left unlocked. Use deadbolts, dowels or locking pins to sliding-glass doors and windows, to both minimize the possibility of break-ins, as well as limit accessibility around the home.
Unplugging Electrical Appliances
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) reports that an average of nine fire incidents occur across the Philippines every day, with faulty electrical wiring or sudden power surges being the leading cause. While you don’t have control over external elements you can still exercise the necessary precautions from inside your home, even when you’re not around. By making sure that every single appliance, except those part of your security system, is unplugged before your leave, you have a sense of security that you will return to an intact house.
Making the Home Look Occupied
While keeping your lights on is impractical and too risky, you can still make your home occupied while you are away by making sure that there is not much difference from how it normally looks. If you’re a resident who tends to almost always have the curtains drawn, then it’s best to keep it that way, but make sure your windows show too much of the inside. You can also ask your neighbor to park their vehicle on your garage periodically to make it look like you’re home.
Keeping Your Plans a Secret
In the current world of internet and social media, you can share every little detail of your trip online for everyone to behold. Posting your itinerary and whereabouts on the internet, particularly when you are always on a long trip, alerts potential burglars that you and your family are conveniently not at home, making your property a juicy target.
It would be best to go on without giving status updates and check-ins at the airport or the pier, and hold off on sharing photos until you’re back home. Your property is already generally at risk when it’s assumed that you’re gone for the Holy Week or Christmas holiday, even more so when you confirm it digitally.
Investing on a security system
If resources are available, investing on a security system is one of the better improvements to make for your home. Studies have shown that an intruder generally leaves the premises when an alarm goes off, reducing the risk of danger or loss. Having an existing security system can also help in obtaining a lower home insurance rate given its reduced risk to burglary or fire.
While a more complex system is more expensive, you can opt to install a simple online monitoring system in your home. A burglar alarm is the best way to discourage intruders from coming in, while an Internet protocol or IP camera would provide you surveillance which you can view online at the times you are away at work or on vacation.
Keeping the Home and Valuables Safe in a safe
As much as you exercise all necessary precautions to keep your home safe, mishaps and break-ins can still happen. Should either of them occur, having a fireproof safe to store your valuables is the best way to ensure you don’t lose everything. Apart from cash, jewelry, and family heirlooms, you can use the safe to keep important documents, such as bank books or those relating to your home insurance, which would be more than helpful in the event you need to use its coverage.
Main image via Shutterstock
