Protect Your Home

Pick in 10 seconds

• If it is the windows someone could reach → the TremShield vibration alarm on the glass, plus a lock for each window type in Window Security.
• If it is a door → the strike plate kit against a kick, the adjustable bar if you can't drill, the French door lock bar for a pair: all in Door Security.
• If you want the house to look lived-in and watched → TV simulator, decoy camera, sign and driveway alarm in Deterrents; motion lights in Security Lighting.
• If it is the garage, shed or bike → slide latches, a solar siren and a disc lock alarm in Garage & Driveway.
• If it is what's inside → cash boxes, fireproof bags, key boxes and a Faraday box in Safes & Secure Storage.
• If it travels with you → the 130 dB personal alarm and door alarms in Personal Safety.

Home security in four jobs: deter, hold, warn, store

Good home security is not one gadget. It is a few simple jobs, each making a burglar's work slower, louder and less certain, until the house next door looks easier. None of it depends on Wi-Fi, an app or a monthly contract. You buy it once and it works.

Deter from the street

Cameras, signs, lights and occupancy tricks work on the decision a burglar makes from the sidewalk, before anything is tried.

Hold the doors and windows

Window locks and film and door reinforcement make the ways in physically resist. The openings ordinary hardware skips have their own fix: hinged windows take a sash jammer, a pair of French doors takes the handle lock bar, and the garage takes a slide latch on each side.

Warn at the glass, before entry

The TremShield vibration alarm is a thin disc that sticks to any smooth solid surface. It sounds at 125 dB the moment someone knocks or pries at the glass, while the person is still outside. Six are $99, $16.50 each. For the walk you make when it goes off, a battery motion night light lights the hallway floor before your feet reach it.

Store what matters

Locked and fireproof storage means even a worst-case break-in costs you less.

A first weekend that covers most of it

You don't need everything at once. One Saturday gets you most of the way: alarms on the reachable ground-floor windows, the strike plate kit on the main door, the adjustable bar in the patio slider track, and one occupancy signal for evenings out. Four small jobs, three with no drilling, and the house already reads differently from the sidewalk. Renters can do nearly all of it; the renter-friendly security guide keeps the deposit intact.

Then let it run

With no subscription to lapse and no server to go down, upkeep is a battery check twice a year. Before you travel, walk through the pre-trip security checklist so the house looks lived-in while you are gone.

New to all of this? Start with your first $100 in home security, or let the 60-second alarm finder place each alarm. When it says six, take the pack: six alarms for $99, $16.50 each, with 2 free no-drill window locks.