Front Porch - Home Security Tips
In a world of porch pirates and intruders, keeping your front porch safe and secure has become more essential than ever. In our room by room home security series, we’re exploring the best tips secure your front porch. Home security goes beyond security cameras and doorbell cameras and taking these steps to examine the area intruders look for will help prevent anything from happening to your home.
As one of the most vulnerable areas of your home, getting serious about your front porch home security and taking these extra steps could be the thing that saves you.
1. Install a doorbell camera
You’ve heard of them, you’ve seen them, and now it’s time to get one! Video doorbells are great for getting an understanding of who is at your door at any time. Doorbell cameras are motion detection based, like the Toucan Wireless Video Doorbell, so you will receive notifications to your phone when someone or something is at your door whether the doorbell is rung or not. When motion is detected, the wireless doorbell camera automatically starts recording and will saved on the Toucan app to see who was at your door. Once you receive this notification, you can open your app to see the live feed to even use two-way talk functions without having to go to your door.
When searching for a video doorbell, look for a wide angle view that give you a full view of your front porch, high quality picture and strong night vision to catch anything during the night. Whether it’s your kid coming home or someone attempting to steal a package, you’ll be able to know right away through your doorbell camera.
2. Remove unnecessary clutter
When intruders are examining a front porch or a house that could be a potential target, a porch that is full of toys, tools or another items can signal that the house isn’t well kept up or vacant. This message that the home isn’t well locked or secure if there are items on the front porch can increase your chance of an intruder. When looking to remove items from your front porch, heavy items or boxes and ladders could actually assist burglars from entering your home. Removing these all these tools to your garage or locked away is ideal to get the most out of your front porch.
3. Keep bushes and hedges low and clear from windows
Depending on your style of home/front yard, there may be bushes near the windows or front porch. Overgrown hedges can be great hiding spots in the middle of the night when intruders approach the front porch while looking for an entry point. Clearing the tops of the bushes and trimmed hedges make the front porch and door more easily visible from the street so intruders can be seen from neighbors as well.
Have a large landscape in your yard? Installing an outdoor camera to monitor your plants and these possible hiding spaces could be a great solution. The Toucan Wireless Outdoor Camera is wire-free with a magnetic mount that’s flexible to place anywhere around your home to get those hidden hard to get spots you’re looking to monitor.
4. Re-think your porch lighting
With smart products around more than ever, changing your front porch light bulbs to be motion-detection based can help deter potential thieves. These motion detection smart lights while light up around your home once the sensor detects movement. With bright lighting around your home, intruders will be more exposed to the light and risk being seen. Once the winter months come along with longer periods of darkness, these smart lights will give you a greater peace of mind that your home can be brightly lit when someone is approaching.
When looking for smart lighting for your home, it’s also important to consider lights with a scheduling option. If you’re away on vacation, some lights allow a schedule through your phone to turn on certain times of the night to look more occupied.
5. Add security camera decal on your front windows
Having a security camera system is important for your home without a question. Making your security system known can also prevent and intrusion if an intruder sees your home is visibly protected. Outdoor cameras like the Toucan Wireless Outdoor Camera come with 2 window decals in their packaging to place around your home. Seeing a visible security camera system decal can be enough to deter away an intruder, whether you actually have a system or not!
6. Get smarter about your video surveillance
Similar to a doorbell camera, getting outdoor cameras around your home will give you a better idea on your home. This extra sense of security and peace of mind can help monitor your home, vacation home or even your parent’s home to see what activity is happening that you could be unaware of. Many people don’t think they need a security camera system but once you get it, it’s not hard not to go back! Whether it’s seeing who is coming by your home, when mail is delivered, additional packages being delivered or ensuring your home is safe, an outdoor camera system around your home can help monitor all these things.