Ready to get on the road and head out on your holiday travels? Make sure you plan ahead to keep yourself, your family, and your home safe. Follow our tips to stay safe during your road trip and to reduce the chance of your home being robbed while you’re out of town.
Road Trip
If you’re jumping behind the wheel and traveling across North Carolina or cross country this holiday season, make sure your vehicle is ready for the trip. Proper maintenance will prevent unnecessary breakdowns and help reduce your risk of an auto accident, especially when you’re on unfamiliar and potentially icy roads.
- Clean your windshields and windows so you can see clearly while driving.
- Replace your windshield wipers if they’re older than six months or if they’ve stopped working well, regardless of their age.
- Check your fluids (or take your car to be serviced) and top off coolant, windshield wiper fluid, antifreeze, oil, and anything else that seems low. If you’re not sure, leave it to a mechanic to check.
- Check your headlights and taillights to make sure they work. You want to be visible to everyone else on the road, too.
- Get your tires checked and rotated. If necessary, add air to your tires. This not only helps you have better gas mileage, it helps prevent annoying flat tires and dangerous blow outs that can have you skidding off the road.
Leaving Home
Before you get on the road to visit family this holiday, make sure your home is ready to be vacant — without looking like a tempting target to would-be burglars.
- Install a home security system. You can choose a system that offers third-party monitoring who will call first responders if there’s a problem. Or you can keep it simple and choose one that lets you monitor your home yourself. These days most security systems let you keep up with your home by smartphone app.
- Ask a friend or family member who isn’t traveling if they’ll check on your home every few days. They can bring the garbage cans back from the curb, check for Amazon packages, and make it look like someone’s home. They’ll also notice if anything seems out of place.
- Have your mail and newspapers held until you return. This keeps anything from piling up which make it clear that no one is home.
- Maintain your home schedule for cleaning, landscaping, or pool cleaning. Having people come and go from your home will keep thieves from thinking no one will see them breaking in.
- Install an outdoor motion sensor light. This way if someone approaches your home at night, they’ll find themselves lit up and unable to hide anywhere.
- Put your indoor lights on a timer and have them turn on and off throughout the day. This makes it look like someone’s at home throughout the day.
Before you leave for the holidays do one more thing. Check your insurance coverage. Make sure you have enough auto insurance to cover you in case of an accident and enough homeowners insurance in case of fire or theft while you’re gone. Give Charlotte Insurance a call today, and we can make sure you’re well-protected while you’re on the road and once you arrive home again.