It would be cool if you could spinkle gravel or broken glass on the ground, so it makes an audible 'crunch' when stepped on. I would use it to give me an alarm if i'm out farming at night or in the fog. Or put it around the entrance & exit of a building you are camping in. Twigs/sticks could work also.
A louder alarm could be a string of empty tin cans that you attach to a doorway, so they clatter of anyone (or anything) pushes past them.
Neither of these ideas is new ; the tin-cans were in Fallout 4, and the glass-on-the-ground was in Thief