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Now here's your host, Eric G. Welcome.

To the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

We have got a great show lined up with you today and last week we had Johnny Dudley here from Site Hype Designs and remodeling Contractor on the show.

He is actually in the middle of moving like I was a couple weeks ago, so I gave him the day off so he could make sure and get that done.

He's moving an hour and a half away, so it's a big jaunt down in Columbia where he's living.

We're going to let him get his move done.

So next week we've got him dialed in here and we've been having a great time with the show.

Today.

I really wanted to share with you some of my top 10 tips for home fall security.

What can you do to make your house a little bit safer?

What can you do to get it all dialed in and really safe in your neighborhood that you're in now?

What's funny, I am in a neighborhood where my house is up for sale now and thank gosh, I've got that thing up.

A lot of traffic, a lot of people looking at it.

I'm excited to see.

I want to get moved on to the next chapter on that.

I will miss that place.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears that has been put into that place.

However, it's always time when you get it done and go, okay, it's time to move on.

And I live in a incredibly safe neighborhood.

Now.

You are never 100 away from crime but pretty close to it there.

We've got great neighbors.

I'm deep enough in the neighborhood that any hoodlums that tend to come in are going to hit houses closer to mine, bigger than mine.

And that's the nice thing about being a little bit far off the road and with a great security system and stuff around it and things I've done to make sure that we've got things secure.

So here's the thing when you're working with your home, it really takes some time to sit there and stand back because every home's a little bit different.

My, my goal is to stand back and take a look at the house and it's best to do it at night.

Take a peek and see what do you see going on if you're out at the sidewalk, which house in the neighborhood is the brightest.

Which house in the neighborhood has the clearest view.

And we're going to talk about some of these today because I think they can be one of those things that can really help make a difference and at least getting someone that might be trying to break into your home to walk down the street.

Now here's the thing.

A lot of break ins happen during the day.

So what happens at night?

You can have all the lights on in the world, but what happens during the day?

So that's why we have to have a multi tiered approach here with that.

So first up is to install a security system.

Now a security system for to really work needs to be monitored somehow and there needs to be a human there looking at it.

My favorite, and it's a little bit more money than some of the others is Deep Sentinel.

And what I like about Deep Sentinel and no, they don't pay me to be part of this.

I actually have one of their cameras at my house and it is a lifesaver.

Here's the difference with this.

When you've got a monitored system, cameras, motion sensors, smart home integration, I here's the thing, nothing against Safe Ring or some of these other options with professional monitoring.

I like that they use AI before people get in because guess what, if they're already coming in because a window sensor is open now you're going to be documenting the crime and maybe calling the police.

But the thing with the Deep Sentinel is you've got a camera out in front, around the sides, the back, any of those places where people can come in.

So what it does is it sees somebody coming up, it uses AI and go, oh that's your Amazon guy.

Oh that's your UPS guy, that's your FedEx guy.

And yes, most of the time they're girls in my neighborhood, but you know what I'm saying?

So you got those people getting it delivered, it uses that.

But here's the thing, if someone comes up to the door, hits the ring doorbell or hits the other thing and they stand there for a minute, they will go Deep Sentinel home security.

And they're going to ask you why you're there.

Now if they start peeking around, they're going to get involved quicker because as soon as it goes, hey, that's not a delivery driver, it still gets taken a look at but it gets to a heightened stage.

So if somebody comes up and starts trying the door, they are right on it.

They'll sit there and say, hey, Deep Sentinel Home security, what can I help you with?

They have got speed dial, your police department right there set up ready to go.

They just hit the button.

They're into direct into 91 1.

And if you're in a good city that has a police force, they're going to be right there.

And what I mean by that is if I lived in Portland, Oregon for instance, and it was Portland police department and no shade thrown towards those guys, if Deep Sentinel called them, I'm not sure if the police would show up in the next 15 minutes.

Don't think they would.

I bet you in my neighborhood, 90 seconds somebody's there.

And that's a big difference of planning where you live and how this stuff works.

Now Deep Sentinel has got some really cool stuff online now.

So if you have a business or if you want to go into one of their premium plans, yeah, they have smoke bombs, yeah, they have pepper bombs that actually is like a paintball gun that can launch stuff.

So they've got security things where they could actually take action via that.

So if somebody's trying to bust in the door, somebody's trying to break a window, somebody's trying to vandalize, they can basically scare them off.

But the cool thing is that you've got somebody there.

Now here's the other thing, why I like this over the simply say for some of the other ones, if I put on a hoodie and I go walking out with a TV out of the front door of my house and I'm trying to maybe not look at the camera or if I look any kind of sketchy, they're going to ask hey Deep Sentinel, what you got going there?

Because how do I know this?

Yeah, my ex daughter in law that happened walking out with grandma's gift around the holidays, Boom, they were on it.

It was pretty funny actually freaked them the heck out, but that was pretty cool.

So those are things that you look for and so they'll get them coming and going on that.

And cameras are great, don't get me wrong, but cameras just document the time and what time and who did it.

By the time that you figure it out, it's way too late and you're not gonna be able to do much about it.

So having a good security system I think is key and that's gonna help you out in the long term.

Now, I've got a lot of other ones that are out there that are great.

I've got camera systems that notify me that's awesome.

And that can be problematic.

And here's why.

It was just.

I'm not going to get too much into it, but I'll probably do this at a later date.

But sometimes your cameras can catch things you just don't want to see.

And we'll leave it at that.

So be careful out there, guys.

Good camera systems might burn your eyeballs and scar you for a little bit, so be a little bit careful.

Now here's the next one.

What you do to your doors and locks are big.

If you just take an exterior door, put it in, follow the directions, you know, something off the shelf with the home center, it's not really that secure.

So if you put in a really good deadbolt, a really good lock system, put longer screws into the door jamb.

You've got things instead of using finish nails to put the thing in, you're actually countersinking screws, putting the locks in.

Really putting this in heavy duty.

You now have something that is going to do a lot better of holding people out and keeping that thing locked.

You can really put in strike plates.

You could put long screws.

I like smart locks because they also will tell me when somebody accesses it.

So if somebody comes in and puts a key in or somebody starts messing around with tells me I even have that on my garage door.

You come up and hit the camera on my garage door button and you can sit there and somebody puts the code in.

It tells me who the code was, if I gave him the code.

And it's got a video thing right there.

So that's that MyQ remote garage door Opener.

That's really cool.

These are all things that you can do and are additional cameras and additional layers of security.

So really put the doors in right.

Use good locks.

Cheap locks, even though they're 40, 50 bucks, are easily picked compared to some of the more high quality ones.

When you start getting into the nicer Baldwins, you start getting into even the nicer SL ones.

To some extent.

Those are better than some of the cheapy ones, especially the store brand and the knockoff Amazon ones that aren't so good.

Those are.

The ones can really cost you some money because you pay a little bit for them.

They don't hold up.

We're going to be talking about the rest of these things on my top 10 list for getting your fall home security dialed in.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't change that dial around the House show.

We'll be right back.

We are just getting started.

Welcome back to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

And we have been talking about my top 10 tips for home security this fall, things you can do really to get things dialed in.

And I think it's really important.

We were talking about in the last segment, if you're joining us on the talk media network out there, if you're listening on the radio, we're talking about installing a security system, reinforcing doors and locks.

And I wanted to say this.

One of the things that I've noticed about installing security systems and this mentally came up in break.

A great example.

My mom had put in a security system in her house using what it would be a local security company.

And the problem was is their technology got so old they weren't interested in upgrading things without her paying a huge premium to do it.

And so really it was such a hot mess.

I would call her on her landline phone.

Yeah, it's my mom that's she's got a landline phone.

And the thing was so old in technology, it would sit there and pick up like it was a modem trying to get a hold of AOL or a fax machine.

That's how bad the system was.

Finally we went back to them and said, hey, it's done.

We're not doing this anymore.

Upgrade it or not.

And they went, we're getting bought out.

So they are now a different company.

So that got taken out and returned.

And now there's a new system in there.

But really any time that you install technology like that, you really got to stay on top of it because every four or five years things get upgraded, things get better.

And yes, there are so many things now that are going wireless.

You don't have to sit there and put so many things on your house to drill so many holes, run so many wires like you used to.

I tore my system out.

That was one of those wired systems from years ago because it wasn't well maintained.

And when I got in the crawl space, it was just a mass bundle of wires and that was just a hot mess.

So I went through and said, nope, we're done here.

Took care of it, got it taken care of.

But just remember that any technology like your Phone, like everything else, needs to be updated, needs to be changed out, needs to be brought up to current standards with each year that goes by.

So stay on top of that stuff.

Now, the next one here is important, but here's the thing.

Make sure your windows are locked.

Now if you're in a high crime area.

And I did this in my kitchen cabin showroom that I had when I was living in Seattle in the Kent area.

I was on Highway 99 there and we had smash and grab robberies all the time.

Somebody overnight.

This is where the Green river killer picked up his prostitutes.

This was not a great area.

And so the showroom that I was managing there, not my showroom, it was across the street from the factory.

It was so bad we had prostitutes getting picked up during the day.

The police wouldn't do anything about it.

When we'd call the police on and say, can you keep.

I'm trying to help high end clients here.

And they told us that they weren't going to enforce the laws for that back then because they solved too many heavy crimes.

Because the, the gangsters in the neighborhood would confess to the girls and the girls would turn them in so they didn't go to jail.

So it was a big crime solver for them.

So they wouldn't do anything about it.

So finally what we would do is we would go out and take pictures of people picking up the women in the parking lot with cameras.

Little bold, but guess what?

That ruined business for them.

So they quit going into my parking lot.

So we had to go a little bit rogue there.

But we finally had so many issues.

We had a company come in and put in a security film on the inside.

What is that?

It goes on like window tent.

And if you do it right, you can actually keep some of the UV down as well, which will make things inside your home last better.

But the cool thing is if somebody comes up with a fireman's ax, they got to take a bunch of swings to get through it.

It might break the glass, but you're not getting through it very easily.

So there's some benefits to that.

Now, just like anything that you do when you put bars on windows, security film, that also means that people trying to get in that are trying to rescue you are going to have that same challenge.

So you need to make sure that you have a great ability to get out that you don't have to.

You're not counting on that window being broken to get out of a space because it's going to be a lot harder to do, especially when they're fixed, pan windows.

But it's really something that can really help out in your home if you're worried about somebody coming up and busting out that window, especially when they're next to a.

When you've got a full glass window and a lock right there, you know, building code says you can't sit there and as a form of egress, have that locked.

We have the key on the inside scans building code.

So you need to come up with a way.

So maybe putting that on that door would be a great security issue for you.

So people don't come up, bust the window, stick your hand in, unlock the deadbolt, unlock the lock and come through.

So there's another one.

But really window locks, that's great for keeping kids from falling out windows, but really, it's not going to really help you that much.

If somebody's trying to get into that window, they're going to try to break it and that's going to be the solution for it.

Next up here is I think one of the most important ones for nighttime security.

Now, nighttime security, depending on where you live, can start to show up here at 4 o' clock in the evening in the wintertime.

So that can be a big one.

Outdoor lighting, they say install motion activated lights around entry points and pathways.

I agree with that.

But what I like to do is use landscape lighting to light up the entire place.

So it's gorgeous.

That way you get the benefit of that.

And then walks and pathways.

Having security lighting that is way bright.

I want it to be like somebody turned on the football stadium lights.

You can't.

Here's the thing, you're gonna make the neighbors mad, that's okay, but that's going to happen that way.

So be sure not to make your neighbors mad because you're going to need them later to make sure they're watching your house.

But really having a great landscape lighting, get some quality parts.

Don't go down to your home center and grab the cheap ones off the shelf.

Go to your lighting store, grab online, get some good high quality things.

The solar lights are good for two years and you throw them away.

That's just a big waste of money.

But really going in with outdoor lighting and then coming up, you can get a lot of these lights now that are tied into with your camera system that have those kind of things.

So there's a lot of different things with that.

And really for cameras, you don't have to have all that great lighting because I tell you what, they have great.

4k, really nice cameras now that are color, night vision, all those things that work really well as far as cameras go.

So outdoor lighting is key.

Make sure every little corner is lit.

So that way there's no place to walk at night without being seen.

And that's part of it there.

So really make sure you've got that dialed in.

Now, the next one here is just as important with this and what this is, maintaining that landscaping.

Not only do I want it maintained, I want it cut back.

I want it so nobody can hide in a place.

So if you're pulling up into the driveway, got your keys in your hand, the groceries, whatever, you know, you got the kids.

If you're walking up the door at 6 o' clock and it's dark here in the fall, you're walking up to the door.

I don't want any place that somebody can hide behind those bushes.

I don't want it where they could be hiding around the side of the house or just a few steps away.

You want to make sure that you can get that whole place lit up, that there's no place for somebody to crouch down and hide.

So the bushes up against the house, I wouldn't want them more than 18 inches tall.

I'd want to make them so they're a little bit small.

I don't want to have it where you could hide behind them.

I want it to have something that's really well lit.

And if you've got the right security system, we'll notice someone's poking around outside.

That's a big one right there.

So I don't want to make sure.

I want to make sure that you've got things trimmed up, looking great but not too big, that someone's going to hide there so they can come up and grab you or grab your keys or if somebody drives by, that they can duck down out of the way and not be seen many times.

Just that right there will get people going down the street so you don't have to worry about seeing them there.

All right, guys.

Hey, make sure you follow us on social media.

Just head over to around the House online dot com.

You can go to the website, go into the bottom, and there'll be all of our social media links there.

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Make sure and follow that.

I got some new videos I'm posting up here this week, including some how to videos, so we'll have some fun stuff there around the house.

Be right back after these important messages.

Don't go anywhere.

We're stepping away to sweep up some sawdust.

But don't worry, will nail the rest of the show when around the House returns.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

We've been talking about my top 10 security tips around your house for fall to keep things a little bit more safer.

No matter if you live in that awesome neighborhood or what they call those up and coming neighborhoods.

I had air quotes on that if you didn't see them.

That is something that is really important this time of year as we're losing daylight and we're all busier, it seems, because we got kids in sports or we're running around getting stuff done, we're knee deep back in the work week.

Those summertime breaks are usually knocked out and most of us are back at work doing the things we love and bringing home that paycheck.

Now, the next one here on the list is an important one, and that is to secure your WI FI network.

And this is something that is so easy to do, but most people still today don't do it.

You want to use a strong password, WPA3 encryption and a hidden SSID to protect your smart home devices from hacking.

Then, of course, the big one.

Always make sure that your router is updated on its firmware.

Now, one thing is if you're using the router that was provided to you by your cable or provider that provides your Internet service, make sure that's still going on.

But the problem is many of us plug that thing in and walk away and never log back in again until you, well, need to replace it or something's broken.

So make sure that those updates happen because what those updates do, and I know so many people, whether it be their phone, their computer, their smart devices, go, oh, man, they're gonna ruin it.

IOS6 came out this week for your phone.

I actually, like, added a whole bunch of new features to it.

And I get a lot of spam calls during the day because people can find my number pretty easy.

And I tell you what, it does a much better job of taking out those spam calls.

But I also know people, I'm not putting that thing in.

They just buy the phone and never, ever update it.

They try to keep those backed up and then they wonder why nothing works.

And that's the problem, is that you want to have that compatibility where it's working like it's supposed to.

And the same thing happens there with your router.

Now, the other thing is don't go sharing that up with people.

If you have guests come over, create a temporary WI fi network for them.

Create a guest network.

Most will do that.

You can log in, create a guest network for people to come in.

And then what you can do when everybody leaves, just kill the guest network, take it down, and then it's gone forever.

So you're only given temporary access to that.

And that's a great way to do it.

Now, of course, your best security in your home for computers and things like that is to have all those updates done.

I prefer wired connections, but sometimes the WI fi makes it even harder for people to hack into your system.

So it's really depending on what's going on, but spending the time to make sure everything's updated.

You're not using any dumb passwords like password 1, 2, 3, 4 or anything like that.

Make sure you've got something with letters, with numbers, capitals, you know, all that.

Mix it up, make it long.

And if you go, I'll never remember that, then just get some kind of a password protector app.

There's a lot of those password apps out there.

And so what you can do is use that, control that, and it will come up with a very detailed password on it.

Make it very hard for people to get in.

So take your time, get that dialed in.

That's an important one.

Now the next one is one of the largest mistakes that you see on social media.

Don't advertise those absences.

It is so tempting.

And yes, I do it too.

But if you notice, sometimes I post them up the week after.

You can be careful when you post, if you're sitting there, hey, I'm in Paris and I'm at the Louvre and I.

Or I'm in Italy or I'm at the beach.

Whatever you're doing, if you show that up there, somebody, especially if you've got a public profile where everybody can see it, guess what?

Now you've just said, hey, guess what?

I'm not home for a day or two.

You're just asking for people to come in.

So don't post those travel plans on social media.

And then the other thing is that works too with when you're gone.

And this is where the smart home stuff takes into account.

You could have it so your lights turn on every day at the right time.

Maybe that hall light turns on at this time and turns off at this time.

You could have it so it's automatic and override it when you're at home.

Or you can even set it up through like smart things and go hey, I'm away.

And it'll keep that going and go into a system to do that.

That way it looks like there's somebody in the house, somebody that's moving around.

It's home alone.

Right when you set up the stuff to make looks like that things were moving around inside.

You can do that with your smart home system to make sure the lights are turning on, you can see what's going on and that way people think that you're there.

Now one of the things make sure the ask neighbors to collect your mail or packages.

You could go and go MB Sentinel and get like their box cobbler that basically lets your mail carrier and your package delivery stuff put it in the slot and it goes right into your home, right into your garage in Those Amazon packages, UPS, FedEx, whatever's coming in that shows up on your porch, nope, it shows up in the box and it goes away into a secure location.

So that is a one way to make sure that those packages never get stolen off your porch again.

So MB Sentinel is great for that.

Now the next one here is important as well.

And this is one that I look at and go this is important.

It's something you need to be thinking about as well.

It's so easy, but it's such a great deterrent.

Now the other thing is that it's so common out there that I think the criminal minds don't look as much at it.

But that is a video doorbell devices like Ring Nest.

Hello.

Let you monitor and communicate with visitors remotely deterring potential intruders.

When you answer the door, I'm on a zoom meeting in the back.

I can't come to the door.

Is always the best answer.

But here's the other thing with these video doorbells and I've noticed this especially with ring after a couple years they start to get like your old cell phone, they start to not work so well.

So be really careful.

I like brands like A Quora.

Some of these other up and coming brands you see that really have things dialed in.

These other ones, they're big corporate owned things.

And my problem with them is that I just look at it and go, oh man, come on.

So many things that don't work correct, they're just not correctly working.

And all of a sudden have you ever had this happen?

If you've got a ring doorbell, they ring it and it doesn't ring.

All of a sudden that doesn't work anymore.

You've got it set up right, You've got it logged in right.

Everything said that's working this is where those things just really start to go sideways and it's something to really consider.

I love the doorbell camera hub that they've got over there at Aqora.

It's a really cool little system right there.

Couple things that I like about it.

It's got the 2.45 GHz dual band WI fi.

It's either wired or battery powered.

Has on device facial recognition, local and cloud storage.

It's a hub for Mattern and a core of Zigbee devices HomeKit secure video support.

The thing is, you've got 2K image clarity with 175 degree field of view and they've got this mm wave radar sensor which gives you fewer false alerts.

I don't know about you.

Some of these get crazy because all it takes is a little web from a spider in the fall and you've got something that's sitting there nailing you twice every two minutes.

Just bam.

Every time that moves.

This is where that stuff happens and I do that.

They have the wireless with battery, so you can actually put that where you want to.

And the batteries provide power for up to five months depending on how you're using it.

And then it has local and cloud storage up to 512 gigabytes so you can save recorded videos on a micro SD card so you don't have to buy the cloud storage, which is cool.

So you can do that.

And so really it helps you.

They have privacy masking so you can mask out parts of the image so they'll be completely blocked while recording.

There's a lot of things you can do, so I really like that.

And if someone's detected by the doorbell, then you can see who it is.

And if needed, open with a single click.

There's a lot of different things you can do with that, so it's a fun one.

And they're really affordable, which I think is important for any time you're looking at these type of things.

It's really important.

If you look at this, some of these things get very expensive.

129 bucks on Amazon, which is a great deal.

And no, they're not sponsored.

This, this is just a new one that I put in hardware supported where it works with the battery.

It's a great deal around the house.

Be right back after these important messages.

Don't change that dial.

We'll wrap up our top 10 fall security tips for your home soon.

Foreign welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for Joining me today, we have been talking about my top 10 things we should be doing this fall to get your house ready.

As far as just security tips and things like that.

Making sure that you've got things dialed in and that.

I tell you what can be a really big difference on protecting your home, valuables, family, that kind of stuff out there.

Now I want to tell you something that's funny.

So you know, in my area, I live in a town called Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Really low crime compared to just miles away, handful of miles away, 10 minute drive to Portland, Oregon.

Way different as far as crime.

Now, yes, demographics are different, but a lot of it has to do with the police department, how it's funded and how even though we have all the same laws, how two different ways of running it can really change how things go in your community.

Great example.

They do not go after property crimes very well in Portland, Oregon.

So there is a wonderful, interesting, slightly sketchy Facebook page to watch if you want to know how people have gone out and taking care of it themselves.

And I don't know, these guys never talked to them.

Guardians Theft recovery and investigation.

So it's Guardians Portland if you're looking on Facebook.

And here's what's interesting.

So these guys, somebody reports, hey, something's been stolen, these guys go out and try to find it.

Now on July 14th, they had theft recovery number 4,000 of a motorcycle.

How crazy is that?

These guys go through and find stuff and so they go around and let's see here, on July 30, 2024, they had three years and 3,000 recoveries.

So it's interesting, these are a bunch of biker looking dudes that go out and they find stuff that was stolen and it's pretty amazing.

So it's Even somebody in 2023 had stolen their theft recovery truck.

Yes, it's that bad.

And these guys have had to come through.

They had some problems because Facebook took their original page down.

Now they've got their videos up on YouTube and interesting stuff I've been following, following them.

They can't put too much because of the Facebook rules up there, but it'll take you over to their YouTube page.

Always interesting.

Definitely walking the, the fine line there.

And it's interesting to see how they do it as far as a little vigilanteism maybe of going out and getting it themselves.

But when the police can't help them, what other choice do they have?

Now the next one here is interesting and this is a good one and it's all about the quality of this.

Again, use a safe for valuable store jewelry, documents, cash, in a bolted down fireproof safe.

This protects against theft and damage.

Now if you've got firearms, we talked about this a few weeks ago.

Most of the safes are not good.

They can easily be broken into.

And the same goes with these type of fireproof safes.

Do your research.

Many of the name brand ones you go, oh, I know that brand are not that great.

So really do some research.

There are people on Facebook, YouTube that really go through and test these out.

So it's pretty amazing when you go watch that and it's interesting because you can see what works, what doesn't.

Some of these things will say, oh, they're rated for this, they're rated for that.

And guess what?

They just don't hold up.

Now here's the thing too.

If it says fire resistant, that's not fireproof.

So unless it's just a very small fire, you're gonna lose whatever's in that, especially if it's combustible.

So if it's papers, documents, you need to buy something that's gonna be rated and tested.

So there are a lot of great safe videos, like I said out there.

Take a look.

So fire resistant isn't worth your time.

Take a look and see.

And just because it's a big brand does not mean that it's better than others.

So do your research and see what happens.

You'd be surprised of the name brand companies out there that if you put your stuff in there, you'll have a total loss.

So you'll be fascinated if you dive down that rabbit hole on YouTube.

There's a lot there and companies are always changing things around.

But I tell you what, still it's very interesting with some of those major brands.

So take your time, do your research before you give somebody some money.

Make sure it's going to hold up to what you're trying to do.

And an important thing if you're looking for a fire safe is look for that UL listing.

Underwriter laboratories does testing.

They have standards and for them to put that metal tag on, that means it passes that standard.

There are so many safes out there that just use drywall and other substandard materials that don't protect it.

And some of those safes you can go in there and put in, you know, up against a UL safe and you follow their instructions because it's a 1200 degree test that they do.

That's because that's really what a average temperature of a house fire is.

Some of those fail at four or five minutes.

So you want to make sure when they're supposed to be a half hour or an hour at those temperatures or more.

You want to make sure that you're getting the safe that's going to protect you and your belongings there.

So make sure that you get that UL listing.

Take a look for it.

People pay for it, but that really shows it's been through the gauntlet and will at least exceed what their test is.

And the last one on this important list is a big one.

Get to know your neighbors.

This is such a big deal.

So many of us compared to 30, 40 years ago don't have that relationship with your neighbors.

And just getting to know them, understanding that you're hanging out with people, they're great people even if you don't get along.

Or maybe they're just different folk than you are.

Getting to know them.

So everybody's watching out for the community is always better.

That's a community watch.

Just naturally so that way they can they have your cell phone.

If you have their cell phone and you have all your neighbor's cell phone.

If you don't have that in your phone, that means you got to do some new work to make sure that everybody's touch and base.

You want to make it super easy and comfortable for them.

If something seems out of place, like a stranger at the house or weird things going on in the middle of the night or when you're on vacation and there's people hanging around, you want to know that they're comfortable contacting you.

That can be such a big deal and so much better.

The best security system because they're going to be able to tell you that hey, something's going on.

Something seems wrong and maybe it's a broken pipe and there's water running out of your garage door, maybe there's something like that going on you want to be able to be getting a hold of so you can really get that taken care of sooner than later.

Now let's give you a quick tip.

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Now here's your quick tip.

Here is my cleaning hack.

To keep your front load washing machine fresh and running smoothly, run a washing machine cleaner monthly.

Grab that cleaner tablet or powder, pop it in the drum and run the hot water cycle with no clothes.

If you have steam or a cleaning cycle, use that as well.

This blasts away odors, mold and buildup in just one go.

Do it once a month for a sparkling machine.

And then next, make sure and clean the drain filter.

Find the small access panel at the bottom front of your washer or the side.

Open it, place a towel down and unscrew the drain filter.

Make sure you follow the manufacturer's directions.

Rinse off any lint or gunk underwater, grab anything that was lost in there and pop it back in.

This quick routine keeps your washer smelling fresh and working like new.

Stay tuned for more around the house nuggets.

And I wanted to go back and visit that for just a second like with Deep Sentinel.

And again, they don't pay me to talk about this.

This is not a commercial for them.

But one of the things I like about them is when you do the camera right or cameras right, they can actually walk you out to your car.

When you walk out the front door in the morning or you're coming home at night, you've got somebody watching you coming up there to make sure that you're getting into your car.

We're into your home safely.

So that to me adds a ton of peace of mind and some added security that a regular security system can't just can't touch.

And so that's a big one right there.

Now, if you've got some things that you do around your house, I'd be curious to see send a message.

Just head over to aroundthehouse online.com and you can find me over there and send us a message.

I'll get back to you.

And it might take a day or two or a little bit more just because we get a lot of messages in here.

Since we're across the country on all the radio stations and the podcast, we get a lot of messages during the week.

But if you've got a tip that you said, hey, this was important, I'd love to hear it.

Now, coming up in the next hour, we've got some new fun stuff as well.

If you're catching us on the radio.

This reassure has been going on for 37 years.

I've been the host for the last 10 and we've been doing that together for a long time.

So thanks for tuning in today.

And again, if you want to find out more about us.

Head over to aroundthe house online.com and if there's something you want us to talk about in a future episode.

Many times these episodes are requests from people like you tuning in.

So make sure and do that and subscribe on all of our social media channels because I'd love to share with what we have.

Coming up with all the videos, the TV show, the that should be coming out soon.

We're just working through those details.

It's been tough trying to navigate the TV side of things.

Might be something we talk about in the next episode a little bit and get you a quick update.

Thanks for tuning in to the first hour.

I'm Eric G. And you've been listening to around the House.