9 Tips To Prepare Your Household before you leave on vacation

We’re taking the leap…

…and heading to the desert for a mini vacation and surge of Vitamin D. Quick on the heels of that really excited feeling - I have to admit - is a bit of panic at the thought of needing to pack and prepare the homestead for our departure. We’re making lists, we’re checking them twice, so I can say with confidence - these are my top 9 tips for preparing your household before leaving on a vacation. 

CLEAN

This is both the best and worst part. If you know me, you know I have two kids and a handful of pets (we recently gifted Savannah a bunny!). So, we will have a housesitter stay to look after them, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to roll into my house after this much needed R&R to a mess. My key zones of focus - bathrooms, entry way, and our bedrooms. If you don’t have a housesitter - I would add kitchen and family room to this list. Doesn’t have to be a deep clean, but pick things up, make the bed, and clean off the dirt and dust so you can come home and feel peace.

TAKE OUT THE TRASH

Our flight is at 8:00am, so I’ll be taking out all the trash and recycle the night before. Typically though, this is something I would save until the very last minute. If you’re household is like ours, the indoor recycle bin is constantly full (how does this happen?!), and I know when I pull that drawer out when we return and see it empty, I will breathe a deep sigh of relief instantaneously. Sometimes… it’s the little things that make the biggest impact.

EMPTY THE FRIDGE

I admit, this didn’t come top of mind for me, but it’s a biggie for my wife. Moldy, stinky food is gross and while the smell goes away pretty quickly once you toss that stuff - there is no need to mess around if you can just do a 5-10 minute clean-out pre-trip — that way you can start fresh after vacation.

PRE-ORDER FRESH FOOD

We use Full Circle (use code: MICH5873 to get $15 off your first box!) for our fresh produce delivery each week - we can add eggs, milk, and a number of other organic groceries to our weekly produce delivery if we want as well. There is Instacart, WalMart’s grocery delivery services, and others. If you have young kids and cleared out your fresh foods before your trip, having a fresh infusion of goods might be nice for you, too. We always arrange to have a fresh food delivery come the day we get back. Especially if you’ve just traveled a long way, it is incredibly nice for us parents to have these necessary kid items directly after a travel day. I can’t recommend this tip enough!

UNPLUG UNNECESSARY ITEMS

We make it a habit to unplug various electronics when we leave - coffee pot, toaster, unused chargers, etc. This saves little bits on your energy bill, but also reduces risk of electrical fires. All very low risk, but better safe than sorry and this step will take you less than a minute. 

SET YOUR THERMOSTAT

While you’re unplugging your electronics - go ahead and set your thermostat on a lower dial for the duration of your trip. No need to heat the home for your human comforts while you’re away.

PETS AND PLANTS

This is probably the biggest step: making sure any housemates will be well cared for while we’re away. As I mentioned, we’ll have a house sitter who knows our pets and plants well, but if not - it’s best to literally write down the directions so you set your helpers up for success. 

SECURITY

This means a couple things for me. Obviously, you’ll want to make sure your home’s doors and windows or any points of access are secured before you leave. But, I also think making a plan for mail and package pick-up is important, as well as always leaving a few key lights on. This way, your home doesn’t look vacant - business as usual for any potential prowlers. We use Arlo to monitor our babies, but also our home security when we’re away. What do you use?

STOW YOUR VALUABLES

This one means a couple of things to me as well. For starters, lock valuables in a safe when you leave town as an extra layer of precaution (important documents, jewelry, etc.). But, secondarily, because we do not have a garage to park our cars in, we always work to get a very secure street spot for whichever car we leave behind. For several years now, we haven’t been able to use our alley-accessible driveaway because we’ve had large amounts of chopped wood back there from a tree we took down. This will be the first trip that we get to move one of our cars onto our property while we’re away - and, it feels good!

Bon voyage!