A man’s home is his castle, right? In the Middle Ages, knights protected the castles.
Today there are lots of security systems to protect your home, usually for a fee. However, there are many things you can do yourself that don’t cost any money. Whether away for a week at holiday time or spending summer down the Shore, here are 16 tips.
DOS
1. Notify your police department and request your home be checked
2. Contact your post office to hold or forward the mail
3. Cancel newspaper and other deliveries
4. Have a neighbor remove any circulars and such that may arrive
5. Leave a spare key and emergency contact numbers with a neighbor
6. Ask a neighbor to check the house, inside and out
7. Use automatic timers to turn lights on and off at different intervals
8. Keep window treatments closed, at least on the ground floor
9. Lock all doors that open to the house, including the interior garage door
10. Arrange for care outdoors (e.g., lawn mowing, snow removal)
11. Do a visual check, inside and out, right before you leave
DON’TS
1. Do not announce absences on social media or in any public way
2. Do not keep too many valuables at home, if possible — use the bank’s safe deposit box
3. Do not leave desirables in plain view
4. Do not leave a key outside your home even if you think it can’t be found
5. Do not worry — you’ve done everything you could do so enjoy yourself!
Product of the Month
Evernote
Evernote is a free, easy-to-use app that tracks every single thing you want track — such as projects, all your ideas, comments for the book club meeting and so on. Clip recipes or whole Web pages. Capture photos including any handwritten notes on them. Record voice reminders. Save, sync and share files. Store receipts. Save tweets. Create notebooks and use tags to quickly find everything. It’s all searchable and accessible anywhere, anytime. This is a great tool to help you get organized!
Evernote syncs among devices and platforms like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Andoid, iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, WebOS, Blackberry (including Playbook) and Google Wave.
Try it and have some fun! For more information, click on www.evernote.com.
Quote of the Month
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing. ~Abraham Lincoln
