Nearly 4 million burglaries occur on an annual basis. During these burglaries, if a person is home, they have a 1 in 4 chance of being violently assaulted.
Given those high stakes, the subject of home security is on a lot of people’s minds. This might surprise you but people that have small homes are among the most worried.
That almost seems counterintuitive, right? If you have a big home, there is a lot of house to protect and your vulnerability is up. If you have to keep a small house safe, there’s less to pay attention to.
The reality is though that small homeowners have very few places to hide if a break-in occurs. They’ll almost always be in direct danger.
To help bring you small/tiny house owners some peace of mind, below, we share some security ideas just for you.
Table of Contents
1. Install Safety Glass
One of the most vulnerable aspects of your house is your windows. Virtually every room in your house has them which means that a burglar is just one punch away from getting anywhere that they want.
Fortunately, there are many secure window options that you can leverage.
For starters, security glass looks like any other glass pane window but is actually made out of a unique material that can withstand thousands of pounds of force. These panes can be expensive but are well worth the cost given their safety features.
Alternatively, you can use glass film which can reinforce existing standard glass windows.
2. Put Up Security Signs
Have you ever walked through a neighborhood and saw security signs up on people’s lawns? The reason why those signs exist is that they have a tremendous effect on deterring bad actors.
The last thing criminals want to do is get caught. If they see that your house is secured with an alarm system, they’ll almost always try their luck at another house.
That’s why, even if your house isn’t equipped with an alarm system yet, we recommend that you advertise that it is.
3. Add and Make Visible a CCTV system
CCTV stands for Closed-Circuit Television. It’s basically a network of cameras that exist inside and outside of your home that feed video into applications that allow you and potentially a 3rd party security team to see what’s happening around your property.
We highly recommend investing in a good CCTV system to capture any crimes that may happen on your property. We also recommend that you make at least one of your cameras visible outside so criminals know that they’re likely to get spotted if they choose to victimize your property.
Looking for additional information on CCTV? You can find more here.
4. Purchase a Door Brace
We’ve all seen police raids where an officer is able to kick just below your doorknob and your front door comes flying open. If it’s that easy for an officer to gain access to your house, you better believe that it’s that easy for a criminal to gain access.
The best defense against brute force entry is a door brace.
Door braces are fastened to the bottom of your door, they don’t draw much attention and they add thousands of pounds of extra resistance.
5. Keep External Lights On
If your small house doesn’t have ample external lighting, go out and buy some. We get that small homes tend to be sitting on small lots, and small lots don’t lend themselves to lighting design but a little bit of creativity can go a long way here.
Line your front lawn with lights. Keep your porch light on. Make sure that your backyard stays lit or is at least equipped with a motion-sensing light.
Criminals like to stay shrouded. If you make them visible, they’ll go away.
6. Leverage Automation
Home automation works better when keeping a small house safe than it does when managing a large house. The reasons are that A) a small house means that you need to spend less on automation devices and B) small houses mean ultra-responsive WIFI which is a must for any home automation plan.
While there’s a lot that you can do with home automation that can boost your security efforts, our recommendation is that you start with making it seem like you’re home during the day.
Automating your smart speakers to play music or automating your lights to switch on and off periodically will make it seem as though confrontation is inevitable if a criminal decides to break in.
7. Never Hide Keys Outside
Every criminal knows to check under your doormat, in your mailbox, and under rocks to see if you’ve left a spare key out. Do not think that you’re being clever by doing any of those things.
Leaving spare keys where the public can get them is always a bad idea.
8. Get an Alarm
In case it wasn’t obvious based on some of our other suggestions, you’re going to want to have a good alarm system at the base of your home safety setup.
Alarm systems are cheaper than ever, especially for small homes, and very few security measures are as effective.
Closing Our Out Tips on How to Keep a Small House Safe
Keeping a small house safe and secure is imperative because if bad actors gain entry to yours, you’ll find yourself in direct and immediate danger. Our tips above should be an excellent way to thwart off the vast majority of people that mean to do you harm.
Combine them with always keeping a phone nearby and you should be near 100% safe.
Looking for more tips on how to get the most out of your home? Head back over to our blog and start reading more related content that will fulfill your need to know!
