Security cameras have increasingly become a valuable commodity in home security systems. They will monitor your property and record any suspicious movements within its location. The cameras give you more than just security, they also come with peace of mind as one is more comfortable knowing that their property is properly monitored and tightly guarded. While it is easy to decide the type of security cameras we want to buy, the question of where to place indoor security cameras still begs!
We will in in-depth, discuss this question and its related concerns in this article.
Most property owners are bound to make the mistake of buying security cameras before deciding on the area of installation. Companies often design their cameras for different types of installation.
Therefore, it is paramount that you choose a security camera brand that offers a range of installation methods. It helps to liaise with your service provider to advise you on a brand that best suits your home’s security needs.
Listed below is a list of recommended places for your indoor security cameras
- Ground-Floor Doors and Windows
Doors and windows are some of the most common entry points for burglars and other criminals. Some children and other homeowners, also at times choose to sneak into the house through windows and doors. Such reasons make the installation of cameras on the ground-floor levels and windows very important.
- Main Stairs and Hallway
Main Stairs and hallways are considered the central points of movement in a home or a business premise. Since everyone accesses this area, burglars are also more likely to sneak into your home through here. No one wants to be caught unawares by criminals. Therefore, surveil that hallway on the first floor, or a stairway leading up.
- Common Areas
You also want to ensure the common areas that people are likely to frequent in a house. This may include the kitchen and the living room.
- Driveway
Other than the ground-floor doors and windows, criminals are also likely to sneak into your property using the driveway. You will be much safer monitoring it using an outdoor camera.
TIP: You could be tempted to monitor your outdoor environment by installing an indoor camera facing the window. Please don’t do it! a PIR- motion sensor will not detect motion through the glass.
This way, a criminal may trespass on your property, yet you’ll receive no alert. For this reason, consider strictly using outdoor security cameras to monitor your outdoor areas.
- Yard
Criminals like making good use of hiding areas as much as they can. One hiding place they often value is the yard. Protect yourself from invasion by securing your front and back yard with outdoor cameras. Particularly consider installing them here if your landscaping is overgrown.
- Second Floor
Some homeowners consider storing their valuables upstairs as these are areas outsiders would rarely visit. Naturally, most people tend to feel uncomfortable with security cameras installed in bedrooms and bathrooms as it seems like an invasion of privacy.
While this is true and not always recommended, we advise that you secure a main second-floor hallway with an indoor security camera. Here, it will capture in and out movements to the private rooms thereby giving you solid video evidence in case of a criminal investigation.
- Basement
While it may be unnecessary to monitor the basement in your home, it may save you a fortune to install a security camera there, especially if you use it to store valuables.
- Garages and Detached Buildings
Having a security camera installed in your garage is a no-brainer. Can you imagine how devastated you can be if that Tesla you spent a fortune on is stolen?
Garages carry a lot of valuable commodities; particularly cars and other expensive motorized equipment or tools. A security camera in this area is such a worthwhile investment.
Useful as they are in monitoring and offering the security of your property, you cannot install security cameras in all areas. There are some areas where we highly discourage surveilling for legal and privacy reasons. Discussed below are some of these areas:
- Neighbor’s Property
Please refer to your state’s laws to determine if it is legal or illegal to surveil properties that don’t belong to you. Whilst at it, be sure that the security cameras are mainly focused on your home and not your neighbor’s.
- Bedrooms
While storing valuables in the bedroom is a sensible idea, installing security cameras there is not the wisest. Bedrooms are extremely private areas for you and your family. Please leave security cameras out to protect your privacy.
- Bathrooms
Just like bedrooms, bathrooms are equally private areas where you should never consider installing security cameras in. Besides, we rarely keep our valuables here, so there are limited chances that a burglar will get much anyway. There is certainly little to no security risk of leaving your bathroom unmonitored.
We now know where to, or not to, place our security cameras. For private and security reasons, one may also want their cameras to go undetected by people, thus the begging question, Where Can I Hide My Security Cameras Indoors? Let’s discuss that in the section below!
Where Can I Hide My Security Cameras Indoors?
Various research evidence estimates that about 67% of all burglaries occurring in the United States often target residential properties. This, in turn, translates to a 3.5 billion dollar loss experienced in homeowner property every year.
With such statistics, we cannot debate the need to have or not to have security cameras. They have become crucial safety necessities for homes and their owners. While the cameras will effectively offer surveillance for security, they won’t be if poorly placed.
As we’ve said, you may not want your cameras in a visible place as a criminal slick criminal may tamper with them. Therefore, you want to ensure they are discreetly put, but in a position prime enough to capture any potential intruder. The following are suggestions on where to hide your cameras indoors:
- In Everyday Household Items
Items frequently used in the house such as stuffed animals, photo frames, tissue boxes, and clocks, make an excellent hiding area for your security camera. All you have to do is get an object with a size fit enough to fit into your camera, then put it close to your valuables.
In such a position, the camera will capture and record anyone who is maliciously eyeing your prized possessions.
Here is how you can hide a security camera in a stuffed animal:
- Find an old stuffed toy such as an old teddy bear. We recommend an old toy to avoid attracting attention.
- Use a pair of scissors to cut it open from the back.
- Remove part of the stuffing from the toy to create room for your camera to fit it. You can also remove one of its eyes.
- Put the camera in the spaces created in such a way that the lens looks out from the eye hole.
- Time to sew up the torn-up area! While sewing, consider leaving a hole that will allow the USB port to stick out for the charging of the camera.
- Place the camera in a safe place where no one can accidentally knock it over.
Though effective, this method requires a significant amount of effort.
A tissue box is also an everyday household item; here is how to hide a security camera in it:
- Get yourself a dark-colored and tall tissue box.
- Drill holes into your tissue box of choice. The hole should be in a position where you want to place your camera.
- Now place the camera in the holes you just punched, in the correct position.
- You want to beat an intruder in their game, so don’t forget to add some tissue pieces in the boxes in case one reaches out for a piece.
This is a cool and effective method to hide your camera that will work in almost all rooms; be it the bedroom, living room, or even bathroom. It will raise no suspicion.
- Leverage High Places
Burglars never want to look up when breaking into a home as they don’t want the risk of their faces being identified. This gives you an upper hand in trapping them! High places such as bookshelves tops, cabinets, ceiling fans, or art pieces hung high on the wall are valuable locations for hiding your security cameras.
Here are some ideas on hiding your security cameras in leverage High places:
- Use a strong adhesive to place your camera on a chandelier.
- We use the top of our closets to place different day-to-day items. Place the camera along with these items on the closet top.
- Most people have their lights mounted on ceilings. This is also a good place to stick your camera. Stick it alongside the lights while also ensuring that the video quality is not affected by the glare from the lights.
- You can also empty an old or dysfunctional smoke detector and place the camera there. While you do so, please ensure you position the lens on one of the openings of the vents then screw the smoke detector back into position.
This is a sneaky and interesting way to sneak your security camera into working with no detection.
CAUTION! Before settling on a leverage High place to install your camera, test it first. This will help you to confirm that it can capture all areas you want to be protected.
- Potted Plants
Potted plants usually offer a beautiful aesthetic to interior house decor. This is not all! It can also help to effectively hide a security camera. Some security cameras are bulky hence challenging to hide. This is where these plant babies come in handy! They provide the best cover for security cameras.
Here is how you’ll hide your security camera in a potted plant:
- The potted plant often contains soil in it. Place the camera on this soil.
- Tactfully adjust the lower leaves of your plant so that it hides the camera.
- Ensure you leave some space so the camera lenses would peek out between leaves. Test to ensure that the camera can cover at least eighty percent of the rest of the body.
- If you are using a wired security camera, don’t worry! Just place the potted plant in front of the power outlet to hide the wire. A wireless camera is more flexible as you can adjust the pot to any location where you want to keep an eye.
This is a hassle-free and flexible method. You can always place a potted plant in any room within your house. Ensure that your plant has big enough leaves to cover the security camera.
- Mini-USB Camera
The whole point of hiding a camera is to monitor a given area without getting noticed. You can get a security camera that doesn’t look like a security camera, isn’t it mind-blowing? A mini-USB camera appears like a charge. An unsuspicious criminal will assume it to be a charger while it covertly covers every detail you need to see.
Besides, it requires no effort or creativity. All you need to do is plug the camera into a power outlet and it’ll immediately begin its job.
What’s even more interesting about it is that you can as well put your phone on charge using the USB port. We can guarantee that possibly no one can suspect a charger charging a phone in a room to be a camera.
Such devices that look nothing like a real camera will offer you excellent spy services. You can put them in plain sight and no one will suspect them, or tamper with them. What a smart and worthy security investment!
- Camouflage it with the Surrounding Objects
Camouflaging has for a long time, been a survival tactic for humans and animals. Likewise, you can also camouflage your camera to match the objects surrounding it, and one will hardly notice its presence.
To do this, identify the areas in your room that have similar objects in a single place. This could be anything from decorative pieces to the dressing table with tons of cosmetic products on it.
Once you’ve got it, place the camera between the objects. Try to make it blend as much as possible with similar colored and sized objects. For instance, fit a black camera between cosmetics with black packaging. Fix a white camera between white decorative pieces in your room.
If your security camera is wired, ensure the wire is tactfully hidden behind objects to avoid drawing attention. A burglar won’t notice this because after all, no one has time to get caught admiring decorations in a room they intend to steal from.
How Many Indoor Security Cameras Do I Need?
The number of security cameras you need is determined by your home’s layout. Therefore, it is vital to consider your property’s layout and the areas you wish to guard before you purchase security cameras. Buying more cameras than you need is such a waste, especially in these hard economical times.
Generally, most people’s homes require approximately two to four outdoor security cameras and one to two indoors. However, the right number depends on where you want to protect your home.
For instance, if your goal is to monitor your porch to capture that naughty neighbor who always steals your newspaper, then you only need a door camera.
If you want to achieve full coverage in your home, then prepare for a more involved setup.
We encourage you to install a camera at your front and back doors to have a clear view of people moving in and out of your property. You can also add cameras on each side for broader coverage of your yard.
We also recommend adding indoor security cameras in each living space and the spaces you wish to surveil.
What Is the Range of Indoor Security Cameras?
Averagely, a wireless security camera can cover up to 150 feet. Some devices can exceed this range up to 500 feet or sometimes higher.
NOTE: The actual range a camera can achieve is determined by the model, the router’s range, and the number of other devices projecting wireless signals within the range.
Discussed below are some of the factors that will influence the range of your indoor security camera:
- Focal Length
This is the primary factor that determines the range within which a security camera can see. The smaller the focal length, the wider the field of view from your camera. Similarly, the larger the focal length, the narrower the field of view for your camera.
Experienced security camera installers attest that a 4.0 fixed lens is enough to see within a range of 40 feet.
- Resolution
Of what benefit will it be if your security camera records almost everything at a given range, but the details are not seen? Therefore, rather than asking the range within which it can see, it would help to focus on a camera that would give you visible details. This is why we emphasize the camera’s resolution.
HD cameras are becoming more affordable by the day, thus you can use 4Mp, 5MP, and 4K security camera systems for vivid details in videos.
- Location
Where you place your security camera also influences how far it can see. For instance, bricks, concrete floors, and walls between a wireless security camera and the monitoring site can weaken signal strength. A weaker strength in return translates to a lower range from your device.
- Quality
You want to invest in a security camera brand with a larger customer base as it means they offer more quality than unknown camera sellers. The better the quality, the better the range!
How to Install Indoors Security Camera
Again, it is highly recommended that you install your indoor security cameras on the first floor of your home. If your house has more than one story, install the cameras in common places like the living room and the hallway. This makes it easier to capture a criminal’s face.
- Place your camera about 9 to 10 feet off the ground to protect it from human and pet interference. Avoid putting the camera too high as it may fail to capture people as required. Also, be sure to install it in a location where you can access it when you need to make repairs.
- If your camera is wired, ensure to install it near an outlet as you’ll need to run the power cable from the camera to a nearby outlet.
- Mount your camera on the wall using screws and adhesives. A screwdriver or a drill will help you attach the camera mount on the wall using the screws that came in its package. Some cameras come with adhesives instead of screws, remove the plastic covering from the adhesive pad and stick the camera on the wall. Hold it in place for about thirty seconds till it firmly sticks.
- After mounting, attach the camera to an outlet if necessary. Run the power cable from the camera outlet you have chosen to use. If you want your camera hidden, hide the cable as well. You can hide the cable behind a tall bookshelf or long poster within your home.
- If necessary, run the video cables from your camera to the storage device. A wired camera comes with cables labeled “To Camera and DVR” on either side. Plug these cables accordingly. Insert the opposite ends of the cables into the indicated devices.
- If you are installing more than one camera, repeat this process. Ensure to correctly angle your cameras so that they cover different areas within your home or business premise. Doing so will reduce the number of overlaps between different camera feeds. It will also ensure the security it offers is as tight as it should be.
Here’s How to Install an Indoor Security Camera:
How Long Do Indoor Security Cameras Keep Footage?
Surveillance cameras constantly record activities within their set range. It is no surprise that they consume lots of bandwidth and storage space. Most companies sell their security cameras alongside a 1TB hard disk. Besides, the storage of your camera may vary, depending on your unique preferences.
Overall, security camera footage will last anywhere between three months to one year based on cases. After this period, the camera automatically deleted the footage to create space for new recordings.
Do Indoor Cameras Record All the Time?
The answer to this question is yes and no. Why? Most home security cameras are designed to record continuously. However, you can also configure your camera settings so that it only records when you want them to. Therefore, if you are concerned about your privacy, check the settings in your camera to see how it works.
Besides, different camera brands have different operating mechanisms. While some will constantly record activities, others are specially designed to only record when movement is detected.
However, we vouch for those cameras that constantly record. You’ll have much better peace of mind knowing that you can check the happenings in your business premise or home at any given time.
Final Thoughts
Purchasing a security camera is one thing, knowing where to place your indoor security camera is another. The location of your security matters as it determines how well-guarded your property is.
We recommend installing the cameras in your living room and other common areas like the hallways. Avoid putting cameras in the bathrooms and bedrooms for privacy and legal purposes.