Staying at home alone, without any family members to accompany you, can be challenging sometimes. It might not be so if you have lived in your current house for more than 5 years, so that you already feel comfortable staying there alone, especially if you know about the neighborhood very well. However, if you live in a house that is located in a quite unsafe neighborhood, and you just live there for a few months, then things can be scary for you.
If you need to stay at home alone while your family members are leaving the house for various reasons, such as having to work, going to school, partying with friends, and so on, you need to at least know about how to stay safe at home in this situation. Here are 7 tips to stay safe when you are alone at home:
1. Stay Inside the House Most of the Time
When your family members are leaving the house and you know that you will be alone for some time, you shouldn’t wander around the house too often. To give the maximum safety for you, you should stay inside the house most of the time. When you are staying inside the house, you will know what is happening in the house, and you will be aware of who comes in or out of the house. Suspicious activities can easily be found when you are inside the house as compared to when you are outside.
2. Make Sure that Your House Perimeter is Monitored
Keep all security cameras in check. You need to ensure that your monitoring cameras are up and running to monitor the situation around the house. Don’t let any corner goes unnoticed. You can monitor what is happening outside of the house from time to time to ensure that there are no suspicious activities taking place around your house. When the house perimeter is properly monitored, you won’t have any problems with the security inside the house.
3. Consider Using Personal Emergency Response System
The personal emergency response system will help you to ask for emergency help whenever you need it. Moreover, you will bring this security tool with you always, because it will come either as a pendant or a wristband that you need to wear all the time. Whenever you feel that there is a panic situation, you can push the emergency button and the emergency rescue team will come to you. This includes when you experience any health problems that need to be taken care of as soon as possible.
4. Invite Your Relatives to Visit Your House
Staying at home alone will most probably cause you boredom aside from giving you some security vulnerabilities. That’s why inviting your relatives to visit your home during this time can greatly boost your personal safety and security, as well as cure your boredom. You can ask them to accompany you if you don’t really want to stay at home alone at the time. You can do this when your relatives are living near your place.
5. Lock the Doors and Windows When You are Away
If you want to leave the house for some time, such as when you need to go to the convenience store to buy some essential items, don’t forget to lock all doors and windows. If you have an advanced security lock system in your house, you should activate the locking mechanism while you are away. In this way, you will ensure that nobody can break into your house when you are not there.
6. Consider Using a Doorbell Camera
While staying inside the house, you might be bothered by some unknown guests that want to meet you for various reasons, such as sales people offering their products, social workers, your neighbors, and the like. When you use a doorbell camera, you will be able to know who the guests are and whether you want to welcome them in or not. You can also talk to them via the doorbell camera and let them know if you don’t want to be bothered. In case of intruders, the doorbell camera can record their actions and you can call the authorities right away.
7. Enable Your Alarm Security
If you are staying inside the house, don’t forget to enable your alarm security all the time. Your alarm security can be an important tool to protect your security and safety while staying at home. It is better to turn it on as long as you are staying at home alone, whether at night or in day time. You can disable it later when your family members are back at home, in which case you can enable it only at night.