National Safety Month

Disclosure: I received complimentary products to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

Each June, the National Safety Council encourages organizations to participate in National Safety Month, an annual observance to educate and influence behaviors around leading causes of preventable injuries and deaths.

This year's theme is "Safety Starts with Me." And since a part of safety is security, I want to share some security tips from Master Lock about home security when you're on vacation:

• Never indicate that you’re away from home on your answering machine message. Turn down your telephone ringer volume. Unanswered telephone calls can alert burglars to an empty home.
• Show activity in your home while you’re away. Keep a car in the driveway, and keep interior and exterior lights on a timer. Consider a randomized version to turn your lights on and off at various intervals so they don’t all come on at once or always on the same schedule).
• Eliminate easy entry points by keeping entry doors, windows and the garage door closed and locked while away. To secure sliding doors, invest in a door security bar that prevents unauthorized entry, such as those made by Master Lock.
• Suspend newspaper and other deliveries while you’re out of town. Also, visit www.usps.com to hold your mail service.
• If you’re worried that people who may have access to your house keys -- contractors, babysitters, former roommates -- might try to enter while you’re away, a new product called NightWatch can help secure your home. With an ingenious locking mechanism, this deadbolt prevents anyone from opening a door from the outside, even with a key. Install them on all doors except one while you’re away, to prevent unauthorized keyed entry.
• Most people hide their valuables in one of three places -- a dresser drawer, the bedroom closet, or the freezer. Thieves know this, so it’s better to invest in a proper home safe to protect jewelry, firearms, cash and other valuables.
• Given the rise in identity theft, consider installing password protection software on your home computer to deter tech-savvy thieves. For example, Master Lock Vault is a combination website-mobile application that keeps all your usernames and passwords safe and secure, free of charge. You can find out more at www.masterlockvault.com.
• Give your lawn one last trim, or ask a neighbor to do it for you while you’re gone. An unkempt lawn can encourage thieves.
• Lastly, good neighborly relations are a great deterrent to crime. Offer to keep an eye on your neighbor’s property while they’re away and they’ll likely do the same for you. 

Master Lock has a lot of products to keep your belongings safe. I really like locks that you can set your own combination to, and one that I got to try out is the Combination Padlock 1534D. You can set your own with words or numbers, so it's easy for you to remember the combination. It's pretty slick to change the combination too, which makes it a great lock for kids - easy to use, easy to remember. It's great for lockers or around a cable lock for bikes.