More and more people are living alone.  On the whole, people live alone in one in every 3.5 households. Of the 7.7 million one-person households recorded in the UK – a figure that has increased 16% since 1996 – over half of them are women. People who live alone, especially the elderly are more likely to be isolated. A single person home is more likely to be targeted by a burglar.

1. Get a Dog

This is not simply about companionship, and no a cat will not work. You need a dog. There is a reason that you will find this advice all over the internet. The reason is that it is true. A dog is like a roommate that is always home, and when they are home they are not eating the food you put your name on from the refrigerator or stealing your stuff. Just having a dog decreases the likelihood of your property being targeted by criminals. An alarm system only does so much, and many criminals know how to disarm these units. What you are looking for in a good security dog is an alarm that cannot be shut off. The dog does not need to be aggressive, but it should bark when strangers approach. This will also help with feelings of isolation because having a dog actually makes people feel better. If you do not have space or time to properly care for an animal then, unfortunately, this method will not work for you. Make sure that you can keep up with the commitments required for taking care of an animal.

2. Create a Safety Net

Make sure that your close and trusted friends know your routine. In that same vein, make sure they are alerted when you are deviating from your reliable plans. Keeping people informed will make it easier for you to receive help if you are injured or detained. People checking in on you is a perfect safety net against the catastrophic fallout of household injury. The individuals that you are close to do not need to be physically close to you, either. As we have already talked about, in the dawn of the digital age, you security net can be in a different state or country. Statistically, this is a larger problem for men living alone. Men that live alone are more likely to become isolated because they lack the drive to maintain social groups. Social media has made it easier to stay connected, and this is helping younger men, but older men are still at risk. Although women are more likely to out age men and, therefore, more likely to live alone, studies show that they are less likely to become isolated. This is true due to the fact that women maintain social relationships better. Keep it up, ladies!

3. Don’t Advertise Your Living Arrangement

This is not the same as being cagey. It is just not necessary for you to vocally proclaim that you are indeed living alone. With this information, a criminal is more likely to target you. It may be as horrific as a home invasion or as calculated as waiting for you to leave just to burgle your home. The more available the information is that you are living alone, the less control you will have over who knows. Telling an acquaintance at work may lead to them telling someone else, and so on and so forth until there is a whole network of people that are aware of you domestic dealings (without you knowing they know).

In an apartment setting, it is best to remove any signs that denote your single living. Any public area where you need to list your name, such as outside your door or on a mailbox, use your last name followed by residence. For example “Goodman Residence” gives a completely different image than “Ralph Goodman”. This should also be carried over to answering machines, on the off chance you still have a landline (I am one of those people so no judgment here). There is no reason that strangers or untrustworthy people should know that you are the sole resident of your home. You cannot always control who knows, but you can surely make sure that you are not actively advertising it.

4. Utilize a House Sitter

A house sitter can be many things. It can be someone that spends a few hours in the home or someone that sleeps there. It all depends on how long you will be gone. At the end of the day, it is just a person that is in your home when you are not. If you have animals, a house sitter will also be invaluable because if you have pets their safety should be a priority. The amount of time humans are in your house decreases the number of openings a burglar has to steal from you.

The reasons that most thieves are going to be deterred from robbing an occupied house are numerous. The largest of the reasons is that it increases the chance of them being caught, and they are at a greater risk of having a violent confrontation. If the confrontation comes to violence their crime becomes more severe, and if they are injured, or killed, the law is on the side of the homeowner.

5. Close Curtains/Blinds at Night

It is best to obscure the inside of your residence at night. Once the sun is no longer out you will have to use your interior lights. At this point, your lights will make it very difficult to see the outside from the inside, while also making it very easy for anyone outside to look in. Whatever your routine becomes, make sure it is maintained. Criminals often observe neighbourhoods and homes, looking for changes in the routine that they can recognize as signs of absence. So if you are spending the night somewhere other than your home, you will need to have the windows in a way that is consistent with you being home. This might mean that your blinds remain closed all day if you are not planning to return home. Most people find it much easier to keep blinds closed frequently, and only open them on occasions. It sacrifices appearance for convenient security. Also consider not getting in the habit of shutting curtains when you are leaving, and having them open when you are home. This will tell any thief that is watching that closed blinds mean you are away.

6. Shut Windows

An open window is an open invitation to a thief. Most criminals are lazy. They want quick access, with the least effort expended. An open window might be just enough to make a criminal choose to rob your house over another. Windows that must be left open for ventilation should have precautions to raise alarm. Open windows should be either near the place where you are sleeping or as far from it as possible. This decision should be based upon your comfortability with physical confrontation. The price of doing the most to avoid a violent altercation is the investment in an air conditioning unit. Similar to Tip 5, it is good practice to make sure that your routine cannot be used to gather that you are not home.

7. Find Out Who Has Keys

If you are moving into a new place make sure that you reach out to a locksmith so new locks can be installed. At the very least, rekey all existing locks, and change out any padlocks already in use. If you have a super or landlord that has a master key, ask about their plans for key control. This step is about making sure that there are not unknown individuals with the keys to your home. If the locks were not changed after the last tenant left, it is very necessary to change them. Regardless of whether the previous tenant had returned their keys, you should update your locks.

8. Upgrade Your Locks

If you own your home,  upgrade your locks.  Check your insurance policy, part of the terms may stipulate that you have to have specific locks. For a few extra pounds, and some installation time, upgrading your locks can be one of the simplest precautions and ways of upgrading your home security.

9. Security Doors

Buying a security door is an additional level of protection to your home. Think of it as a door, for your door. These products are usually made of a metal screen, which will obscure the resident of the home while still making it possible to see the person outside. Security doors vary in protection. Some are quite vulnerable to kicking attacks, due to a lack of weld or metal strength. Any brute force attack on a metal security door will also be very loud. Criminals do not want to make noise. There will also be another locked door behind that door. Multiple doors are going to take quite a bit of time to get past. Obvious security like this is very likely to deter a criminal before any attempt is made to enter the property. These doors may not look attractive to the eye, and/or clash with the style of the home, but if installing one does not violate your tenant policy, I would highly recommend it.

10. Change Locks If You Lose a Key

If a key goes missing, it is best to call a locksmith change your locks immediately. It is a precaution based on an exposure to risk. I would say that the level of action you should take depends on where you can last remember having your keys. If the last place you remember having your keys, is your home, your risk is less than say, in your car. The most alarming place to lose your keys would be in a public place. The greater the risk that your keys will be found by a stranger, the greater precautions you should take with your locks. Changing the locks is better than simply rekeying the existing lock, but if you just believe the key may be misplaced, rekeying is a fine precaution. You should still rekey your lock even if you think you may find the key because someone that is not you may find it before you.

11. Know Your Neighbours

In some cases, you might be living so close to your neighbours that you are essentially roommates. It is best to know who these people are. Of course, we would all love for our neighbours to be cool people that we could hang out with and trust with a spare key (leaving duplicate keys with your neighbours can come in handy during a house or car lockout), but it rarely plays out that way. Even if you cannot befriend them, or simply don’t wish to try, it is good to know about them. Be as friendly as you can, within the realm of your own comfortability.
Knowing what the people that live close to you are up to can help to quell the fears you might have, or confirm them. In this case, as well as many others, knowledge is power. If your property is broken into it helps if you can give the police some knowledge of the area, which could mean directing them to a neighbour or keeping them from wasting time investigating them. Knowing your neighbours will also make you more aware of strangers on, or around the premises.

12. Be Smart With Spare Keys

Spare keys are ideal for preventing home lockouts, but they do raise certain security concerns. The more keys out in the world that can open your lock, the greater your risk is for having your safety compromised. Being smart with your spare keys comes down to choosing where to place them. It is not a great idea to just leave keys out in the open. Obvious, and, therefore, bad, hiding places include under mats and in fake rocks. There are creative ways to place keys.
They can be behind a fence in the backyard, out of public view (still not in a fake rock or under a mat). It is best to change the location you keep the key after using it, so anyone that may have seen you access the key cannot find it. Just be aware that leaving a key unattended will increase the risk of a home break-in. If you are giving a spare key to a person, make sure that they can be trusted not only with entry to your home but also to be smart with the key. If they lose it, your protection is compromised and you do not have a key for emergencies.

13. Lock Doors When You are Preoccupied

It is fine to leave the doors in your house unlocked, as long as you are prepared for what is going to come through the threshold. Taking a shower will create enough noise to cover the sound of an intrusion as well as preoccupy you. Similarly, having your headphones in around the house will limit your awareness. Always consider what you are doing and whether it will leave you unprepared for an emergency. Anytime you cannot be fully aware of what is happening in and around the home, lock all the doors. Treat any type of unawareness as sleep. Because criminals are risk takers, with varying degrees of desperation, it might seem worth it to attack the home while you are preoccupied. Defences will not need to be all the way engaged. You will only need to activate protections that will get your attention and lock entrances that you cannot assess.

14. Strengthen Your Exterior Doors

In conjunction with a security door, or in lieu of one, the existing door can be strengthened. Many people make the mistake of neglecting their doors, when in fact doors are a cornerstone of security. Some doors are more sturdy than others, and upgrading to one of those products will offer greater protection. Your level of security, on each door, depends on what is at the core of the door. The core may be steel (which will vary in what gauge it is), fibreglass, wood, etc. However, if you are unable to change your door entirely, there are ways to make the current door stronger.
Focus on the three weak points of a door: The hinge side, the hardware side of the door jamb, and the hardware itself. It may seem like that is most of the door, but there are products that address all three of these weaknesses. Besides purchasing a door upgrade kit, you could also fashion similar products yourself (depending on your fabrication skills). Once all of the weak points on the door have been secured, then the composite of the door will begin to matter. When both sides of the jamb and the hardware are all sturdy, the door itself will become the first thing to fail.

15. Strengthen Your Windows

When securing your home, it just makes sense to improve the strength of what most people generally consider to be the weakest aspect of home security. If your doors are strong, your locks are high security, and your windows are locked, then there is still the fragile glass. Products such as security film will strengthen the glass of the window. That is a huge plus, as breaking glass is often the easiest method of entry. Security film is not perfect of course. All it will do is increase the effort and time it will take to breach your security. Once this inherent weakness is fixed, your home will leave most burglars baffled. Security film can also be resistant to scratches and graffiti, which will keep the home from seeming neglected/abandoned. The key word is resistance. All of these protections will fail under an excess of stress, but it will buy you time to react.

16. Secure Your Garage

If your home has an electric garage door then this is a major vulnerability. If you look on the inside of your garage, there should be a track spanning from the garage door to the motor. On this track, there is a moving metal piece that slides along the track and connects to the door. This part of the garage door is known as the trolley. On the trolley, there should be a rope (often red). Pulling this rope will disengage the door from the automation of the motor, and allow for the garage door to rise and fall manually. Due to this design, almost any person can open your garage from the outside with a basic wire coat hanger.
There are several easy do it yourself remedies for this. The easiest solution is to use a zip tie and loop it around the release latch so that it cannot separate enough to disengage the door. With a hard enough tug, the zip tie will break, so you still have access for emergencies. Another thing you could do is fasten a plank, or piece of metal to obscure the opening on the garage door that the coat hanger would fit through. To do this screw or nail the plank so that it is angled. Make sure you are fastening the plank into the garage door in a way that will not have it grind on the wall. This also allows you to keep the rope accessible for emergencies.

17. Trust Your Instincts

Trusting your instincts is not the same as being ruled by them. If you are concerned that a large sound is a person trying to break in, get up and investigate it. Turn lights on. Take a look around the perimeter of your property. If you are very concerned, take shelter and call the Police. In an extreme situation, try to get out of the house and seek refuge with a neighbour. Do not be scared, take action. You are living alone, so there is no need to worry about waking anyone up (unless you are loud enough to wake the neighbours).
This also goes for more trivial concerns. If you notice that your door sticks making it not easy to lock, take action on that thought. When there is a part of your security that demands a special amount of attention in order to use it properly, mistakes will be made. Things that might seem even less important are things like sliding in the shower, but they are not. If your shower gets very slippery, get some traction pads. If a step is loose, and you almost trip, fix the step. You need to act as soon as your instinct tells you there is a problem. Not being ruled by that instinct allows you to make the informed decision on how to remedy a problem.

18. Lights

When lights are not on, it makes it very difficult to see. It would also be impractical to always have outside lights on, just on the off chance that a burglar will show up. The compromise is a motion sensor light. Personally, I will also keep the porch light on, the entire night. This just provides light to the area of the house most likely to be targeted. Flashlights also come in handy. If the lights are out in an emergency, it is not always safe to move around your house without any light. The same natural disaster that knocked out the power could have also caused the glass to break, or made other obstacles you are not anticipating. A flashlight will also allow you to carry the light outside the home. If you are forced to leave your home you may not have time to put on shoes, and knowing where you are stepping will come in handy. Placing a piece of red glass or plastic on your flashlight might come in handy. The red light will not cause the temporary blindness of the direct bulb, but it will still provide you with illumination. The red light does not give away your position if you are attempting to hide in the home, and when all else fails, just turn on all the lights. You live alone and don’t have to worry about waking anyone up.

19. Alarms

Alarm services vary quite greatly in the protections they offer. The best type of alarm will use a  signal to message out to the police, yourself, and the security company. That is informing three different parties about the break-in. Beyond the service, you can install secondary alarms in your house that are just meant to create noise. For these alarms, the operative words are loud and hidden. You want your neighbours calling the authorities, and you want the criminal to be unable to find and disable the sound. In lieu of this, you can always invest in a monitored security system so that there is an extra set of eyes looking out for you.

20. Practical Landscaping

Criminals do not want to be seen. We talked in Tip 18 about how light is a great deterrent, but if there is a place to hide, illumination will not matter. The simple rule to follow is to keep your shrubs/bushes low and keep your tree branches high. How high? This depends on the height of your windows. Make sure that your bushes are below the bottom of the windows, and trees are trimmed above the top of the windows. This will give you a clear line of sight from each of your vantage points. Bushes and shrubs should also not have enough space to walk behind. If a person can walk behind the foliage, then this will prevent passers-by from raising an alarm.

21. Making Noise

Besides a dog, an actual alarm, or using a phone to call for help, there are more ways to request assistance. Gravel around the property will make the burglar’s approach less stealthy. Whistles can be physical if you are unable to whistle or unable to whistle very loudly.

 

Conclusion

What security always comes down to is decreasing risk and vulnerability, while increasing the risk for any would-be criminals. It comes down to being aware of your surroundings, and being mindful of the reality of your situation. Talking about security can very often feel like scare tactics, and that is why I began the piece with some reassuring statistics. If you are concerned with any of these threats, you should know what to do. However, you should not feel more at risk as a result of this article. Security can always be better, and it is human nature to postpone the things in life that do not matter at the moment a decision needs to be made. Be smart with your protections. Be proactive with your planning and strategy. And be practical with your assessment. Beyond the threat of violence and theft, consider the mundane concerns of single living. Whatever your fears may be, do not let them cripple you. This article is intended for education and should not be used for illegal activity. Be safe, and live well.