Remember crime prevention when landscaping

Dear Readers: If you're working on a landscaping plan, don't forget to think about crime prevention! Plants and shrubs might not seem like crime-prevention tools, but where you plant them can make a big difference in protecting your home by giving or not giving a burglar a place to hide. The following are some planting hints to help you put those plants and shrubs where they'll be a benefit to you and not to a burglar:
Don't plant large shrubs close to the house -- especially windows and doors. These only give someone a place to hide.
Do plant thorny bushes under windows that are difficult for a neighbor or passer-by to see -- it's a great place for a cactus garden! Getting stuck by a pain-causing bush or cactus isn't in the game plan for most thieves.
Light up your yard! Install motion-sensor lights and spotlights in dark areas.
Also, keep bushes, trees and other landscaping trimmed up so there is an "open" feel, making it less suitable for "the bad guys" to hide. Heloise
Dear Heloise: When I travel, I put pairs of small earrings in a pill container that has sections for the seven days of the week. They are easy to keep track of, and I do not have to search through my jewelry case for unmatched earrings. I use my jewelry case for larger items.
This works very well for me, and the containers are very reasonably priced. A Reader, Alexander, Ark.
Dear Heloise: Thanks for the column about cleaning and selling your home. It helps us to help our clients get more money in a shorter period of time when our clients follow that advice.
Don't forget about the outside of the house, including weeds growing out of cracks in the sidewalk and driveway. I always carry a box of salt in my car to use when I put a house on the market that has that problem. I'm sure that salt as an herbicide has been a hint in a previous column, but I wanted to share how home sellers can apply such a simple and inexpensive item to help get their house sold. David James, Realtor, Columbia, S.C.
Don't you love cheap, safe fixes? Remember, vinegar works, too! Heloise
Dear Heloise: My mother is a senior citizen and has arthritis, which makes it hard for her to bend down to look in the back of the refrigerator. She bought cookie sheets that are the same width as the shelves, put one on each shelf and placed the shelf's items on the sheet. Now she just pulls out a cookie sheet to get at the things that are in the back. Cathy O'Brien, via e-mail
Dear Heloise: Recycle old catalogs and magazines by using the pages as packing material. This is better than using newspapers, as it doesn't leave newsprint on either your hands or on the packed items. Susan from Houston
King Features Syndicate