If youre lucky enough to have a trip planned, you may be wondering exactly how youll keep your home safe and sound while youre travelling. The last thing you need to be worried about when youre on holiday is whether someone could break into your home and take everything you own.

Here are some tips so you can be sure that you home is safe when youre travelling:

Get Insurance

No one wants to think about the worst case scenario, and while the tips below will help prevent your home from being broken into by thieves, for true peace of mind youll need to make sure you have home insurance (and also contents insurance) before you go away. This will mean that in the event that your house is broken into, youll be reimbursed for all of your electronics and other valuables.

Organise a House Sitter

if you know of a friend or family member who wants to do some house sitting, now is the time to offer. This is also something that your friends teenager might want to do- they get time away from their parents, and you get the knowledge that someone is looking after your house. If you cant find someone you know, there are many different websites available so you can find an experienced and trustworthy house sitter who wants to use your home as a base while they get to know your city and neighbourhood.

Watch your lights

One of the biggest signs that youre away is if your lights stay off the entire time youre gone. Of course, the next biggest sign is if your house is continually lit up like a Christmas tree (youre not fooling anyone). The best idea is to get a timer so your lights will go on and off just as they would if you were at home.

Be Quiet

With social media as prevalent as it is today, it may be tempting for you (or your kids) to announce your upcoming trip away. While its nice to be able to share (or overshare) save the bragging for when youre home, since announcing to everyone you know that youll be out of town (and your house will be unattended) is a good way to bring trouble right to your front door.

Ask a friend

What are friends for? Well one of the many benefits of having a good friend is if you ask nicely they probably wont mind stopping by your home every now and again to grab the mail, water your plants and check on the house so you can ensure that no one has been snooping around and you wont have an obvious pile of mail screaming rob me to everyone who walks past.

Keep your curtains open

Its never a good idea to close your curtains when you go away. Firstly, just like the lights, youre not fooling anyone, and it actually means that your friends and neighbours will be unable to tell if someone has broken in and is hauling your stuff out the back door.