Keeping Your Home Safe During Vacation

Leaving home for vacation?

Here are some things that you can do to be proactive in taking care of your home when you leave for vacation:

1. If you have pets, don’t forget to make arrangements for their care or take them somewhere – or find someone who can look after them in your absence.

2. Don’t forget to turn off your social media trackers and resist the urge to post that you are away from home. (You can always post your great pictures when you return!)

3. Consider making & freezing a meal ahead of your departure for an easy meal when you return (or plan to order pizza or carry-out when you return home).

4. Mow your lawn right before departing. An overgrown lawn can be an obvious alert to others that the property may be unoccupied!

5. Mail & deliveries –  Arrange for someone to pick up those items daily – or arrange with those delivery services to ensure they place a hold on your mail while you’re out of town.6. Security systems – run some tests on the system before you leave. (AND – make sure you know all of your passwords in the event the alarm would be triggered while you’re gone.) Consider sharing that information confidentially with a close friend or family member who can assist during your absence, in case of emergency.
7. Consider turning off your water at the main water line coming into the house. Leaks can and do happen & you don’t want to come home to a flood. (You’ll probably want to also turn off your ice maker so that the lack of water doesn’t damage or break your ice maker while you’re gone!)8. Clean your house before you go away. Nobody likes to come home from vacation to a messy or dirty house. If you have food in the refrigerator that needs to be tossed, toss it before you leave. We also recommend that you consider putting some baking soda and vinegar into your drains to freshen them and prevent you from coming home to an awful smell from your garbage disposal or drains.

  Smart Thermostat

Smart Outlets

Smart Doorbells

9.  Smart devices:

Don’t forget that you can get smart bulbs, smart outlets, and smart doorbells. We also have a smart thermostat in our home and we love it because we can control the temperature & humidity from anywhere we’ve got an internet connection! (ie – when traveling, set the temp/humidity to your liking several hours before you’re home, and you’ll be comfortable upon arrival!)

Smart Bulbs

10. Consider putting some lights on timers or use bulbs you can connect to your smart devices so that you can turn them off and on from your phone. Rooms being lit will assist in giving the appearance that someone is at home.

I hope these tips have been helpful for you!

Hi friends -Jennifer here. As I always believe in full disclosure and total transparency, I am an affiliate marketer & as such, ‘could’ receive a benefit for referring business to the vendors above. (but who DOESN’T love shopping with Amazon?!).

Rest assured that when you choose to purchase using the links in my blog, the cost to you is the same as going to Amazon directly. The companies ‘may’ choose to compensate me separately in the event that you choose to make a purchase.

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