You’re excited about your travel plans. You can’t wait to see all the beautiful sights and experience the various cultures you have noted on your trip. But just wait for a second and think. How should you leave your home behind when you’re going to be away for a few weeks? Life shouldn’t just stop, should it? Will you draw the curtains and shut the blinds, lock all the doors and put your home in a ‘hibernation’ state? It’s getting increasingly more difficult to do that because we live such busy lives. Modern homes don’t just switch off when we snap our fingers. The very complex system needs to continue functioning with or without us in the home. That includes living things too. Putting your home life on hold can be done if you prepare for it well before you’re due to leave for the airport.
Pre-leaving safety tips
If you’re going to go traveling during the typical holiday season, beware of burglars and their schemes. During the summer, Christmas and New Year’s is when most people will have booked their holidays. Due to the fact that millions of people do this in unison, burglars will be planning their break-ins during the same period. Thus, you need to keep your home safe while you’re away.
- Firstly, don’t be so keen to advertise when you’re going on social media. Local home invaders will be scouting online as well as in the real world neighborhood, for residents that aren’t actually home.
- Inform the police that you’ll be going away, what day you’re leaving and arriving back. This way, a patrol car that’s driving by will know not to expect any lights switched on in the property or any kind of movement inside.
- Stop all your mail delivery. Nothing tips off a burglar that nobody’s home than a big fat wad of mail stuck in the letterbox. Use an online mailbox rental company that can receive all your mail, open it upon request and then scan you the contents. You’ll receive the scanned mail via email.
- Remove your spare key from its hiding place. If a burglar suspects you’re not home, they’ll take their time snooping around trying to find an easy way in.
Friends with benefits
To put your mind at ease, choose a friend that can come over and just spend a night or two in your home while you’re gone. It will visibly show wannabe home invaders that your home is not an easy catch. If you have a pet, having your friend come over to feed them and look after them is far cheaper than paying a cattery or kennel. They might also be familiar with your pet, thus it’s a lot less stressful. If you have a spare bedroom, you can offer it to your friend so they can call your home their second home for the time being. Just while you’re away, they can hang up a few clothes in the wardrobe and treat it as their own home. That’s if you’re really worried. Other than that, you can have them just come over every evening to see how things are going, have their dinner and then go home for the night.
Saving on bills
When going on holiday, most people think that leaving their appliances switched off is enough. However, they will still draw a little current, so unplugging all your appliances and keeping the sockets free of anything, is the key. You should also turn off the automatic timer for your heating system. It’s so easy to forget about this, but you certainly don’t want the heating on while you’re not even home. If you’re leaving in winter, it’s best to ask your friend to turn the heating on for an hour and then turn it off. This will prevent the pipes from freezing and the boiler from having a flame-out. If you have any garden lights, switching them off will also save you on your monthly bills. Turn off the timer for your boiler if you have it set to heat up the water in the morning for your shower. Again if you’re leaving in the winter, allow your friend to turn your car on and leave it on idle for 15 minutes. This will allow the oil to circulate and keep your car from freezing up. This can save you a trip down to the local garage to fit a new starter motor too.
Putting your home into a hibernation state is the best way to save money on your bills while you’re away traveling the world. But giving your friend a key and allowing them to keep the home semi-active during the evenings, will also ward off burglars.
