Home Safety and Home Security Tips for Homeowners at Halloween

Safety in the home at Halloween calls for some special care since holidays often present atypical circumstances to year-round living. Here are several home safety and home security tips for you to heed at home at Halloween. Share these Halloween safety tips with your children too.

Clear debris and items like garden hoses from your yard, driveway and walkway to create a clear, safe walking path to your door. You don't want anyone to accidentally injure himself (or sue you later).

Secure loose items you want to keep like bikes. While you should secure these anyway year-round, you wouldn't want to lose these items to theft on Halloween. And you wouldn't want someone to come back later to collect these items because they notice you don't secure them.

Test your outside porch lights to make sure they work. Add lighting as necessary to create a path for trick or treaters to see clearly when walking to your door. A well-lit clear path also should keep these visitors from tripping and trudging through your flower beds and other garden areas. Plus a working outside light helps you to see who is at your door.

If you decorate with candles, place them in spots in your home or outside where pets and people won't brush against them. You don't want pets, people or your home to catch on fire.

If you have a skittish dog or cat, put him in another room with a television on low to keep him from getting spooked everytime your doorbell rings. Also, you don't want the dog snapping at or scaring trick-or-treaters (no matter how well-trained or nice YOU think your pet is). And cats have been known to hiss and scratch when frightened by strangers. So don't allow your pets to answer the door with you. That includes your pet birds, which not only scare non-bird lovers but could fly the coop due to all the chaos it's not used to being around.

Don't feel you have to answer the door after the typical trick-or-treater rush is over. Many people open their doors freely on Halloween because they expect to see trick or treaters. Once the rush dies down, you may want to turn off your outside light to indicate you're done answering the door for the night.

Do not allow any child or adult to come into your home. Hand treats out with the door propped open or on your porch. If an adult or child says they'd like to come inside to use your phone for an emergency, do not allow these strangers to enter your home. If you feel it's necessary you can offer to make a phone call to the number they give you while they wait outside on your doorstep. Lock your door when you leave them there to enter another portion of your home. If someone asks to use your bathroom, give them directions to the nearest public restroom.

You do not want strangers following you into your home for any reason---no matter how nice, big, little, desperate or stressed they seem. Likewise, the average person who doesn't know you does not want to come into your home anyway since you are a stranger to him too. So if a stranger is asking for access to your home, be wary and do not accomodate him. If they are trick-or-treaters from the neighborhood (as they should be technically), they can return to their own home for these needs.

Practice these home and Halloween safety tips every year and teach them to your children. Home security is an important topic year-round, but holidays present special holiday safety circumstances.

Karen Fritscher-Porter publishes http://www.easy-home-security.com --- an informational site where you can read more about holiday safety and home safety tips. Plus learn about where to buy products that aid safety in the home.