How to Prepare your Home before a Vacation

Planning a vacation is very stressful and sometimes we get so excited and pre-occupied about planning them and in our haste we often forget to plan for the care of our most precious investment, our homes.

There are many easy ways we can prepare our homes so that we can have a peace of mind while we are enjoying our hard earned time off on vacations with our families.

Some of the list below can be done in no time; make sure to make a checklist so you will not forget and also they are useful as checklist when you come home.

• If no one will be living in the home during the time of vacation, make sure the water supplies for you washer is turned off.

• Take a tour of your home make sure there are no leaks present, if there are take care of them immediately.

• Set your water heater to vacation mode, you will save some energy bill.

• Mow your lawn one more time; make sure your water sprinkler is on timer and working during summer time.

• Add water to your sink p-trap before you depart for vacation, a dry p-trap lets sewer gas inside your home.

• Invest one of those switch timer, plug in one of your lampshades and set them to come on and off at certain hours to make it look like someone is at home.

• If you have a pool and you do the cleaning yourself make sure it’s on timer and chlorinated.

• Have someone pick up your mail or call the post office to stop delivery during your vacation and do the same with your newspapers.

• If you going on vacation during winter months and you expect the temperatures to dip below zero, make sure your heater is working and set to desired temperature (at least 55 degrees).

• When vacationing in winter months don’t forget to insulate exterior plumbing, drain your sprinkler system and your water hoses.

• Throw away perishables inside your refrigerator and turn down the temperature setting.

• Even if you are take all the precautions in the world things will happen unexpectedly, so have someone keep an eye on your home and leave them your emergency contact.

A small list and very easy to do and it will give you a peace of mind while you and your family enjoy your vacation.

EMacabeo writes for theDIYpal Website theDIYpal is a do it yourself home improvement wiki website that anyone can add to or edit.