It’s difficult to enjoy your vacation if you spend the whole of it worrying about your home and the safety of your belongings. The best way to retain peace of mind while on holiday or off on business trip is to take precautions to ensure your home’s safety. Here are some tips on how to protect your home while you are traveling.

Use a House Sitter

Whether you have someone stay in or drive by your home daily, having a house sitter is a definite deterrent to crime. A live-in house sitter is likely the safest option, but if no one is available or you feel uncomfortable about someone else living in your home, a daily drive-by is a reasonable alternative. Leave a checklist of daily chores such as picking up the mail, tending to the sprinkler system, and feeding the dog or cat if these tasks are required. If you hire someone to do this, be sure to check their credentials and sign a contract. Otherwise, ask your neighbors or a relative to keep an eye on your house.

Do Not Announce Your Departure

In this age of ubiquitous social media, it is fun to keep friends and relatives updated about your travel plans, but if you do so before your departure or while you are away, you are putting out an open invitation on the Internet to potential burglars. Vacation announcements on such sites as Twitter and Facebook let lurking criminals know that your house is unguarded. For the sake of your home and the belongings you leave behind, share the photos and news of your trip after you get back. On your phone answering machine, do not say that you are on vacation or away on business, but merely that you are unavailable at the moment.

Leave the Appearance of Occupancy

Lights that are either on or off all the time signal to would-be criminals that no one is home. Invest in a timer for your lights, so that you can have them go on in the evening and turn off in the morning. Get a system sophisticated enough to alternate the timings. For outdoors, have porch lights on a timer and motion sensors for peripheral lights. Do not close all your curtains and blinds tight, as this also implies that nobody is home. Instead, leave them as you normally do when you are home. Ask the neighbors to park their car in your driveway, or leave your second car in the driveway to suggest occupancy. If you are away for a significant amount of time, hire a landscaper to tend to your garden and mow your lawn.

Secure the Interior

If you do not have them already, install secure deadbolts on all doors and windows. Before you leave, double check that you have locked all of them. Unplug or deadbolt the garage door if it opens automatically, so that a burglar cannot find the remote frequency and open it. Unplug all of your electrical appliances in to save power and prevent fire. Adjust the thermostat so you do not waste power heating or cooling the house in your absence. Turn off the water to prevent disasters from leaks or burst pipes.

Planning ahead and taking a few extra precautions helps you relax while you are away, knowing that your home and belongings are secure and will be intact when you return.