Do you find the process of preparing house for vacation stressful and difficult? Well, it doesn’t have to be! By following these simple tips, you will learn how to make an effective plan to make the whole process much more manageable.
Get informed on how to secure your home and which steps to take to ensure that you come back to it in excellent condition without a huge electricity bill!
Preparing Home For Vacation Checklist
A few weeks before your departure:
- Make a good plan
- Buy a smart thermostat
- Find a house sitter
- Check appliances for maintenance issues
- Take care of pools, hot tubs, and fountains
- Cancel subscriptions
A couple of days or the day of your departure:
- Clean the house
- Clean and empty the dishwasher
- Program light timers
- Unplug unnecessary appliances
- Leave spare keys to somebody you trust
- Configure the home security system
- Lock all windows and doors
Getting Ready For Vacation – The Preparation
You shouldn’t leave everything to chance! A lot of things can go wrong when you leave your house empty for vacation. Taking a few extra steps before you leave ensures that the whole process of preparing to leave goes smoothly.
Make a Good Plan
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with ideas and tasks and forget things that need to be done when preparing house for vacation. Making a detailed list of what to do and when will help ensure that your home is well cared for while you are gone and helps reduce travel anxiety.
Program Thermostats
Buying a smart thermostat is an excellent recommendation for monitoring and maintaining the internal temperature of your house while away on vacation. There are a few different scenarios to consider when it comes to the climate of your home.
If you’re leaving a house vacant in summer, you should do everything you can to limit the amount of heat that goes into your home. By closing blinds and curtains in every room, leaving the interior doors of spaces open, and allowing air to circulate freely throughout the house, you prevent humidity issues like mold and water damage.
One of the benefits of a smart thermostat is that it allows you to monitor the temperature of your house from your mobile phone. If you don’t want to come home to an overheating house, just turn on the cooling system remotely a few hours before you get back!
If you need to prepare house for vacation in winter, it’s best to take steps to keep heat inside the house. By keeping blinds closed and setting your thermostat to at least 50°F or 10°C, you ensure that less heat escapes from the windows pipes from freezing and possibly breaking.
The addition of the smart thermostat makes the maintenance of a constant temperature more cost-efficient and precise, letting you rest easy, knowing you won’t come home to a huge heating bill.
How to Prepare Your Home for Extended Absence
Are you planning on being away for a longer amount of time? There are a few more things to consider if you are leaving your house for an extended period. Empty homes can attract all kinds of problems if they aren’t appropriately prepared. The risk of burglary, vandalism, fire, or even extreme weather conditions are things to consider since you won’t be around to respond immediately to any issues that arise.
Find a House Sitter
Instead of leaving your house empty, hiring a house sitter is the safest solution when preparing house for extended vacation. Call someone you trust to stay in your home while you’re away, like a family member or friend.
Sometimes it can be hard to find someone, so hiring a professional house sitter is an option. Thanks to reviews and recommendations available now online, you can find someone who is reliable and fits your needs. If you don’t want someone staying in your home, asking a close neighbor to check in on the house every few days is a good alternative.
Check All of the Appliances in Your Home
A vital step to preparing a house for vacation is ensuring there are no maintenance issues before you leave. Fix any appliances that may be old or outdated to avoid potential hazards that could happen while you’re away.
According to a 2016 survey, electrical failures and malfunctions were the second leading cause of electrical fires in the US. Unplugging non-essential devices will help save electricity and reduce the risk of fire while the house is empty.
Take care of the pools, hot tubs, and fountains
Taking care of outdoor features in your yard is an essential part of your leaving the house checklist. Turn off fountains and any other devices that use running water, and empty ut small pools and birdbaths to prevent water damage in your yard or excessive water bills.
When it comes to pools and hot tubs, however, different rules apply. Draining pools and hot tubs can cause damage if left empty in the summer heat. Opt for turning off heating systems, but keeping filters on, invest in suitable coverings to prevent insects and debris, or just hire someone to maintain them while you’re away. Sometimes it’s better just to have someone look after it for you when preparing home for vacation.
Avoid Mail Pile-Up
Avoiding mail and newspaper subscriptions piling up on your doorstep is something to pay attention to no matter how long you may be out of the house. Allowing mail and newspaper subscriptions to go uncollected while you are away, especially in the summer months, greatly increases your chance of being the victim of a burglary.
Don’t forget to cancel or suspend your newspaper subscriptions or provide a forwarding address a few weeks in advance, as the request might need some time to process.
How to Prepare Dishwasher for Vacation
To prepare your dishwasher for while you are away, empty and leave the door slightly open to allow the remaining water to evaporate and prevent mold. If you own a front-load dishwasher, it’s a good idea to take the extra step of running a wash cycle and using a cleaner designed for front-load dishwashers, as they are more prone to these issues.
Preparing House for Vacation – The Essentials
Now that we covered the pre-emptive steps for prepping the house for your absence, let’s talk about the final moments before you go.
The day of departure can be stressful, but keeping yourself prepared, organized, and on time will help keep your departure day calm. Leaving your house knowing that everything is well taken care of will allow you to fully enjoy your time away. Here are the basic items to include on your vacation house checklist.
- Unplug all non-essential appliances and electronics
- Get rid of any fruit sitting out
- Take out the garbage
- Do the dishes
- Close the blinds
Lock Everything
The possibility of a break-in when the house is empty is a concern for 62% of Americans. Ease your mind by double-checking whether you have secured everything properly. In addition to external doors, you should lock all of your windows as well as the garage.
If you are going to prepare home for vacation for a more extended time, consider installing deadbolt locks to external doors for extra security. If your house and garage are connected, remove all valuables from the garage and lock the door that connects the two areas. Many burglars use the garage doors to gain access to the house.
Program Light Timers
Lights are an excellent intruder defense as it signals to burglars that there is someone in the house. Leaving lights on while you’re away, however, results in hefty electricity bills.
Investing in light timers and programming them before you go helps keep your electricity usage low while making the appearance that someone is still in the house. Having both lights in the yard, and a few lamps on inside, will help prepare your home for vacation and make it more secure.
Leave Spare House Keys To a Person You Trust
One of the most important rules to follow to make sure your house is secure is never hide your house keys somewhere in your yard. We know that you’re probably used to keeping them under a mat or fake rock, but burglars know that too!
Preparing house for vacation by removing the spare keys from your favorite hiding places and leaving the spare keys with a friend, family member, or neighbor that you trust ensures that someone can enter your home in case of an emergency while you are gone.
People Also Ask
Preparing your house before going on a vacation is a process. Effectively plan to prevent forgetting to do anything like purchasing and installing a smart light timer or arranging in advance for someone to collect mail from your doorstep. Prepare your yard by emptying any small fountains or birdbaths, and turn off the heating systems of your hot tub and pool.
You should clean your fridge, do the laundry, take out the garbage, as well as unplug all the electronics in your home. Set your thermostat and close all the windows and blinds. On the day of your departure, make sure all of the doors are locked, program your alarms, and set up the security cameras.
Preparing your house to be vacant involves ensuring that all security and maintenance issues are taken care of. Checking that all unnecessary appliances are unplugged, thermostats are set to maintain temperatures, light timers are programmed to go off and on, and that all doors and windows are locked, ensures that your home will be safe while you are away.
Hiring a house sitter is alternatively a good option, eliminating many of these tasks as someone will be there to care for your home.
While it is a matter of personal choice whether you decide to clean your house before you go on vacation or not, there are some advantages to doing so. First, coming home from vacation to a clean house is pretty nice.
More importantly, leaving a mess around, such as dirty laundry, dishes, old food, or unclean toilets, can attract vermin like fruit flies, insects, and even mice or rats. It’s up to you, but probably it’s better to clean your house before going on a vacation.
The most significant consideration when preparing your home for being vacant for an extended period of time is security.
Since houses that don’t have a security system have a 300% more chance of getting broken into, you should consider increasing the safety of your home by installing one or getting a house sitter.
Lower your risk of electrical fire by unplugging all non-essential appliances and fixing any maintenance problems before you go.
