We have so many solicitors that come through our neighborhood.  Usually, they leave information at the door without even ringing the bell.  But there have been a few occasions where shady people come through, become violent with homeowners who are not interested in what they are “selling”, and have even tried forcing themselves into homes.  That’s just plain scary.  We have always had a policy at our home that we don’t open the door for people we don’t know.  Period.  I don’t care how well dressed or nice someone appears.  I’m not opening my door for you.  It’s not a risk I am willing to take.

I just heard of this happening again in our neighborhood so I wanted to share with you guys a couple of home safety additions we have added (in addition to our regular home security system) that are helping to keep our family a little more safe.  This is not a sponsored post, just something that’s been on my mind lately.  I have added a couple of affiliate links for your ease if you are interested though.

1//  RING DOORBELL:  We installed the Ring Doorbell Pro.  I first came across this awesome video doorbell in a neighborhood Facebook post where people were talking about burglaries in our area.  This video doorbell is hardwired into your doorbell wiring, replacing your regular doorbell.  It connects to your smart phone to give you live views of your porch (night vision as well), phone alerts when motion sensors are activated, phone alerts in addition to your regular bell chime when someone rings, records video as soon as the motion sensors are activated, and has two-way audio allowing you to communicate with the person at your door without you even having to be home.  It’s amazing.

Here’s a screen shot that I just took of a live view:

And to show you an example of the video, this started recording as my husband walked into the motion sensor zone.  You can hear what sounds like faint wind chimes in the background.  That’s his cell phone notifying him that the motion sensors have been tripped.  Pretty cool!

When solicitors come to the door, I can speak to them through the Ring doorbell telling them that I’m not interested without having to open the door.  I could do this out of town, and they would have no clue if I was actually home or not.  Which is exactly what you want if it’s someone posing as a solicitor.  If I’m held up with one of my kids or in the shower and can’t get to the door in time to let in a repair man, I can tell them I’ll be to the door shortly so they know not to leave.  Love this thing.

Also, I want to mention that we added this wireless repeater (or WiFi range extender) because our wireless router is no placed too far from the doorbell.  We couldn’t get the doorbell to work at first because we didn’t have a strong enough signal.  A repeater is a game changer.

2//  BEWARE OF DOG SIGN:  This was originally placed more as a reminder to our lawn care team in case we haven’t put our dog in his crate yet.  We don’t want our dog bolting out if the gate is left open.  But, it is proven that having a Beware of Dog Sign on your fence is a deterrent to someone who may consider entering a backyard to gain entrance to a home.  We recently put up this enamel sign I customized from Ramsign and let me say I’m a big fan.  It’s pretty (something you can’t say about most Beware signs), but will also stand the test of time and look as good several years from now as it does today.