4 Big Home Security Tips for the Holidays
bwsit • November 22, 2017

While the most wonderful time of the year, the holiday season is also when many families reevaluate the security of their home. Besides the obvious (and, unfortunately, expensive) choice of a variety of home security systems, there is also a wealth of easy ways to ensure your abode stays safe, private, and secure at little cost. Here are our big 4 tips for a trouble-free holiday:

1. Keep in Touch With Neighbors

Our neighbors are often one of the best resources for ensuring a trouble-free holiday. It’s rare for multiple households to lack at least one potential inhabitant at a particular time, and by checking in with one another it’s easy to guard against any suspicious visitors or activity. Remember, a thief won’t risk being seen, and a good neighborhood watch (whether official or informal) is a free and effective security system.

This is particularly important if you’re planning an extended absence– even with a housesitter on-site a majority of the time, letting your neighbors know you’ll be gone is a great way to ensure someone is keeping an eye out for potential wrongdoing. Consider leaving a key with a trusted friend in case of emergencies, and if you know a nearby animal lover, most people are happy to spend some time taking care of your pets (just be ready to return the favor!).

2. Keep Expensive Items Secure

“Out of sight, out of mind” is relevant here, particularly when your home is filled with all kinds of new presents. Safes, while difficult to crack, are expensive, unwieldy, and time-consuming to transport and install. Unless you’re anticipating extended periods away from home, often a good hiding place is just as effective for short stints out of the house (and doubles as a precaution against loved ones who can’t quite wait for opening night). It is also a good idea to place your tree or present stockpile out of sight from easily accessible area like windows or side doors.

Another easy way to avoid an inviting target for potential wrongdoers is installing privacy treatments or  blinds  on vulnerable windows. While a thief may risk a broken window for an attractive prize, it’s unlikely one would do so without knowing what’s on the other side.

3. Avoid Over-sharing Travel Plans

Obviously, tell friends and family if you’ll be gone! However, a common trick for thieves is browsing social media or similar websites for homes without inhabitants at some point in the future. Posting your travel dates publicly could put you on a wrongdoer’s radar, so it’s a good idea to avoid giving out too much information that’s easy to access. Even if the whole family will be gone for a spell, there’s no need for a potential wrongdoer to know about it if avoidable!

4. Keep Your Home Well-Lit

Similar to Tip #2 above, a dark or uninhabited-looking home is a priority target for a wrongdoer; besides avoiding being seen by passersby, accidentally entering an inhabited home is a thief’s biggest fear. Even if your home will be empty for a period, maintaining a well-lit exterior will lower the risk of a break-in. Some homeowners go the extra mile by, for example, leaving vehicles in the driveway, a few energy-efficient lights on in the house, or even a radio or sound system playing music. Even better, combine this strategy with Tip #2 by drawing the blinds or similar privacy treatments when you leave– a potential thief won’t know it’s just a radio or desk lamp behind the screens, and is unlikely to take the risk.

With these 4 simple tips, the likelihood of trouble for your family’s holiday is greatly reduced. While most of our strategies are cost-free, few additions to your home can promote security like quality lighting and blinds or privacy treatments. If you’d like to know more, contact us at  Just Blinds  for a free consultation, or ask our team of professionals how to ensure your home stays safe, private, and secure year round!

Expert Advice by Just Blinds

How to Use Windows to Make Your Home Cozier

May 29, 2025
Windows give a home warmth, light, and a view of the outside world. But with the right treatments, you can also use your windows to make your home feel cozy. Coziness is a semse of comfort and familiarity. It defines a charm that feels like home, whether it's the coziness of a warm room in winter, your movie den in the summer. When we think of coziness, we often think of couches, candles, and throw blankets. But your windows play an equally important part. After all, it's your window treatments that frame the light, add softness to your walls, and set the mood for every room. The right window decorations can make your home feel warm and inviting. Using Windows, Drapes, and Shades to Create Coziness  Window treatements create a vibe for your entire room. Drapes, shades, and shutters can be used to create a backdrop of texture, color, and style. They also allow you to control the light levels in your home and even the color of the light. This means that your windows are the best place to start when making a room feel cozy. Layering soft drapes in rich colors is a great way to add that sense of comfort and warmth to a room, while cheerful blinds in soft neutrals can help a room to feel relaxed and welcoming. You can also use drapes or blinds to add a splash of color as a bold accent in any room. These touches combined with glowing sunshine during the day create a cozy and comfortable space. Plants as Cozy Window Decor You can use other types of decor to evoke a sense of coziness, too. We particularly love plants. Leafy green plants love the sunshine as much as you do and thrive when placed in a sunny window. Place an elegant snake plant in the windowsill or hang creeping ivy from a hook near the top of a window frame to make your room feel cheerful and alive with green energy. Plants make a home feel natural and vibrantly lived-in which is perfect for your cozy vibe. For a cozy kitchen, you can even grow fresh herbs in a box on the windowsill that add a delicious aroma and tasty fresh seasoning along with their natural visual appeal. Enhance Your Space with Aromatherapy Speaking of aromatics, you might be surprised how much your windows can take part in cozy aromatherapy. Window treatments like drapes and blinds are fabric that can help purfumes and essential oils linger in the room for days. Cozy scents are often warm aromas like cinnamon, vanilla, lavender, almonds, and coffee. But fresh fruit or floral scents that smell like "home" to you can also add a sense of coziness to each room. Simply spritz your curtains with your favorite scents and each room will subtly carry that comforting smell of home that makes you want to snuggle into the couch and relax at the end of each day. Moody Shade and Maximizing Light When we visualize coziness, light levels often play a role. Your minds eye may see a sun-drenched cottage or a gently lit library as your mental idea of a room that is perfectly cozy. Window treatments allow you to set the mood by reducing or maximizing light to the perfect levels. Well-designed shades and drapes can pull back attractively to maximize light, bathing your room in the warm welcoming glow of sunshine. Or if you prefer a more relaxed coziness, you can use translucent drapes or cellular shades to filter the light exactly the right amount. Diffuse and reduced light filtered through fabric of a warm color can make you feel safe and at peace. Increase Your Happiness with Window Design Your home should feel welcoming, relaxing, and cozy. The right window treatments can help set the stage for a delightful welcome home each night, rejuvinating weekends, and an overall feeling of at-home coziness when you are relaxing in your favorite place. To achieve this goal, you can experiment with home decor changes, including your windows, to achieve your ideal at-home bliss. Contact us today for custom drapes and blinds to complete your cozy room design.

What Your Window Treatment Says About You: A Personality-Based Guide

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Your selection of window treatment products and services is not merely about getting a job done. Rather, if you look hard enough, you can find direct correlations between the type of person that you are and the window treatment that you select. We have created this personality-based guide to help you best discover what kind of window treatment truly matches your spirit. The Dependable Type: Wooden Blinds You are the person that all of your friends can count on. You are the type of person who truly sticks to your plans when you make them, and you are the type of person who will choose wooden blinds for your home. Privacy is important to you when selecting your blinds, and that is why you find yourself pulled into the idea of putting up wooden blinds. Besides that, they happen to be highly functional, and that's not something that you are willing to pass up either. The Planner: Blackout Curtains Those who value truly getting the most value out of their blinds or anything else that they install in their homes will think very carefully about their options. For those people, going with blackout curtains makes a lot of sense. They want to gain as much value as possible out of their options, and they know that they can significantly improve their quality of sleep and so much more when they opt for blackout curtains. These also happen to be a great option for those who work night shifts or other odd hours and yet still want to enjoy their sleep. They need blackout curtains to help increase the quality of that sleep and allow themselves to get their day started right. The Tech Enthusiast: Smart Shades They roam among us: The type of people who are quick to adopt any new technology and get to work figuring out how it can improve their lives. These people are great because they are not afraid to take a risk and because they help to move our society forward. They simply want to get more out of each day, and they often do so by adopting and using the latest technologies. These individuals will gravitate towards smart shades for the following attributes: Innovation - Who wants to stick with the boring old ways of shading one's house? Smarter options are now available, and you better believe that the tech enthusiasts among us are willing to latch on to them. Efficiency - These shades are a more efficient option for those who care about that kind of thing. They can be easily activated and set up to open or close automatically (how cool is that?!). Progressive - The "cool" factor is a big deal for people who fall into this category as well. They might not admit to it right off the bat, but they care deeply about what others think about them. As such, they want window shades that have that cool factor attached to them. The Dreamer: Sheer Curtains Finally, we land upon the dreamer. This is the person who views every day for the possibilities that it can bring. They are not scared off by those with a negative attitude. If anything, they believe that they can change those people! Instead, the dreamer wants sheer curtains because they bring in soft light, open spaces, and bring about a feeling of possibility all throughout the house. Sheer curtains are the ideal option for someone who classifies themselves in this way. They will receive plenty of compliments on their curtains, and they will appreciate how open they are to the world.  Which kind of person are you and which window treatment option makes the most sense for your personality? For more inspiration and ideas, reach out and contact us today.