Home Security Tips: Check Yourself to Protect Yourself

ADT home security provides the best security equipment and remote monitoring in the nation. When you get an ADT monitored security system, it's a step in the right direction toward a safer home and family. But there's a lot more to home safety than just arming and disarming your home security system.

Some homeowners get a home security system without understanding that home safety is a proactive process. Although an ADT monitored security system can get you help in the case of a home emergency, it's best to take preventative measures to reduce the chances that your home security alarm goes off in the first place.

Follow the tips here to ensure that you're getting the most out of your home security system.

Tips to protect against burglary

Protect against burglary by reinforcing your home and reducing its attractiveness to thieves:

• Always leave your windows and doors locked. Exterior doors should have 1-inch deadbolt locks installed to make them more difficult to kick in. Replace defective locks immediately.
• Reinforce patio doors by setting a metal bar or pipe in the sliding track of the door. Also, ask ADT about optional equipment like glass-break sensors.
• Make sure that your garage door stays closed as often as possible. Keeping valuable tools and equipment in plain view could cause you to become a target of a prospective thief.
• Make it look like someone is home, especially if you're away for an extended period of time. Leave a few lights on, and get someone you trust to collect your mail and newspapers while you're away.
• Don't leave notes on your door for family members or delivery people, as this is a clear sign that you aren't home.
• Don't advertise valuable items – keep your curtains and blinds closed as often as possible.
• Be creative with where you hide your spare house key. Thieves know to look on top of your door frame and under flower pots and welcome mats.
• Check to see who is knocking on your door before opening it.
• Store all your valuable items like cash and jewelry in a safe hidden in a closet.

Tips to protect against fire

• When building, renovating or buying a home, ensure that the roofing is fire resistant.
• Store gasoline, firewood and other combustibles away from the home.
• Soak used cigarette butts in water before throwing them away. Empty ashtrays to reduce the likelihood of a fire resulting from smoldering cigarette butts.
• Avoid leaving stoves or grills unattended while they are in use. Cooking fires are among the most common causes of household fires.
• Install smoke alarms on every level of your home so you can be notified in the early stages of a fire. Test the smoke alarms' batteries on a regular basis to ensure that they are in proper working order.
• Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Don't add water to a grease fire – it may cause the fire to spread more quickly.
• Develop a fire escape plan for your family and practice the plan routinely so that you can get out quickly if a fire ever occurs in your home.
• Make sure that your street address is visible from the road so that the fire department can locate your home quickly during an emergency.

Coupled with a commitment to home safety, an ADT monitored home security system can help keep you, your home and your family out of harm's way. And ADT's 24-hour remote monitoring network ensures you get help quickly if you ever need it. Call 1-877-498-0733 to find out which home security package fits your needs