The Adelaide Pre-Holiday Home Security Checklist

An empty house advertises itself: the bin that never comes in, the mail wedged in the slot, the dark windows every night at the same time, the "so excited for two weeks in Bali!" post set to public. Burglars don't need to be clever when the signals are this loud — an unoccupied home is simply a softer target, and holiday periods are when the most homes stand empty at once.

The fix isn't paranoia; it's a routine. This is the checklist we'd run on our own homes before a trip, in the order worth doing it.

Two Weeks Out: Test the Things You'll Rely On

Test the Alarm — Including Its Reporting

Arm the system and trip a sensor (tell your monitoring centre first, and ask them to confirm the signal arrived). This one test verifies the panel, the detector, the siren and the communication path in a couple of minutes. If your alarm hasn't been tested since Australia's 3G networks shut down, don't skip this — plenty of older panels still look normal while reporting to nobody.

While you're at it: if the backup battery is more than a few years old or the panel has ever shown a battery fault, have it checked. Batteries fail during blackouts, and summer storm season and holiday season overlap neatly.

Check Every Camera Like a Stranger Would

Open the app and actually look: Is each camera recording? Night vision clean, or bloomed out by a spiderweb? Has a shrub grown across the driveway view since Easter? Wipe lenses, clear webs (an Adelaide classic — a huntsman on a camera dome triggers motion all night), and confirm the recorder shows the retention you expect, not a drive that quietly failed in March.

Confirm Your Notifications and Contacts

• Alarm and camera alerts arriving on your phone — and a second household phone, in case yours is off, flat or out of coverage.
• Monitoring centre contact list current: right phone numbers, right keyholders, and remove anyone who's moved away or shouldn't be on it any more.
• If your plans mean patchy reception (cruise, remote touring), tell your monitoring centre and lean harder on keyholders.

One Week Out: Set Up Your People

Technology detects; people respond. The strongest thing on this list is a neighbour or friend who visits the property.

Redirect or hold anything that piles up: pause deliveries, and don't let parcels sit on the porch — have them sent to a workplace, a parcel locker or the neighbour instead.

A Few Days Out: Make the House Look Lived-In

• Lighting on schedules — a couple of interior lamps on staggered timers or smart schedules beat one porch light burning 24/7, which is its own signal. Vary rooms and times; the goal is a house with habits.
• Exterior sensor lights working — test them; a dead globe on the side path defeats the point.
• Garden tidy-up — mow just before you leave (fast-growing lawn is a countdown timer everyone can read) and don't leave ladders, wheelie bins or tools against fences — they're climbing equipment.
• Lock the secondary stuff — side gates, sheds, garage internal door, and the roller door isolated or secured if it has an override. Most entries aren't through the front door.
• Valuables out of sight lines — keys (including car keys), laptops and handbags away from windows and letterbox reach. Consider taking irreplaceable small items to a relative or safe deposit if you'll be away for weeks.

Departure Day: Arm It Properly

• Full arm, not home mode. Away mode arms interior detectors — the layered coverage you paid for. It's surprisingly common to find systems that have only ever been part-armed.
• Check the app once you're out — armed status, doors closed, cameras live. Do it from the airport, not the runway.
• Water, gas and unnecessary appliances off where practical — security includes the boring hazards.

While You're Away: The Discipline Part

• Keep the holiday off public social media until you're home. Post the highlights reel afterwards. Public "we're away until the 28th" posts, live location tags and check-ins are exactly the intelligence you'd never hand out on paper — don't hand it out digitally. Kids' accounts count too; make it a family rule.
• Glance at the app daily, don't marinate in it. One habitual check of armed status and camera health catches problems early without ruining the holiday.
• If something does trigger, let the process work: the monitoring centre verifies (with video verification, they can see whether it's a person or a curtain in the aircon draught), keyholders respond, and you stay informed rather than helpless from a beach chair. This scenario — a real event with nobody home — is precisely what video verification and monitored response exist for. If your current system can only ring your unreachable phone, that's the gap to fix before the next trip.

When You're Back

Collect the spare key or delete the temporary codes, thank the neighbour properly, and note anything that annoyed you — the camera you couldn't check, the alert you didn't get, the lamp timer that failed. Post-holiday is the best time to fix the system, because the gaps are fresh in your mind and the next school holidays are never far away.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the single most effective thing to do before going away?

Test that your alarm actually reports — arm it, trip a sensor and confirm your monitoring centre received the signal. Every other measure assumes this works, and after the 3G shutdown a lot of older systems fail this test silently.

Should I leave lights on while on holiday?

Not constantly — a light burning at 3pm or a porch light on for two straight weeks signals "empty" as clearly as darkness. Use timers or smart schedules on a couple of interior lamps, varied by room and time, so the house keeps its normal rhythm.

Is it safe to post holiday photos while I'm away?

Post them when you're home. Public posts, check-ins and live location tags tell anyone watching that your house is empty and for exactly how long. Make it a household rule that covers kids' accounts as well.

What should I ask a neighbour to do?

Bins out and in, mail cleared, an occasional walk-through or car in the driveway, and a clear brief: who else is expected at the property, and what to do if the monitoring centre calls them. Give them a temporary alarm code rather than your own, and remove it when you return.

What happens if my alarm goes off while I'm overseas?

With monitored service, the monitoring centre verifies the activation — with cameras, they can see whether it's a genuine intrusion — then works through your agreed contacts and escalates as needed. Without monitoring, the system can only notify a phone that may be off, roaming or out of coverage, which is the main reason travellers upgrade.

How far in advance should I sort all this?

Start two weeks out. That leaves time to fix whatever the tests find — a flat panel battery, a failed camera, an out-of-date keyholder list — instead of discovering it the night before your flight.

How The Alarm Guy Helps

If working through this list found holes — an alarm that doesn't report, cameras you can't check from your phone, no monitoring behind any of it — those are exactly the gaps we close. We test and repair existing systems, connect them to professional monitoring, and design camera coverage you can actually rely on from the other side of the world.