Originally posted on October 27, 2016 @ 10:01 pm
In the excitement of travel, it’s easy to forget things. It’s always stressful to be on your way to the airport to catch your flight, or to be up in the air or arriving at your destination and remembering that you forget an important item at home, or even worse, you left the fireplace or iron on. In that moment, the panic that settles over you isn’t easy to combat. You end up having to call a friend and have them break into your house to solve the problem and put your stress to rest.
For situations like these, it’s important that you have a checklist of sorts that you cross off before you travel somewhere. God forbid you come home to have your house burned down or you arrive where you spent good money to get to and realize that you forgot your medications or your contact lenses. Those are the kinds of things that ruin a vacation. So to ease your worry, here are the things to put on a list to not neglect before you leave your house to travel:
Exterior House Needs
If you’re a snowbird or you’re just heading off for a couple of weeks or months, it’s important that you take care of all of the exterior needs of your house. This includes checking the gutters to make sure there isn’t debris piled up that could catch fire while you’re away, and this also means checking to make sure that your roof is fixed up and in good shape.
When you’re not home to see if there’s a leak starting or getting worse, you’re going to come home to some serious water damage, and nobody wants that. Other things to think about are the blowing out of sprinklers and the wrapping up of hoses so that water doesn’t freeze in the line if it’s winter time.
Interior House Needs
If you’ve checked off the exterior house needs, it’s time to address the interior. Before you leave to travel, make sure your windows are locked up tight, that the doors and all other access points of the house are secured, and make sure that heat and air conditioning are off. In addition to this, unplug all appliances from outlets.
You don’t want anything to be a fire hazard, and you certainly don’t want anybody seeing that you’re gone and breaking into your house via an unlocked window. It’s best that you ask a neighbor, a close friend, or a family member to watch over the house while you’re gone.
Personal Needs
While you’re out and about you’re not going to have the normal luxuries that you’re so accustomed to so close at hand. Make sure you’re stocked up on your medications, your contacts, your personal care items, and that any other personal needs are taken care of before departure. There would be nothing worse than to arrive to your vacation destination and only realize that you didn’t bring something that was critical to your health.