Going on vacation? Here's what you can do to make your home secure

An empty home or apartment is one of the easiest targets available for burglars. In many cases, an unattended home is a soft target -- meaning, it is not defended well enough and can be easily broken into.

This happens mainly because the owners / renters are not sufficiently aware of various aspects of keeping their home secure. They omit to take simple, sensible precautions that can cut risks of burglary significantly.

And no, you don't necessarily need all those super-hi-tech gadgets that are advertised by all those vendors. Yes, they can help, but they're not essential, at least for most folks. Check out the ideas and tips below, for a start.

Here are several specific things you can do to ensure your home stays safe even when you're away.

* The best defense for your home is to have a house sitter. There's no getting around it. A house where someone's staying is almost always safer than a house that's empty. See if you can get a trusted friend or relative to stay at home while you are away.

* Stop your mail delivery and newspaper delivery for the entire time you're away. An overflowing mailbox or piles of newspaper advertises that no one's home.

* Similarly, if you keep a garden or have potted plants that are visible, get someone to come in regularly and maintain them. Wilted and dying plants are another signal that the house is uninhabited.

* Put lights as well as TV / radio on timers. Put lights on timers in multiple rooms. Try to create a natural-looking sequence for the lights. Set the timer to turn on the living room lights at sunset. Later on, at your regular bedtime, have the timer switch off the living room lights and turn on the bedroom lights at around the same time.

If you regularly turn on the TV at 8:00 pm and it remains switched on till 11:00 pm, set the timer accordingly. Quite often, even if the lights are on, the absence of the bluish glow from the TV can give away the fact that no one's really home.

* In addition, ask a neighbor to drop into your house regularly. Windows being opened and closed, curtains being worked, etc are all signs that someone's home.

* If you live in a rented house or apartment, you may want to notify your landlord that you'll be away. In fact, some lease agreements stipulate that you must inform them if you're going away. At least some landlords like to keep an eye on an empty house, even if they don't enter it.

* If you have an alarm system installed, make sure the house sitter knows how to operate it.

* Make sure you leave your contact details with the house sitter and/or neighbor. Whoever's checking on the house should know exactly who to call if there's a problem.

Now that you know some of the things you should be doing before you head off on vacation, jot them down on a piece of paper and make sure you check them off before you actually leave.

Even with all the insurance in the world, it's a painful experience to come back home and discover that it's been emptied of all valuables. You owe it to yourself to ensure that the chances of that happening are as low as possible.

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