How to keep your home safe this spring
It’s important to keep your home safe and secure all year round, but with spring fast approaching, there are several tips home occupiers can take on board to ensure safety during the spring season.
Here are some tips to keep your home safe this spring:
Keep your garden well maintained
With spring emerging, many of the plants and bushes in your garden will start to sprout and grow. Whilst this may look pretty, it’s important to keep your garden well maintained, as an overgrown garden can provide ample space for potential burglars to hide in. By cutting your bushes and shrubs back, you will reduce the chance of this happening and greater visibility will also be provided to yourself when looking out from your windows. Burglars like to stay well hidden, so they are less likely to target a home with a well-maintained garden.
Fix damage caused by the winter
The winter months can be rather harsh in the UK, particularly with the number of storms that seem to occur between December and March each year, often causing lots of damage across the nation. This damage may lead to your home becoming less secure – for example, if any fences have come down, strangers may have more access to your property. It may be too cold to get this fixed during the winter, but it’s important to get any potential damage fixed as soon as possible. Not only will this prevent the damage from getting worse, but it will also help to stop unsavoury characters from accessing your property so easily.
Secure all garden tools
Another thing many people forget to do during the winter brings their garden tools inside. This is partly due to the harsh weather, but may also be down to the fact that people tend to avoid gardening/doing outside chores at this time of year, meaning that garden tools may be forgotten. This allows thieves to easily steal from you, without even going into your property! One way to avoid this would be to make sure any garden items are moved inside before the winter occurs, but if you have forgotten, make sure you take them inside as soon as you can. If you have a garden shed or a similar building, make sure it is secure and has a good locking system.
It’s very common for spare keys to be hidden around the outside of a property, in case the occupier gets locked out of their house. This can be a security issue by itself, depending on where spare keys are hidden – burglars will know about some of the more common hiding spots, so it’s important to ensure spare keys are hidden securely.
The weather during winter and spring can be rather treacherous at times, and if storms or snow occur, this weather may lead to your spare keys becoming hidden or inaccessible for some time. This is another reason why it is important to have a secure, weatherproof place for your spare keys – for example, outside key safes are available, requiring the user to input a code to access the key. If you do find yourself locked out of your home without a key, ensure you speak to an emergency locksmith as soon as possible, although this may be a lot more costly than purchasing a secure key safe.
For more advice on keeping your property safe and secure during the springtime, contact us today for more advice!