Organizing a long trip can be stressful: planning the itinerary, packing, exchanging money (it’s easy with Wise!), delegating work… Well, preparing your home is just as important as preparing yourself, your luggage, and your plans. And it doesn’t have to be exhausting: just follow my Leaving The House Checklist and you’ll be ready to go!
After travelling to Cortina, Italy for more than one month a few times, we have gained useful experience on what to do at home before a long trip. Trust me, it’s a learning process, and I want to make it easier for you.
Contents of this post hideAs usual, I’m the over-planner and Darek is the last-minute one 🙂 I start making lists weeks in advance, while Darek would just take the trash out, lock the door and go. This is why we work well together: I plan it all, and he helps me tick the boxes and then relax.
Leaving your home can be demanding, especially if this is your first long vacation. Do you ever freeze in panic, 10 minutes after you left, and try to remember if you locked the door twice? Now you’ll be thinking also of the mail, of the food in the fridge, of the gas.
Our best advice is to take your own notes about your own home. You’re the boss! Our checklist will help you. One step at a time, everything will get done and you’ll be ready to go. Check out also this great article by Porch with more advice from experienced travellers.
Why does the checklist for leaving home for vacation starts so long in advance? Because you will avoid getting stressed out as the day of departure comes near 🙂
Being on friendly terms with the neighbours can always come in handy. Get to know them in advance, invite them for coffee or have a chat on the stairs. It will be easier to ask them to watch out for your mail when you leave.
Depending on where you live and what your home needs, think of asking a neighbour, a friend or family member, or a homesitter for help. Ask them in advance, just in case they also plan to travel in the same period, or cannot assist you for other reasons. Consider these chores:
If your home should look lived in, to avoid burglars, consider also:
Turning the lights on and off could be automated with a timer.
Our flat doesn’t need much attention, but we still asked family to go and check on it from time to time – especially when I was waiting for official letters from the government, they opened them and sent me a picture.
Before leaving for a long trip, take your time to research and decide what devices to unplug. It may require reading the instructions.
For example, our robot vacuum cleaner should be unplugged. The tv, instead, can stay plugged in – it doesn’t make a big difference. Our fridge-freezer is never completely empty, so we leave it plugged in. We unplug anything that has a led always on, like the router.
In general, consider that unplugging appliances saves energy and money, and helps lower the risk of fires.
Go through the rooms, look at all the appliances in your house, and make a “departure day list” of what to uplug. Keep it handy on your phone by using my template checklist, or write it on a post-it and stick it to the door – so you’ll be quick at unplugging on the day of departure.
Some standard appliances are:
Do the pipes in your building have recurring problems? Maybe it’s worth closing the main tap. But is there any machine, like the water heater, that draws water automatically? Look it up in advance.
If you are unsure, consider closing individual water valves, like the ones of the toilets, sinks, washing machine and dishwasher.
Don’t close the main tap if a homesitter will need to use the toilet.
Should you leave the lawn watering on? Do you have any hoses to wrap or disconnect? Add everything to your Leaving Home checklist:
Depending on where you live and on your heating/air conditioning devices, find out the best solution so your pipes don’t freeze, or you don’t come back to a furnace.
Our heater turns on automatically according to the temperature on the thermostat, so we set it for a lower temperature than usual: it consumes less, but it turns on to prevent the flat from freezing. It runs on gas, so we cannot close the gas tap.
If you have a “vacation mode”, make sure it works.
Whatever you decide, add it to the checklist.
This could be a long list, but it will definitely prevent headaches and expensive damage.
Start checking in advance, so you have time to fix whatever requires fixing.
Unpaid bills can result in expensive fees!
If you can, pay them in advance, or automate the payment from a card or account.
My bills are different every month, so I don’t pay them in advance. When I receive them by email, I pay online with my local bank card: consequently, even though I don’t like to bring with me credit cards that I don’t need (as you know from my minimalist packing list), if I travel longer than the usual payment deadline, I bring that card with me.
I don’t have pets, and I own just a couple of plants that can survive the apocalypse, so I can’t give you advice on this.
Do your research and figure out who can help you.
Well before you leave for your long trip, make a copy of your keys and plan to leave it with someone trustworthy: a friend, family member, a neighbor. You never know if you’ll be so unlucky to lose your home keys.
The reason to do it in advance is that some keys require permission from the building manager to be copied, or they can be copied just by a specific shop: you won’t know until you research. Don’t leave it for the last week.
We barely receive any mail, so I don’t really know what advice to give 🙂
For example, alert your post office to hold your mail until your return, or have it forwarded to family or friends.
We don’t have any insurance or alarm, but I imagine that some may require you to inform them if you leave, or it could be handy to have their number in your phone.
If your alarm uses batteries, put some new ones in.
Consider installing outdoor lights with motion sensors – I read they are a good deterrent for burglars.
Almost ready! You must be finishing up with your travel plans, telling your colleagues at work how to cover for you, and preparing your packing list (I can help with that: here’s my time-saving minimalist packing list!). Here are a few more items on the checklist before leaving home that you want to tick.
You don’t want to come back to an empty fridge and a sad pantry. Especially if you arrive home late from your trip, make sure you have the ingredients to cook something easy and comforting. Think of dry ingredients like pasta or rice, long-lasting sauces in jars, cans of tuna or beans…
My zero-effort food is pasta with pesto sauce 🙂
Otherwise, you can also prepare some food and freeze it. A few minutes in the microwave and your first meal back home will be ready! In this case, remember to leave the freezer plugged in.
Besides some strategic groceries, make sure you stock up on essentials like toilet paper, bottled water, or anything that you use on a daily basis.
If you bring your toothpaste/shower gel/shampoo on the trip, you may finish it: buy some before you leave, and avoid bad surprises when you come back.
During the last week before you leave on holiday, make sure you eat all the fresh fruit and vegetables, finish all open cans and jars, and drink all the open cartons.
Do not leave anything in the fridge or in the pantry that may create mold or go bad in any way.
You do not want to come back home and find a smelly surprise waiting for you!
As you start planning what to pack for a long trip, you will probably do the laundry, in order to pack clean clothes.
A few days before your departure, plan (and wash) a couple of outfits for your first days back home too.
You will be overwhelmed with dirty clothes from your trip: at least, you won’t have to figure out what to wear on your first day back at work.
A few days before you leave, pop over to your neighbours to tell them you will be gone for a while. Leave your name, phone number, and date of your return on a post-it, for emergencies.
This is also the perfect occasion to ask them to water your plants (which you can bring to them, instead of allowing them into your flat), or watch out for any mail you are waiting for.
If you need someone to take care of your home while you’re away, you should have already mentioned this to them. This is the moment to review what you want them to do – and make sure they remember!
Now that you have an extra set of keys, decide whether to leave them to your neighbour, to family or friends, or to hide them somewhere safe.
If a trusted person will enter your home with your keys, make sure you teach them how to disable and enable the alarm.
I have to admit we’ve never done this before, but we’ll do it next time. If beeps like crazy when the battery dies, it would definitely drive the neighbours crazy.
Cut the grass a little lower, take care of any overgrown branches. Make sure your home looks taken care of, and you won’t have a heart attack when you come back.
Tomorrow is the day! Almost everything is done, thanks to the Leaving The House Checklist. Just a couple more things to do, and you can relax. It’s time to travel! 🙂
After being away for a long time, there’s nothing worse than coming back to a dirty and messy home. When I’m tired from a long trip, entering a clean and tidy home makes me feel relaxed.
In the last couple of days before departure, I vacuum around, wash the bathrooms, and tidy up stuff that is usually all over the place (mostly toys and clothes, gah!). I’m usually too busy to do deep cleaning, so I’m satisfied with this. I don’t like cleaning, but I like even less cleaning after going on holiday!
Some more important cleaning to do before leaving home for a long vacation:
If you have a safe, use it! We don’t have one, so we hide our valuables.
I swear I killed so many plants. Now I only have super-resistant ones that survive a month without water 🙂
Park the car in the garage or make sure it’s safe.
The day has finally come! The Leaving The House Checklist is almost complete: use it to finish the last steps.
Pick up the list of appliances to unplug and utilities to close. You researched and took your decisions in the last few days: this is your moment to implement them!
Follow your list: unplug, turn off, set the thermostat, turn on the vacation mode, as you previously decided.
Avoid last-minute panic: as you go through the list, say out loud what you are doing, tick the list, and then take the list with you.
On the day before you travel, or on the same day of departure, take out all the trash! From the kitchen, the rooms, the bathroom, even the paper and plastic.
Keep your home clean from unexpected smells and pests.
Close and lock all windows, draw the curtains or close the shutters. Lock doors, garage, gate.
The final touch that gives you the ultimate peace of mind.
The checklist is still useful!
Thanks to your efforts before departure, you know exactly what is turned off, closed, unplugged. The checklist will remind you to open the washing machine tap before you turn it on 🙂
Most importantly, the checklist helps you learn about your home. Is the heater ok after you left it on vacation mode? Make a note. Did your neighbour make a good job with your mail? Make a note and buy them some chocolates. Did you forget something? Add it to the list.
Use the Leaving The House Checklist again for the next trip: you’ll be smarter and faster!
Are you passionate about travel planning? Do you get excited about travel tips and tricks? You’ll love our Efficient Travel Planning page 🙂
Ready, set, go! Thanks to this complete checklist for leaving home and going on holiday, you will be able to enjoy your time off even more. Your home is well cared for, and will be waiting for you.
