Even in the safest of communities, thieves are just waiting for the opportunity to strike. An attack on your home can endanger your family and destroy your peace of mind. To prevent this from happening and to make your mobile home and community a much safer place, here are 22 easy ways to burglar-proof a mobile home.

Outside Your Mobile Home

1. Avoid placing boxes for big-ticket items such as flat-screen TVs and video game consoles at the curb until garbage day. Cut them up if possible. Otherwise, you are advertising the loot that is inside your home.

Mobile home fires can strike at any time of the year with devastating results. More than 2,500 people die and more than 12,500 are injured each year in home fires in the United States. With its special design, your manufactured home requires specific fire precautions. As a mobile home owner you can plan for the worst by holding fire drills, learning escape routes and buying insurance, but to prevent the possibility of needing them, some steps can be taken. To keep you and your family as safe as possible, here are 13 ways to protect your mobile home from fire.

1. Install smoke detectors.
Place smoke detectors in or near every room except the kitchen. Make sure to change the batteries on the detectors twice a year and test and vacuum the dust from the inside of the alarm once a month.

Almost everyone knows that you’re not safe outside in a thunderstorm. Due to lightning safety efforts, most schoolchildren have this National Weather Service motto drilled into them: “When thunder roars, go indoors.” What safety efforts haven’t been so clear about are the dangers that persist inside during a storm.

Many of us love to relax and unwind during a thunderstorm. We might catch up on some TV, chat with friends on the computer or phone, kick back in the bathtub, or read a book by the window. All these activities, however, further our risk of being harmed by a lightning strike. They increase our risk of sustaining either personal injury or property damage, or both. Lightning can travel through electrical cords, metal plumbing, and even through windows and doorways to injure us and damage our property.

Hurricanes and tornadoes get all the attention from the media and general public. Yet damaging windstorms can occur during any season and at any time. Because of unique construction, your manufactured home requires special protection from sudden storms. To help your home withstand high winds, follow these five tips for securing your mobile home and protecting its contents.

1. Choose a position.

The position of your mobile home can have an impact on how well it handles a windstorm. To provide your mobile home with ideal wind resistance, position the home with the narrow side facing the most likely wind direction. The region’s weather service can help you find this information. Also, avoid placing the home in low or flood-prone areas or on top of a hill.

Do you have a Handy Dad in your life who is great with a tool set and knows how to fix almost anything? Since home repair and maintenance is so important to us, we thought Father’s Day would be a great time to celebrate the value that the DIY Dad brings to the home. Here’s our breakdown of what the dad in your life might do in a year and the actual cash value he’s adding back to your home. You might just want to spring for an extra special Father’s Day gift this year!