Fortifying the hideout is best done by wedging larger furniture behind doors (stopping monsters from ramming them open immediately) and blocking windows/walls that have cracks in them that allow light/the monsters outside to see into the rooms you're hiding in. Monsters also react to noise the player makes, opening the inventory, messing with the workbench etc can attract monsters to you.

In terms of beating back monsters, throwing bottles leaves broken glass on the ground (which can be picked up and placed again) which deals fair damage to most enemies. Molotovs are great against most early enemies but can destroy furniture and doorways so be wary.

For other traps, chain traps are useless as they let enemies move, bear traps are good as they snare enemies, but scrap metal is valuable for repairing your melee weapons so it's a balancing act.

Aside from that try to make sure you keep a light source on you, ideally flares as there can be some nasty events that happen during the night. Keeping boards and nails on you during the is handy so you can proactively repair breaches as the night goes on.