Get your retired neighbor to keep an eye on it.
2
Because it is easy to see into my kitchen/dining area, I leave the table set, sometimes with artificial flowers in a vase or fake fruit in a bowl. I leave clean dishes in the dish drainer. When the season warrants it, I hang old jeans, old towels, socks on the clothes line, small suggestions that someone is home. During winter months, neighbors drive in the driveway to leave tire tracks and/or walk to the house and mailbox to leave footprints. Long after the dog was gone, I still hung the spare key inside the dog house, reasoning few people would venture to stick their hand deep inside a dog house (dog house long gone). Then when we had chickens, the spare key went under the nesting box (some people are as afraid of squawking chickens as they are of barking dogs!). And now? I'm not telling you!
5
My neighbor collects my mail, babysits for my plants and every other day puts a bag of garbage in my outdoor garbage can for collection.
It's always a worry but thanks for this article with its numerable helpful tips.
It's always a worry but thanks for this article with its numerable helpful tips.
2
Surprised that having neighbors check your home is not even mentioned.
11
"Stop your mail and newspaper" imight be good advice for some, but after my apartment on the top floor of a NYC walk up [that's up five flights of stairs] was tossed three days after I left for a two month vacation, I never notified the post office again. To this day I am convinced that I let the post office know that my apartment was vacant and its employees were welcome to its contents. Safer to ask a neighbor to pick up your mail on a daily basis and leave it on the dining room table.
7
And for Pete's sake, don't post on social media that you will be gone.
10
All good recommendations, but frankly, you cannot hire a pet sitter to live in your home 24/7 for less than $60-75/day. Not in the tri-state area at least, and not out here in Santa Fe. For $37/day you might get two or three 30-minute visits with feedings and/or play time. But certainly not someone who'll essentially move into your house and handle mail, plants, and pets full-time.
3
Good recommendations. One more: I completely unplug laptops and other electronics. Why risk getting them fried due to some surge? Yes, this can happen when you are in town as well, but at least when i am out, this is one less thing to worry about.
4
We we have a camera at our weekend place that captures the driveway and entrance. Using the app I can see visitors, deliveries, snow, etc. and contact someone to do what's required. On one occasion i could see that we forgot to close the garage door so I called a neighbor.
6
Back in the 1960'-70's, leaving at 5AM for Maine summers with the family meant my mother was ironing her 'dinner out' clothes at 4AM.
I cannot tell you how many times (but it had to be at least half) my mother thought she left the iron on and we had to return to the house to check.
Sometimes that happened in town, sometimes on the highway nearby, and sometimes two states away in Connecticut. Her frantic last minute ironing
job never stopped, and my dad beeping the horn in the driveway didn't, either.
Our car turnarounds would've been prevented if DAD had walked back into the house to check the iron was unplugged before she came out, but he never did.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
I cannot tell you how many times (but it had to be at least half) my mother thought she left the iron on and we had to return to the house to check.
Sometimes that happened in town, sometimes on the highway nearby, and sometimes two states away in Connecticut. Her frantic last minute ironing
job never stopped, and my dad beeping the horn in the driveway didn't, either.
Our car turnarounds would've been prevented if DAD had walked back into the house to check the iron was unplugged before she came out, but he never did.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
11
We have pet sitters for our cats and birds, but board our dogs. It is $20 a day. However, we usually just let our kind neighbors know we are going away and they watch the house. Our mail is in an area away from our house, and any overflow the post office stores for us. This is small town living and we love it. Was not so true when we lived in Boston. (Although we were never robbed and had a security system-- no cats/birds then, no pet sitters)
4
Perhaps it is just our city, but some police departments offer vacation check services (i.e. stop by the home, check doors and windows, collect materials left by solicitors, etc.).
12
Hee Hee.... in NYC that would be an invitation for the cops to relieve you of some valuable items. I have heard that cab drivers will tell their friends when a whole family went to the airport so they can have the friends do a little "Vacation check" on the property. I do not doubt that cops have similar friends.
3
Turn down your water heater. Turn off any "instant" hot water faucets in the kitchen. Remove your garage door remote from your car. Unplug appliances that use standby (phantom) power when not in use (many TVs, some kitchen appliances, washing machines, etc.). Adjust your programmable thermostat to save energy. Install the blocking insert on the inside side of your dog door.
29
This article blithely ignores the fact that "smart" alarm systems and keys are not secure. Hackers increasingly are able to control aspects of your home and car and it's only getting worse. I work in tech and I can tell you that privately, none of us are too excited about Nest or smart appliances because of the lack of security.
50
Shut off the water at the main valve - it takes a second to turn on / off and protects the home from leaking and burst pipes. Do it not only for lengthy vacations but also for a long weekend away.
38
live in a high end condo or co op
go on vacation
toss the keys to your concierge as you leave
have a great week
thats how we do it
go on vacation
toss the keys to your concierge as you leave
have a great week
thats how we do it
27
And the concierge is probably doing what some concierges do, you realize.
2
Jack's right. We live in a high-end spaceship orbiting the earth, with no catflap. Tossing the keys as we leave is risky, though.
5
Make sure someone plows you out if a snowstorm occurs while you are away.
17
Housesitter, for sure. We have pets but even if we didn't, we would want a housesitter. Huge peace of mind!
10
Yes but this article is so wrong about the costs associated with pet sitting. Ours is close to $30 per walk so it's better to just pay the $99 per night that includes everything.
5
I have two Westies and I pay $135/night and that's if I'm fortunate enough that my sole nighttime petsitter is available! I also augment that amount with $20/vists of a daytime petsitter, when the primary sitter is at work. The daytime petsitter insists on picking up my mail (community mailboxes in my subdivision) because her husband is retired US Postal Service and in her opinion its unsafe to notify "the Post Office" of the dates you will be out of town.
17
True! We pay $50 per night.
5
Another important tip is to find the shutoff valve and turn off the water. You don't want to come back from vacation and find a flooded house.
21
Excellent article.
One way to help reduce anxiety is to make a checklist before you leave and check off every item - doors locked, coffee pot off, iron off and so on. Just before you leave, check off every item and take the list with you. When a nagging thought arises, you can check your list and reassure yourself you took care of that item.
One way to help reduce anxiety is to make a checklist before you leave and check off every item - doors locked, coffee pot off, iron off and so on. Just before you leave, check off every item and take the list with you. When a nagging thought arises, you can check your list and reassure yourself you took care of that item.
50
Not a summertime item but if you head for warmer climates during the winter and it snows at home, if you don't use a service have a neighbor drive up and down your driveway to indicate some activity.
38
When we lived in Maine, we were told to have the driveway plowed when we were away in case firetrucks needed access. One of the reasons we decided to sell the house and barn instead of keeping it as a summer home.
10