If you've got valuables in your home and no plan on moving, you'll want to follow the instructions of plumbing technician Roger Farrell. It's a very clever, subtle modification that only requires a few seconds of your time.

What you do is open your garbage disposal, dump a handful of pennies in, and then stuff a sock down the drain. The pennies will cause the motor to start and the sock will catch it so it doesn't go anywhere. Even if intruders manage to open up the drain and remove the sock, they won't be able to start the disposal because of the weight of the pennies. An added benefit is that this will alert you if anyone opens your disposal at night or when you're not around because it will make a lot of noise. If you do this for several sinks in your house, you'll have a very clear warning system that thieves are on their way as soon as they try to get rid of their evidence.

For more information on using your disposal as an intruder defense system, be sure to check out Farrell's website.