Toronto Home Security Tips

Whether you live alone or you live with people in Toronto, the essence of having a good level of security cannot be ruled out. Poor security around your home leaves you open to potential burglars and other dangerous scenarios.

We are all quite familiar with basic security tips such as keeping your doors and windows locked and ensuring you check your mailbox. However, there is a need to go a little bit further in guaranteeing your security. This article contains info on detailed security tips to protect your Toronto home.

Related article: Northern Force Security

How to secure your Toronto Home

You should know that employing valuable security tips does not necessarily mean that your home cannot be burgled. It simply means that breaking into your home becomes much more difficult. Most of the time, this is enough to serve as a deterrent to would-be thieves and other unwanted elements.

These security tips explore the ways in which your home is vulnerable and then provide a countermeasure to ensure your home is safe. Some of those tips are:

Control what you say online

Many times, people do not know that the things they say online can influence what happens to them. We live in a digital world. Therefore, almost everything said online can be used to track you. Perhaps you are so happy about your new house, or your trip to a fun place, don’t proclaim it on social media.

If you must show off on social media, then make sure you do it only after taking proper security measures. Although many of these social media apps provide privacy settings, they are never full proof.

If you realize that you would not say what you are about to post to a stranger on the street, then you should not post it.

Take a careful look at your locks

The locks to your home are the first point of contact in your home. But, many people oftentimes overlook it with the thought that they do not matter. If you just moved into your house, then you should change the locks to a new one. This ensures that you are in control of the keys to these locks, and you decide who has access to it as well. If you are reluctant to change the locks, then you should have them rekeyed.

Changing your locks or rekeying them is an affordable way to level up your security game. It is highly recommended because you do not have to spend so much, and yet, you get to stay secure.

In changing these locks, it is important that you prioritize quality. Go for locks that are strong enough to pass the test of time. However, considering the fact that there may be many locks in your home, changing all locks may be quite expensive.

This is why it is advisable that you prioritize changing the locks that are located at core places. That way, you get to be strategic about your security plans, and it saves cost.

Consider reinforcing your Patio doors

If the doors to your home are sliding doors, then you need to pay careful attention to them. Sliding doors, by virtue of their design, can be very vulnerable to criminals. When not installed shoddily, their locks can be made to face outside as against inside.

To avoid the troubles of sliding doors, make sure that they are well installed. You can ensure that the door is installed and looked over by a security expert. That way, you can avoid flimsy mistakes are avoided. Also, you should consider getting a jam for your door to beef up security. These jams are mostly affordable and flexible – they can easily be fixed on the door, and easily taken off. The essence of having a jam is to add an extra layer of security to your sliding doors.

Pay attention to how your valuables are stored

Thieves are often linear with their thinking. They want to go directly to where they think your valuables would be, steal them, and get out as quickly as possible. This is why when thieves break into your home, they go to rooms including your master bedroom, or any other obvious place you may be keeping your valuables. As such, it makes it difficult for the thieves to figure it out. Place your valuables in places that are not easily detected.

Also, if you operate a safe in your home where you keep your valuables, ensure that the safe is burglary-proof. To do this, you should make sure that the safe has an alarm that gets triggered once there is an unauthorized touch. Make sure that the safe cannot be easily removed. If it can be moved, thieves will have the luxury of removing it and jamming it open somewhere else.

Install a security door

A security door should be the one that serves as a primary entryway into your house. Although they may not be very attractive, they serve a much more important purpose than attractiveness. They help keep your home strongly secured. These security doors are often made from strong metals. They are near impossible to force open.

The mere sight of such a door can deter potential criminals from trying to enter your home. This is because the presence of security doors exude a sense of deliberate security.

You should, however, note that the installation of security doors may not conform to your leasing agreement. As such, you have to ensure that you check your agreement to determine if such is allowed.

Motion Detectors can help deter criminals

Although criminals would always commit crimes, they hate to be seen while doing so. If you have a security feature that detects the movements of criminals, your security level gets kicked up a notch.

Motion detectors can easily detect criminals that are trying to find a way into your home. Motion detectors make use of hidden sensors to alert you to the presence of unwanted guests. They can even be automated to make calls to local police if there is a need.

Pay attention to all the loose ends

It is possible that you will spend quite a lot on the security of your doors and other obvious entry points. However, you shouldn’t narrow your focus to just your doors and patio entrances.

There are always loose security ends that need to be tied. If you don’t pay attention to these weak points, they can be exploited by criminals.

For instance, for your windows, there is a broad assortment of upgraded devices to help you check for weak points. Many companies produce security films to support the panes glass of these windows. These films basically prevent your window panes from shattering easily.

There are many other loose ends that can compromise the security of your home. Chimneys, pet doors, fire escapes are all points of entry for possible perps. To make sure, you can call in a security expert to check out your house and give you a full report on where security needs to be beefed up.

Take extra steps to secure important papers

While you may put your valuables such in a safe for maximum protection, it does not make it foolproof. So, what can you do? Take pictures of your valuables, papers, among others, and then back the serial numbers up. Do this on a safe, or preferably an off-site drive. Having the pictures of your valuables makes it easy to recover your valuable asset if it gets stolen.

In the world of today, identity theft has become a very big thing. People are no longer just enticed by money, and jewellery, they now go-ahead to steal documents, bills, passwords, wills, among others. This is why you should lock up these identity documents, and keep the key at a discreet location.

To prevent random people from accessing your accounts, you can make an arrangement with your credit organization. You can request that no access should be given to your account without a call requesting such from you. This will help you stay safe in Toronto.

Security tips for you

The majority of those tips above relate to the physical security of your home. Security measures on doors, windows and safes are basically forms of physical security. However, there are more tips that can be employed to stay safe, and stay ahead of criminals. These tips are a constant practice that you should imbibe. They include:

Stay updated

If you are still looking out for a new location to move to in Toronto, then it is highly advisable that you do your research about the new area. Engage the residents of the area, and try to get relevant pieces of information about the area. Prevention they say is better than a cure. That is, if you can inquire about these areas beforehand, you can choose the safest neighbourhood to move into.

Do not be hostile to your neighbours

Your neighbours are a passive line of defence. Sometimes they may be all that stands between a breach of the security of your Toronto home. This tip is one that is simply psychological. If you want to ensure that your neighbours look out for you, then you cannot afford to not make friends with them.

You do not necessarily have to be very close friends; it is fine to be friends that simply exchange greetings. In doing so, you can even get to have their contact thereby providing you with a contact person in case of an emergency.

Get a dog

Dogs are a great way to ensure the security of your Toronto home. Dogs can detect, very easily, any threat or potential threat which can put you in danger. Dogs can prevent criminals from breaking into your home.

In fact, the bigger the dog, the less likely it is for your home to be broken into. By using dogs, you not only get a further source of companionship but also get a step ahead in your level of security.

Be private

Your living arrangement should not be public knowledge. Many times when burglars break into a house, they do so after having studied the number of those living in the house, and how they live. This study makes them plan their burglary very easily.

This is why you should not have things around your house that suggest whether you are living alone or single. Try to ensure the name appearing on your mailbox does not sell you out. Also, try to avoid leaving your footwear by the door, as this can imply the number of people in your home.

This is not to say that this kind of step is a full proof one that prevents burglary. However, if your living situation is private, it makes it difficult for burglaries and other home assaults to be planned against you.

Devise a plan in the event of a break-in

Often times when a burglary occurs, people are quick to react based on what their feelings tell them, this kind of reaction is usually not so smart, because it would not be well thought out.

This is why it is advisable to devise a plan which you would enact in the case an emergency results. If your home gets broken into, you readily have a safety plan and you go by it to prevent further catastrophe. Elements of this plan would include who to call, alarms to trigger and so forth.

Final thoughts on security tips in Toronto

Living in Toronto is a good experience. However, like every other area, it comes with its own insecurities. Although it is not as though Toronto is insecure, it is important that you adopt necessary security tips to have a healthy living.

While these tips are not an absolute guarantee that there will be no case of unwanted home breaches, they reduce the risk of its occurrence. The essence of these tips is to reduce the occurrence of these incidences. If you adhere to all these, Toronto should be safer for you. Additionally, you can contact us to hire security guards and install security measures for your home. Stay safe!