How To Prepare Your Home Before A Long Trip

A long trip is very exciting, but it’s natural to worry a bit about living your home unattended for a long period. You don’t want to come home to find the boiler has broken down, a pipe has burst, or your home has been broken into while you were away traveling. If you prepare your home first, you can go away feeling confident that your home is safe and secure while you’re gone. 

Handle Maintenance Tasks

Do a thorough check of your home to find any maintenance tasks that may need attention while you’re gone. Do you need water heater replacements, or is the boiler due a service? Do you need to clear debris from your gutters? Are your pipes in good repair?

Make sure any maintenance tasks have been taken care of before you go away so a small problem doesn’t become a big one while you’re gone. It’s also a good idea to think about turning off the water before you leave, so even if a pipe goes wrong, your home won’t flood. 

Check Your Home Insurance

Double-check the fine print of your home and contents insurance policy. Sometimes, your home will not be covered if it is left empty for a certain length of time. If you’re not sure, call your insurance provider to find out. Don’t want to come home and find that you can’t make a claim for damage that happened while you were away. You may need to adjust your insurance. Don’t skip this. 

Keep It Secure

If you’ll be away for a long time, consider having a house alarm fitted. Even being able to see an alarm box on the house can put off a would-be burglar. Smart home additions like video doorbells can be good too, as these will capture footage of anyone approaching the house. 

Make sure that you secure everything before you go away. Put away jewelry, expensive electronics, or other valuable items, where they are well out of sight of the windows. Double-check that you have closed and locked all doors and windows. If you usually hide a set of spare keys somewhere outside, remove these, and secure them, just in case. Ask a friend or family member to keep them for you if you’re worried about misplacing your own keys. 

Get A Housesitter

You could ask a friend or family member to house sit or use a professional house-sitting service. This way, the house isn’t left empty, so your insurance will definitely still count, and you know someone is there to respond to any problems that come up. 

If you can’t have someone stay there full-time, ask a friend to pop in occasionally. They can check everything is secure, check for any damage or repairs that need taking care of, and can do also things like moving the post. Post piling up or staying wedged in an overflowing mailbox tells people the house is unoccupied, so asking someone to move it stops you from accidentally advertising your home to burglars.