Before You Take Off for an Extended Trip, Do This

No matter how big your house is, get it prepared for an extended trip vacation with these tips.
No matter how big your house is, get it prepared for an extended vacation with these tips.

How to Make Sure Your Home is Safe When You’re on an Extended Trip

By Max Hartshorne
GoNOMAD Editor

So you’ve finally decided to take that big. extended trip, all the way around the world. While you’re out exploring the world and filling in your bucket list, here are some tips on how to prepare for a long period of time away from your home.

The Water

This is one of those things that depends on how long you’ll be gone. If it’s a full year or even as long as six months, you might just need to turn off your water right at the shut-off valve. Just turn it off and many things you might have had to worry about will be taken care of.

If you are going to be away for many months, it makes sense to ask a neighbor or a friend to stop by and turn on the water and run the faucets at least once a month.

If you don’t do this there is a chance that sewer gas can enter the house and fixtures can crack. Ask the same friend to flush the toilet and run the dishwasher empty when they come by.

Turn off the water at the main source to your house if you're going to be gone for month or more. Max Hartshorne photo.
Turn off the water at the main source to your house if you’re going to be gone for a month or more. Max Hartshorne photo.

Turn off your water at the source in the basement. For the hot water heater, if you don’t have the type that supplies hot water on demand, turn it to vacation mode. This means it will only run once in a while, but not attempt to keep a huge 55-gallon tank full of steaming hot water 24 hours a day.

One tip from Penny Pinchin’ Mom: Put antifreeze in your toilet (winter only). This is really important to prevent your toilet from freezing (in the instance where your furnace stops working.

Turn off the water and then flush the toilet. That will drain the water out of the tank. Pour some marine antifreeze into the bowl (this is non-toxic). When you get home, turn the water back on and flush the tank and you’ll be back in business.

Toilet Care

A good tip regardless of how long you’re going to be away is to pour half a cup of bleach (chlorine) into the toilet bowl to avoid bacteria from growing in the bowl. The preventative measure make sense even for a week-long trip!

Lighting

Setting up a timer to make it look like someone’s home is a no-brainer regardless of whether you’re leaving for a few days or a month. It’s so simple to do this, and if it makes a burglar pass by your house, that’s the point. But set a few lights to go on nightly to show activity and keep away people who might be casing a dark house that’s obviously empty.

Unplug small appliances and electronics.

The Refrigerator

Milk takes only about a week to smell really rancid. Same with hummus, tortillas, and fruit. So make sure you toss out any perishable foodstuffs and take them all out of the house to the garbage can when you are going to be gone.

Fruit flies quickly appear when food is left on the counter, so ditch even things like potatoes and onions, they’re cheap to replace and no one wants to come home to a science experiment.

Long term, you might be best off to totally clean and empty out the entire refrigerator and then unplug it, leaving the door open. But if you’re not sure about this, just remove all of the food and leave it running, but place some bottles of water on the shelves to keep it running efficiently.

Outside the House

“If you have a lawn you regularly mow, sorry, you’re not going to be able to get out of this one. Hire someone to come mow the lawn every few weeks and to keep the garden tidy.

It’s a telltale sign that a house is empty when there is an unkempt lawn with leaves everywhere and if you live in a place where fires are a risk, keeping the garden clean will also prevent bushfires from starting or spreading Ask the lawn mowing service to tidy up any fallen branches and remove leaves too, so it looks like someone who cares is still there.”

Remember to stop both paid and free newspapers from being delivered when you're away on a trip.
Remember to stop both paid and free newspapers from being delivered when you’re away on an extended trip.

Hold the Papers during an Extended Trip

If you subscribe to a local newspaper, be sure to cancel it or have them hold the newspapers for later delivery.

Remember too, those free papers that sometimes get thrown on your driveway. Tell the publishers NOT to include your street address in their deliveries. A pile of newspapers is a dead giveaway that no one’s home.

Be careful about how you share the news of your departure on social media. Post to friends, but be wary of public posts that proclaim you’ve moved to Paris. I know you’re excited….but.

Pack your car for your fabulous journey INSIDE the garage. No reason to advertise that you’re about to depart. And don’t leave a message that anyone who calls your landline can hear saying you’re gone.

For your US Mail, you can either have the post office hold it all, or you can arrange for a forward. If you’re going somewhere across the ocean, however, will be cost-prohibitive. There are a number of services you can contract with who will send you your mail either by scanning it and sending it by email or sending the actual paper mail.

Your Cars

If you are doing a home exchange, often part of the fun is being able to use the car in your new house abroad, and offering your renters the same thing. But if you’re planning on leaving the old jalopy in the driveway during your entire extended trip, ask that same nice neighbor who is helping turn on the water to take it out for a spin every month or so.

It’s amazing how fast brakes on cars rust, even a few months of sitting, with some rain will ruin your brakes. So get that car out and about every few weeks, and ask them to park it a bit differently from time to time.

Finally…and Most Important Extended Trip Advice

Share your contact information abroad with a neighbor, and also write down the professionals you use…plumber, electrician, pool guy, dog walker etc. It might even make sense to talk to the local police and let them know where you’ll be, so they can schedule a patrol car to swing by during your absence.

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