Planning for a long-term vacation? We have two questions for you:
1. Can we come?
2. Have you prepped your house?
Some of the items listed below may seem like obvious items to add to your 'Vacation Preparation' check list, but it's important to properly prepare your home for your long absence.
Ten ways to prepare your home for a long-term vacation
Ticking these items off your checklist to help make your vacation as relaxing and worry-free as possible.
1. Make sure all doors, windows, garages are locked.
2. Remove your hideaway keys
For day-to-day use, or emergencies, these can be handy. However, if you are gone on vacation (short-term or longer), this isn't something that you are able to monitor regularly. If you would like someone to have access to your home in case of an emergency, make sure to take those hide-away keys and give them to your neighbour, family, or friends that will be keeping an eye on your home.
3. Set lights on timers
4. Pause newspaper/magazine deliveries, or ask your neighbour to collect your mail
5. Make sure your lawn stays trimmed
For the snow birds out there, you may want to arrange for your driveway to be cleared of snow.
Bonus - if you currently live in, or are thinking about moving to, our Legacy or Kingsway communities, we take care of this for you! We're serious when we mean care-free living.
6. Unplug appliances
Unplug appliances such as toasters, microwaves, coffee machines, etc. You can even go as far as unplugging the TV or lamps (that aren't on timers) which not only saves on energy, but also eliminates a possible fire hazard.
7. Adjust heating/air conditioning settings
During the hot summer months, the thermostat can either be set for 85 or turned off completely. The winter is a little more tricky. The winter thermostat setting when away should be around 50 degrees to keep appliances and pipes from freezing.
8. Turn off your water
If you are going away for quite the long vacation, turn off your water to prevent any flood risk. After turning off your water, turn on your kitchen and bathroom faucets until they run dry. Then flush your toilets and turn off the water to each toilet at the toilet base. This will prevent algae and mildew from building up in your toilet bowl and basin. Don't forget to also turn off water valves to the dishwasher, washing machine and all sinks.
9. Put your water heater in 'vacation' mode
This refers to the heater settings that are lower than the regular settings a heater operates. Some water heaters already come with the vacation mode settings, whereas other heaters can be manually adjusted to resemble vacation settings by setting it to 50 degrees F. The vacation mode settings allow you to reduce the heater’s energy consumption while you're gone.
10. Empty the fridge and all garbages
And then you're done! Now it's time to enjoy your vacation.
What should we pack?
