Leaving for a vacation can be stressful. Who’s going to watch over your home while you away? Who or what is going to ward off thieves and burglars who may try to break into your home? Not to mention the possibility of returning to a messy and smelly home. So how do you prepare your home for your holiday vacation? Aside from packing your luggage and checking your boxes to see whether you are good to go for the holiday, here are seven important things you have to do to ensure your home is left in great condition before your departure.
Cleaning
The last thing you want to return home to, from your holiday travels, is a smelly kitchen or a stinking toilet. So to avoid this, you should try to clean your home before heading for your relaxing holiday. It is not compulsory that you have to deep clean, but a good interior routine cleaning a few days before your departure should be enough to ensure that your home doesn’t go awry while you’re gone.
Thoroughly clean the refrigerators
While you are cleaning your home prior to your departure, it is also essential that you take a peek inside your refrigerator to eat, remove, or toss in the bin anything that may get spoilt before you return. Due to the conditioning of refrigerators, things can get really messy, smelly, or stinky if left for days in them.
Throw out the trash
While the whole excitement of visiting a place you get to go once per year can be so much to handle, you shouldn’t be too engrossed in it to the point that you forget to dispose of the trash bags and bins. While it is important to clean the rooms, toilets, kitchens, and refrigerators, it is even more important to reiterate that you shouldn’t forget to dispose of the garbage too. After all, most of the dirt and refuse you gather from your home cleaning will end up in the trash cans. Therefore, if you don’t throw out the trash, you run the risk of returning to a pest-infested home.
Turn off all water sources
Unless, of course, you want to return to a flooded home, it is advisable that you should shut all water valves supplying water into your home. From the pump to the main water valve, ensure that all are closed. In fact, if you want to be at total peace while you are on your days of relaxation, it is better to shut off the individual valves to the washing machine, icemaker, garage, garage, sprinkler system, and even the dishwasher. If you don’t really understand how to handle the technicality of some valves, piping junctions, or augers, be sure to bring in a plumber to help you out before you set out on your holiday. They know things that you do not. For example, Boulder Colorado’s Flatirons Plumbing points out that your hot water heater should also be turned off when water to the house is shut off.
Take adequate fire precaution
Before you head to your merry-land for your holiday vacation, remember to remove, adjust, unplug, or shut out every form of electronics in your apartment. Not only will this save you some cash in electricity bills, but it will also ensure that your home is safeguarded from the possibility of an electrical fire outbreak. If you use cables, unplug your routers and modems, if you use electric cookers, heaters, TVs, and other electrical gadgets, never forget to remove them from the mains.
Program your thermostat
Did you know that you can actually save yourself some cash on energy bills by simply reprogramming your thermostat whenever you are away? Yes, you can! Many of the modern thermostats have a unique feature that allows you to adjust the temperature setting when you are not at home. This unique thermostat feature lowers the temperature for heating during the winter and increases the temperature for cooling during the summer. Some thermostats even allow you to disable the away mode setting hours before you arrive home so that you can walk into a perfect heated (or cooled) apartment.
Automate your lights and some electronics
Did you know that you can actually prevent break-ins into your home while you away by simply making your home appear as if someone was inside? To do this, you can put your apartment lights on timers so that at intervals, they will go on or off. Furthermore, you can even employ the help of some modern technological devices to set your entire home on a vacation mode, such that a television or radio is placed on a schedule. Therefore, not only will you have lights coming up as scheduled, but you would have a radio or TV playing for a few hours at night to really make it look convincing.
Uday Tank has been working with writing challenged clients for several years. His educational background in family science and journalism has given him a broad base from which to approach many topics. He especially enjoys writing content after researching and analyzing different resources whether they are books, articles or online stuff.
Share
Contributors
