Security experts stress that you should never leave doors unlocked or windows open even when you're just outside doing chores—burglars can quickly enter your home and snatch your valuables. Other thieves, however, are less subtle and will kick in a door while you're out of the house. With summer-vacation, -staycation, and -paycation season in full swing, you'll want to take steps to prevent a burglary when you're gone.

Our past tests of wood, fiberglass, and steel entry doors and door locks found that some models resisted kicks, drills and picking better than others. Adding a stronger metal strike plate with 3-inch screws that went into the framing improved the kick-in resistance of all the weakest locks; three models actually went from the lowest to the highest score in that test after the sturdier strike plate was installed.

Buy a high-security strike plate that comes with 3-inch screws (about $10) and, using your cordless drill/driver, mount the strike plate into the doorjamb with the screws. Those longer screws will lodge deeper into the framing and help the strike plate withstand kicking and hammering. See the video at right for more details.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: "Keep Your Home Safe" offers many more low-cost, commonsense ways to boost home security. Also check out related stories on bump keys, burglar-alarm scams, and Rex Plus, the "Electronic Watchdog."