How to Secure Your Home: The Cheap Fixes That Match What Burglary Data Actually Shows

Almost everything written about how to secure your home is written backward. It starts with cameras and ends with locks, when the data runs the other way. So let's start with what actually happens, then spend money in the order the evidence suggests.

And a note on tone before we start, because home security writing is usually sold with fear. This is not that. Burglary rates have fallen a long way, the odds in any given year are low, and none of this requires turning your house into a bunker. It requires about two hours and forty dollars, done once.

What is the most effective way to secure your home?

Lock it. Every door, every window, every time, including when you are home and including for the 20 minutes you are in the back yard.

That sounds too simple to be the headline, so here is the data behind it. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that "the largest proportion of burglaries involved completed unlawful entries, in which someone with no legal right to be in the residence entered without use of force." In the BJS numbers on completed burglaries, forcible entry accounted for roughly 37 percent, meaning the clear majority did not involve force at all.

Read that as a spending guide. If most entries happen without force, then most of what is sold as home security is addressing the minority case. The majority case is an unlocked side door, a garage left open, an unlatched ground-floor window, or a spare key under a rock that is not fooling anyone.

There is no hardware that fixes this. It is a habit, and habits are built with cues. Pick one: the last person out checks the back door, or the front door gets checked when the lights go off at night. One cue, done consistently, beats a doorbell camera.

When do most burglaries happen?

In the daytime, when the house is empty. BJS: household burglaries that occurred when no one was home "were more likely to occur between the daytime hours of 6 am and 6 pm (43%) than between the hours of 6 pm to 6 am (26%)."

That upends the usual mental picture, and it changes what is worth doing. If the risk window is the workday, then the useful signals are daytime ones:

• Mail and packages not accumulating. Hold your mail when you travel, or have a neighbor collect it.

• A car in the driveway sometimes, which is free if you simply vary where you park.

• A yard that looks tended. An unmown lawn in August says the same thing a dark house says at midnight.

• Neighbors who know you are away and have your number. This is the most underrated security system available and it costs a conversation.

Floodlights and timers still help, because the overnight 26 percent is not nothing. They are just not the first lever.

What are the cheap hardware fixes worth doing?

Three of them, and together they run under fifty dollars and one afternoon.

1. Put 3 inch screws in every exterior door strike plate

This is the best money-to-benefit ratio in residential security. A strike plate as installed by the builder is usually held by two short screws that bite only the door jamb, which is a thin strip of trim. A hard kick splits the jamb and the lock goes with it, still locked, still attached to a piece of broken wood.

Swap those screws for 3 inch ones that reach the structural framing behind the jamb, and the same kick has to fight the wall. Ten minutes per door, a few dollars for the screws. Do the same on the hinge plates while you have the screwdriver out, because the hinge side fails the same way.

2. Make every window latch actually work

Walk the house and try every single one. In most houses you will find at least one window that has not latched properly in years, usually painted-over, swollen, or missing the hardware entirely. Ground floor and basement windows matter most, and so does anything reachable from a flat roof, a fence, or a shed.

While you are there, look at what is standing next to the house. A ladder, a wheelie bin, or a stack of pallets under a first-floor window is a step. Move them.

3. Put a bar or a dowel in the sliding door track

Sliding patio doors are the weak point in a lot of houses, because the standard latch is a small hook and the door can often be lifted out of its track. A cut-to-length wooden dowel or a cheap steel security bar laid in the track means the door physically cannot slide, latch or no latch.

A few dollars at a hardware store, or free if you have a broom handle and a saw.

What about lighting and landscaping?

Both help, and both are usually done wrong.

Lighting: motion-activated fixtures at the doors and along the sides of the house are more useful than a permanently lit yard, because change draws attention while constant glare becomes scenery. Aim them down at approaches rather than out at the street, or all you have built is a light that ruins your own night vision.

Landscaping: the goal is sight lines. Shrubs under windows trimmed to knee height, tree limbs kept clear of upper windows, nothing tall and dense right beside an entry door. You are not removing cover for hiding so much as making sure a neighbor can see your front door from theirs.

Timers: a couple of cheap lamp timers set to normal-looking hours, ideally on different rooms at different times. The version that fails is a single lamp on the same schedule for two weeks.

How often is someone home during a burglary?

More often than most people assume, which is worth knowing calmly rather than anxiously. BJS reports that "in about 28% of these burglaries, a household member was present during the burglary," and that "in 7% of all household burglaries, a household member experienced some form of violent victimization."

Presence skews to night: a household member was present in 61 percent of nighttime burglaries compared to 33 percent of daytime ones. So the overnight measures, locked bedroom doors, a phone charging within reach, working exterior lighting, are about a different scenario than the daytime ones.

One more figure worth sitting with, because it cuts against the stranger-in-a-mask image: in violent burglaries, "Offenders were known to their victims in 65% of violent burglaries; offenders were strangers in 28%." Most of the violence in this category is not a random intruder. That is not a reason for more hardware. It is a reason to be thoughtful about who holds keys and codes, and to change codes when relationships and living arrangements change.

Is a camera or alarm worth it?

Useful, but later in the order. A camera mostly helps after the fact, with identification and an insurance claim. An alarm can shorten how long someone stays inside. Neither changes whether an unlocked door opens.

So the sequence I would follow:

1. Lock everything, consistently. Free.

2. Long screws in strike plates and hinges. A few dollars.

3. Every window latch working, nothing stacked under windows. Free.

4. Sliding door bar. A few dollars.

5. Motion lighting at the doors and sides. Modest.

6. Shrubs trimmed, sight lines open. Free, one afternoon.

7. Timers on a couple of lamps. Cheap.

8. Neighbor who knows your schedule and your number. Free.

9. Then, if you still want it, cameras or monitoring.

Nine steps, and you get to step 8 before spending real money.

What about during a disaster or an evacuation?

Same fundamentals, with two additions. First, lock up as you leave even when you are leaving in a hurry, because a rushed departure is exactly when doors get left open. Second, take your documents and irreplaceables with you rather than trusting an empty house, which is a good argument for having an emergency document checklist already assembled.

And resist the temptation to announce an empty house. Posting about an evacuation in real time tells a wide audience that nobody is home. Post about it afterward.

Frequently asked questions about securing your home

What is the most effective way to secure your home?

Lock everything, every time. Bureau of Justice Statistics data shows that the largest proportion of burglaries involved completed unlawful entries, in which someone with no legal right to be in the residence entered without use of force. Forcible entry accounted for roughly 37 percent of completed burglaries. That means the most common path in is an unlocked or open door or window, and closing that path costs nothing.

Do long screws in the strike plate actually help?

Yes, and it is one of the best value upgrades on a house. A standard strike plate ships with short screws that bite only the thin door jamb. Replacing them with 3 inch screws that reach the wall framing behind the jamb means a kick has to fight the structure of the house rather than a strip of trim. It costs a few dollars and takes about 10 minutes per door.

When do most burglaries happen?

During the day, when nobody is home. BJS found that household burglaries occurring when no one was home were more likely to happen between 6 am and 6 pm (43 percent) than between 6 pm and 6 am (26 percent). That is the opposite of most people's mental image, and it means daytime signals like mail piling up matter more than floodlights.

How often is someone home during a burglary?

More often than people expect. BJS reports that in about 28 percent of household burglaries a household member was present, and in 7 percent of all household burglaries a household member experienced some form of violent victimization. Presence is more likely at night: a household member was present in 61 percent of nighttime burglaries versus 33 percent of daytime ones.

Is a security camera or an alarm worth it?

They are useful, and they are not the first thing to buy. Cameras mostly help after the fact, with identification and insurance. Locks, strike plates, window latches, and lighting change whether entry happens at all. Do those first, because they are cheaper and they address the most common entry path, then add monitoring if you still want it.

Should I put up a security company sign if I do not have the system?

I would not build a plan around it. It is free and harmless, and it may do something at the margin, but it does not lock a door or reinforce a jamb. Treat it as decoration rather than a measure, and make sure the real items on the list above are done first.

Lock it, screw the plates, fix the latches, bar the slider, light the approaches, trim the shrubs, and talk to your neighbor. That is a secured home, and it is a Saturday, not a lifestyle.

You never know, but you can always be ready.

Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Victimization During Household Burglary · Bureau of Justice Statistics, Household Burglary 1994-2011