3 Tips For Preparing Your Home For Your Upcoming Travels

If you have travel plans coming up, your mind might be completely occupied with flight itineraries, hotel confirmations, and activity bookings. But to ensure that you return home from your travels without meeting any unexpected surprises once you open your front door, it’s important that you take the time to properly prepare your home before you hit the road. So to help you in doing just that, here are three tips for preparing your home for your upcoming travels.

Don’t Close Up Shop Completely

While we all know that we should unplug certain appliances and lock all the doors and windows before leaving for a trip, there are a few things that you’re not going to want to turn off completely. Because homes that look completely vacant can appear to be easy targets for criminals looking to rip you off, HGTV recommends that you leave a few lights on in your house so that it appears that someone’s there. This will give your home an added measure of security and discourage people from thinking of your home as an empty space with no one keeping an eye out on things. If you don’t want to just leave lights on all the time, you can use or install timers on certain lights or appliances so it seems even more realistic that someone’s still at home.

Stop Services While You’re Away

Many people have home services that they have done on their property each week or month. But if you’re not going to be there to need these services or oversee that they’re done correctly, Ed Hewitt, a contributor to Smarter Travel, recommends that you get these services stopped before you leave for your travels. This should including calling to have your mail held until you return, canceling any cleaning services you normally have, and postponing any landscaping or construction work until you get home.

Ask Someone To Keep An Eye Out

Once you’ve gotten everything taken care of both inside and outside of your home, Rebecca Edwards, a contributor to Safewise.com, shares that it’s always a good idea to ask a trusted friend or neighbor if they mind keeping an eye on things while you’re away. While this doesn’t have to mean that they stay at your house or even come over each day, knowing that someone’s going to be on the property and looking out for things that could be problematic will give you a lot of peace of mind while you’re traveling.

If you’ll be leaving your home to go traveling soon, consider using the tips mentioned above to prepare your home and property for your absence and ensure that everything will be in order once you return home.