Home Reflections on 2013 and What’s Up for 2014

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As a Master Lock Live Secure Safety Squad Ambassador, I have received compensation and products for my family to use in my home for our safety and security. Any opinions I share in posts related to the Live Security Squad and Master Lock are my own.

It’s been 6 months now since we’ve moved and it’s been quite the learning curve for our family.  We didn’t just move from a small city to a really big one, but we also moved from a condo to a house.  Both those things came with a heightened vigilance on what we need to do to keep our family and home safe and secure.

Looking back on what we did in 2013:

Added a new security system.

We feel that the neighborhood we live in is pretty safe, and that was underscored by the fact that the previous owners’ alarm system didn’t even work.  Since we get a discount for the amount of the monitoring on our home insurance it really was a no brainer to get a new one installed and armed.  Besides the fact that I forget to turn it off in the morning once in a while and open the door , it does make me feel that if someone was going to try and get in, I hope that when they see the signs they’ll move on to the next house and if they don’t we’ll be alerted right away of an intruder.

Installed a new garage door.

Now you may ask what that has to do with home safety.  For us the old garage door was actually a big risk.  It was wooden and it had windows across the top of it.  So not only could everyone see whether our cars were in it or not, they could also see everything else that is stored in the garage.  It was on our list to replace *someday* but we got pre-empted in waiting when the garage lifter went out and we had to get a new one, so we just went ahead and got a new door as well.  The new one has no windows and is reinforced metal so no one can see inside and it is a lot harder for someone to break in through.

Installed LED Bulbs.

We did this through our whole home primarily to save money.  But a perk to this is that we can have our outside lights on all night long and it won’t jack up our electric bill.  Being able to leave our entry way lights on when it’s dark out gives us extra security with out a lot of cost.

Things we’re looking to do in 2014:

Replace some of our exterior doors.

We have a few doors that aren’t overly secure.  One that enters our house has windows, which I don’t like because someone could just break them and turn the lock.

Removing trees.

We have a couple of large trees that are leaning precariously.  After getting a professional opinion we were told that we should probably have them cut down as a storm has the potential of having them fall.  One of them would fall on our neighbor’s property, which we’d really like to avoid!  The other hopefully would only wind up on our driveway, but still if one of our vehicles would be there… ouch!

Preparing our daughter to be safe on campus.

Amber will be going off to university this fall and living on campus, and while she’ll have her own bedroom that she can lock in the dorm room she’s sharing, we still know it’s in her best interest to keep her things locked up as well.  So we’re already collecting our Master Lock products and setting them aside for her to take with her to keep her things safe.

Items like a backpack lock and a portable personal safe, will keep her belongings secure.

Using Master Lock Vault to store more records.

I already use the Master Lock Vault for many things like medical documents and information I might have to access on the go and although we redundantly back up all of our important files, I still want to upload and start storing insurance information and home inventory in my Master Lock Vault as well.  That way if we should have a break in, a car accident, house fire, etc.,  we can get to that information when we need it the most, right from any mobile device or computer that has internet access.  Also because all the information is encrypted, I feel confident that what I upload will stay secure and that we’ll be the only ones that can log in and see it.

So what kind of things did you do to keep your home and family safe in 2013?  Do you have any plans to make your home more secure in 2014?

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