Disclaimer – This post is sponsored by GetSafe.  All opinions are 100% my own.

Two Thanksgivings ago we had a big scare.  Our security system decided to go haywire and it scared the SHID out of us.  We were home and my family was visiting and our motion and door sensors in the basement started going off repeatedly.  Of course, I stayed upstairs with the kids, watching out the back windows expecting to see someone take off running.  Jeremy and my brother – both armed – headed down to guard the first floor and waited for the police to come search the basement.  I was terrified.  The thought of someone in our house uninvited while our children slept was absolutely gut-wrenching.  Earlier that year in our town an intruder went into an occupied home and looked for the mother and children that were hiding upstairs.

The police came – seven officers to be exact – and they searched our entire basement till they were absolutely sure it was empty.  I gotta tell you – I am so thankful for the law enforcement officers that risk it all everyday.  You never know when that basement will be empty!  At the end of that night I said to Jeremy that I was a hot mess of emotions.  I felt happy that there wasn’t any situation.  I felt frustrated that my home felt, even for a moment, unsafe.  I felt thankful for the police officers.  I felt angry at our alarm system.  And I felt stupid for getting worked up over nothing.

We called our alarm company and they told us that we would need to pay a LOT of money to have them come do a diagnostic test, reinstall sensors, and then they would need to charge us for all new equipment.  We paid them SO MUCH MONEY each month and since our house was over a certain square footage, they charged us extra for ‘estate’ monitoring.  Not only that, they wanted us to pay for the service calls that would be needed, the new equipment, and the fact is – THE DARN THING NEVER REALLY WORKED FOR US!  We paid all these bills and low and behold, they said “oh it looks like your sensors never were correctly installed”.  So for the past several years we were paying for monitoring and never truly protected.  Since the stupid box never says what door is open or is labeled by the installers, we blindly trusted that the company knew and would notify us if anything was going awry.

AND THEN, to add insult to injury, we had signed a contract….so we couldn’t get out of it.  We had to continue with our situation with so much money out the door each month….only to have even more faulty sensor situations.

I was so angry that I could literally scream.  even to this day.  ugh.

All those emotions….all that drama….all that money….that is why I was really excited to try out GetSafe.

GetSafe is a home security system that is perfect for the DIYer.  You literally do it yourself.  They have this starter kit that corresponds to their online app.

The starter kit comes in the mail after you order it online.  The packaging makes it very easy to understand every little part.

You can also keep the box so that if you move, you can take your equipment and sensors with you.

So the standard kit comes with a motion sensor, the alarm, a door sensor and the hub.  That’s what I call it because it’s the place where everything communicates back to you.  That hub is plugged in for power but also has AT&T 3g cellular backup installed (you don’t have to be a subscriber) on every system in case your internet goes down. Most DIY systems are wi-fi only.

Once you get your kit, you have to register it with the info on the box.  It’s super easy to register.

Then the app is accessible on your cell phone.  That means you can monitor everything from your cell….you can see exactly what door is open, what the camera is seeing and what controls you want on.

They also have an online video to help get things set up if you aren’t super techy.  I’m talking to you mom 🙂

We tucked our hub in our electronics cabinet and it’s out of the way but still works great.

They also have additional items so that you can personalize your system.  We got the fire alarms that communicate with the app, as well as the video cameras and the key fobs so that we can arm the house with our keys!

I really am excited about this thing guys.  We installed it a little while ago and we have so much satisfaction watching the activity on the app!

But you may be thinking….this new fangled stuff is too complicated.  This isn’t Snapchat!  It’s super easy!

Let me walk you through installing one door sensor and you will see.  First your door sensor comes into three pieces.  And you will need to have finished the registration stuff already.  You will need your app and a battery and that. is. it.

Sign into the app and click add new device.

We are installing a door sensor so we chose the type of device in the next screen.

Then it calls for you to sync your sensor with the phone. You do this by putting the battery in the sensor.  I know.  It’s brain surgery over here.

If the phone is searching and your battery was installed then you will get a congratulations screen and then you can do some configurations.

Renaming it and setting up the modes is easy.

We named things with plain and simple names while being as descriptive as possible.

Now you are ready to install the sensor.  The back has 3M stickies on the back.

First, line up your sensor location….

then peel the back off….

And put it in place.  If it lights up green, it means everything is secure.

If the door is opened, then the light goes red.  It’s a warning in our house – baby on the loose!

And that’s it!  You are done.  Can you even see it up there?

The other thing we were excited about was the motion sensor and the cameras.

Obviously Maxi loved them too 🙂

We decided to put one of the motion sensors up high and then we put the cameras in places where they won’t get banged off the walls.

While Jeremy did all the grunt work (it was so hard that literally he broke zero sweat….and that man sweats thinking about sweating.  Which is equal parts amazing and disgusting)….which gave me a chance to style my necessities on the table for this picture of the key fob.

The best part is that GetSafe offers two monitoring plans depending on if you want 24/7 professional monitoring or if you prefer to self-monitor through the app. Both plans include AT&T cellular backup even if you’re not a subscriber and lifetime app upgrades. And no contracts!  A lot of traditional companies lock you for 3-5 year.  And this is the most robust home security app on the market with controls to activity history, video, and home automation integrations (nest, etc).

Plus right now they have a great deal for you…If you’re interested in purchasing GetSafe for your home, the first 50 readers who purchase the Starter Kit can use code “BP2016” to get a FREE Motion Sensor Camera (a $129 value).

Here’s how: on the GetSafe site, add the Motion Detector Camera to your cart, click CHECKOUT, and then enter BP2016 on the CHECKOUT page under the order summary.  Done and done.

It’s that simple and affordable and great if you are like me and need to obsessively check the doors every ten minutes.  It’s also amazing because you aren’t paying extra for house calls if someone else’s equipment dies.  Overall – you just be in charge of your own stuff! Either way – you still get to see all your points of entry with a click of a button.

I just hope this is helpful to someone out there looking for another way to do security.  It makes so much more sense to me personally than a baseball bat and needing heart replacement surgery because your heart literally beat out of your chest!  I’d love to hear what you think too!  If you tried it out or looking to get this, I’d love to hear what you think in the comment section below!