National Home Security Month - Protecting Your Valuables

You might already know that October 2014 is National Home Security Month (NHSM). This week, the focus of the event is ‘Protecting Your Valuables’ and considering that the average Brit spend more than £800 on Christmas presents each year, there are a lot of valuables to protect.

A combination of dark evenings and more valuables ensures that October to December sees a 20% spike in home burglaries. So how can you look after your belongings and the things you plan to give to others this festive season?

3 Ways to Protect Your Stuff

1. Tidy Up
One of the simplest and most effective ways to look after valuables like smartphones, tablets and even cash, is to put it away. Don’t leave valuables lying around the house, particularly in front of windows which might encourage unwanted attention.

2. Get a Home Safe
You can store a variety of valuable items, jewellery and confidential documentation in a home safe and the best home safes can be secured to the floor of the house or the wall. Many home safes also offer a reasonable amount of fire protection which is important because burglars aren’t the only threat to what’s inside.

3. Install an Alarm
According to the official NHSM site, 60% of burglaries on homes with an alarm are unsuccessful. This is more than enough reason to install an alarm and maintain it if you already have.

To See or Not To See
Choosing a home safe is one thing, choosing where to put it is another, and there are two schools of thought regarding placement.

One suggests that keeping a home safe on display will act as a deterrent since thieves are on the lookout for an easy life and an approved, secure home safe is anything but easy to access. On the other hand, some view a visible home safe as a target; or even burglar bait.

The safe you choose and the location you give it will depend upon the things you’re hoping to look after and the nature of your property.

If you own the house, you might consider an underfloor or wall safe, which can be installed into the house with cement and then secreted by floorboards or wall hangings.

Alternatively, a Eurograde approved home safe by a brand like Burton Safes, Phoenix or Chubbsafes can be bolted in place; but will be difficult to move even if this is not the case. Unlike an underfloor or wall safe, however, if you do decide to move your safe from one position to another, it won’t be an impossibly messy task.

Whether or not you choose to display your home safe is really up to personal preference. If you follow the three key tips above, you should be safe and secure either way.