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Last updated: May 2020
A vacation is something that people with an average nine-to-five find to be a luxury. After all, you only get so much in a year. Therefore, a lot of people want to make the most of it. If you are planning to leave for a long time for a vacation, you have to prepare. You have to clear your work schedule, as well as inform your HR and colleagues about it. And aside from preparing the items you need for travel, you should also arrange your home before you go on that extended vacation. Luckily, we have listed down eight things that you can do to prepare your home before going on an extended vacation:
Before you leave the house, make sure that you’ve unplugged all the electronics and appliances in your home. From your toaster to your refrigerator, unplug all of your appliances.
Even if you’re not using them, they can still use up electricity because they are plugged in. Unplugging them will help reduce the energy that you use. Aside from that, it's the safest thing to do.
If you leave the appliances plugged, there might be incidences back home that could lead to a fire. Since you’re not at home, you might not even know what happened to your house.
To reduce the likelihood of your house set on fire while you’re away, you should unplug your appliances.
When you come back from your vacation, you want to go back to an untouched home and just like how you left it. However, if you don’t set up a security system, your home might be quite vulnerable to security issues and attacks.
Luckily, there are quite affordable security systems that you can install before you leave. With the help of a security system, any entrances into your home can have an alarm system that will alert the authorities when there’s a break-in.
Aside from that, some security systems make it easy for you to check-in using your phone and by simply connecting to the Internet. Thus, you can see how your house is doing wherever you may be.
When you’re leaving behind your home, you have to make sure that you keep your house clean before you go.
According to Planet Maids Maid Service NYC, cleaning the house prevents you from keeping the food crumbs on the surfaces, which attracts pests and vermins in your home. If you don’t clean your home, you might be in for a nasty (and furry) surprise.
You’re going to lock away your home, so the air inside it will remain stagnant. If you keep things messy and dirty, you might find yourself welcomed by a smellier home than you left it. So you should clean the house because you want to reduce the stench of your home when you come back.
Some steps you can take to help reduce the smelliness of your home before you leave would be to empty the trash bins. You might want to get some air fresheners up after you clean your home, so the house remains fragile.
You should also make sure that you turn off the valve for your water in the house. Even a small leak can rack up quite a bill if you’re not aware of a hole.
You don’t want to have to pay an enormous water bill even though you didn’t use the water while you were on vacation.
Doing your laundry before you start packing your clothes is a good idea because it expands your clothing options. Aside from that, it ensures that you don’t leave behind dirty clothes at home while you’re gone.
Leaving behind soiled garments is going to make these clothes smelly. The stench is going to sink into the clothes, and getting rid of it will be a lot harder.
Even if you don’t have any dirty clothes in your hamper, you should also check every place that you might think could have dirty clothes. For example, you might have left some in your washing machine or your dryer.
Please don’t leave them there when you leave. Otherwise, it can damage your clothes and make them unusable.
If you have newer thermostats in your home, then you can change the temperature setting in your house while you’re away.
This setting will help reduce the energy consumption of your thermostat. It can also help control the temperature in your home based on the temperature outside.
Having automatic lights that turn on and off will make unsavory individuals from targeting your home.
Make sure that you set it on random but within reasonable hours. If burglars notice a pattern, then they might also see that no one is at home.
It would help if you made friends within your neighborhood, more so that you plan to have an extended vacation. That’s because it’s best to have someone to watch over your home while you’re away.
If you have any relatives or friends available, you can ask someone to stay at your place for the time being, so you have someone living inside. You can also opt to take your neighbor’s contact number as well.
Knowing that you made the right arrangements for your home reduces your anxieties and allows you to enjoy your vacation fully. Hence, preparing your home for an extended vacation is a crucial part of getting ready for your extended vacation.
If you’re planning on going on an extended vacation, make sure that you follow these tasks, so your home is prepared for the worst.
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We are Jacob and Taylor. Travel is our passion and we love sharing our experiences here at The Travelling Souk. Our hope is that you would be inspired by this little blog to try something new, embrace an adventure, and live life to the fullest.