Tricks & Tips to Keeping your home safe while you're away - Labor Day Weekend!

Labor day is just around the corner and along with the celebrations, thieves will be on the prowl!

Before going away for the Memorial Day three-day weekend, take a moment to take some precautionary measures around your home to ensure its safety and that of your personal belongings.

Here are 5 Tricks & Tips to keep your home safe:

1. Light Dimmers - this is a very effective and inexpensive way to deter intruders from burglarizing your home. Setting your dimmers to automatically turn on one or two lamps inside your home before sunset is a great way to tell lurkers "get away, my home is not alone!".

2. Dummy Security Cameras - cameras around the exterior of your home is another effective way to deter potential intruders from attempting to break into your home. One thing to consider is this: with all the advances in technology, installing real security cameras might just be as cost-effective as installing dummy ones.

3. Talk to your neighbors - this is something that is becoming increasingly more difficult to do (human interactions!) in our society, but if you manage to get a few words out, tell your neighbors to keep an eye on your home for you. Worse-case scenario, send them a text message to let them know of your plans!

4. Remove junk mail, boxes, etc. - before leaving your home, be sure to remove all junk mail, delivery boxes, and paper advertisements from your main door and/or porch. Maintaining the curve appeal of your home communicates activity in and around your home, indicating to potential intruders that your home might not be empty.

5. Fake alarm decals - this is by far my favorite. Posting alarm decals around your home and on windows is one of the most effective deterrents of potential intruders. Of course, if you can afford the real thing, go ahead and do that instead; not only will your home be safer, but you will also save on your homeowners insurance!

There are dozens of ideas online on how to keep your home safe while you're away on a short or a long vacation, but the above are the top 5 are my favorite.

Securing your home before you leave on your vacation will ensure a more stress-free time away from home and a more pleasant return home.