| While the idea of increasing home security can sound | | | | 3. Make your garden beautiful and prohibitive. Home |
| tedious to many, the concept becomes much more | | | | security can be achieved in many more ways than |
| appealing when it is coupled with home improvements. | | | | you might originally think. A great example is in |
| Old windows may that have been neglected could | | | | gardening and landscaping. A lack of bushes will make |
| represent a gap in your security plan, while the same | | | | it easy for someone to try and enter your windows |
| goes for a lack of imagination in landscaping. With | | | | under the cover of night, while harmless bushes may |
| some simple home improvements, you can | | | | provide their own cover. Thorny bushes, on the other |
| simultaneously up your home security quotient. Here | | | | hand, yield very pretty flowers every spring while |
| are five ideas on how to kill these two birds with a | | | | making it difficult for prowlers to get settled in as they |
| single stone. | | | | try to jimmy open a window. |
| 1. Mend your broken fences. Mending broken fences is | | | | 4. Invest in a new front door. Even in the twenty-first |
| as much a literal concept in home security as it is a | | | | century, the majority of opportunistic robberies involves |
| metaphorical concept in personal relations. The | | | | front door entry. Have you let your front door drag on |
| reasons are rather clear: any gap in a fence is place a | | | | the overall look of your house and make you more |
| criminal could slip through, usually from a very low | | | | vulnerable to thefts? The only way to turn this around |
| vantage point. It is much less appealing for a criminal to | | | | may be getting a new front door. Old hinges can be |
| be seen hopping over a fence, especially one that is | | | | pried off; rotted wood can also be broken through with |
| tall. When you keep everything at eye level, you make | | | | a crowbar. A new door will eliminate these possibilities |
| it more difficult for a thief to do his job. | | | | as well as make your home look more beautiful. |
| 2. Replace rotting window frames. Windows are one | | | | 5. Clear away the dangers of overloaded outlets. |
| of the top places for criminals to break into a home, | | | | Electrical outlets with too many plugs and/or power |
| while they are also one of the elements which | | | | strips can present a risk to your family and appear |
| separate a picturesque home from a less attractive | | | | unsightly at the same time. Figure out a way to limit the |
| one. When you opt to replace rotting window frames, | | | | amount of appliances connected to a single pair of |
| you will be opening up a number of possibilities in | | | | sockets. You'll be able to clear out the ugly |
| lighting and also make your home more difficult to | | | | appearance of too many wires in one place and cut |
| enter. Rotting wood on window frames is a major | | | | down on the risk of electrical fires in a big way. |
| home security risk. | | | | |