DIY Home Security

You'll need to have some back up DIY home security measures in place if you're planning on seeing out an apocalyptic event in the safety of your own home. While it means that you don't have to worry about bug out gear or vehicles, staying at home makes you vulnerable to intruders who will be looting anywhere that is an easy target to get their hands on valuable resources. Once they work out that you're at home, they'll know that you're stocked up to last through the event and will try to get access to your supplies.

Electronic Devices

If you're lucky, you'll still have access to electricity, either through the town's power grid or through your own personal emergency generator. In these situations, installing your own DIY home security becomes easy as you can link the whole system together. Your DIY home security system should include:

• Video surveillance - the simplest form of home security is video surveillance as this will allow you to keep a careful eye on all the possible approaches to your property. Wireless devices will allow you to position the cameras at the edges of your property, but make sure that they are concealed in case intruders disable them as they approach your home.

• Perimeter alarms - these can be set up on access points to your home such as the driveway or just inside your yard fence and will trigger a silent alarm inside your home. This means that you can be aware of intruders before they get close to your home and you can then take steps to make it clear that you're not an easy target. You can also program the perimeter alarms to sound loudly to scare off intruders, but some will take this as an invitation to go hell for leather as their cover will have been blown.
  

• Motion sensors - motion sensors hooked up to bright security lights are a great way to keep your home safe as intruders will not like being put on the defensive. Having a bright light on you can blind you temporarily and also makes it easy for homeowners to pick you out as a target with a weapon. You will have to set the sensors' sensitivity fairly high so that it doesn't get set off by local wildlife.

Power Free Security

While having access to electricity is a possibility, your DIY home security plans should also cater for a scenario where you don't have high tech devices to help you. Power free security ideas include:

• Door barricades - modern doors are surprisingly weak and it is relatively easy to kick one down. To protect these entrance points, consider doubling up on dead bolt locks and having beams that you put in place at night to strengthen the door.

• Trip wires - most intruders will choose to attack under the cover of darkness, so use fish wire to create a series of trip wires around the entrances to your property. Not only will this cause potential injuries, it will also tell intruders that you've taken appropriate security measures and that you might not be such an easy target. 
• Noisy surroundings - surrounding the entrances to your home with dry branches, glass and gravel will make it impossible for anyone to creep up on your home without you being woken up. This will give you time to get any weapons and lights ready for an invasion.

• Stick it to ‘em – Plant thorny bushes and other plants around the perimeter of your property. Things like blackberry and rose bushes, as well as cactus, orange osage and other prickly or thorny vegetation will act as a natural deterrent to trespassing.

You shouldn't wait for the apocalypse to come to set up your DIY home security as it will also help to keep your home safe during peacetime as well. Just be sure to tell your friends and family what you're doing so that they don't fall foul of the system.

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