Felschurch

Just used it for a trip later this month. Checked to see if my paper did it by internet but they didn't seem to

escargot

Our police and fire department have a form you can fill out when you will be away with contact emergency numbers if they need you - and good to let them know you will be away -

If you have a housesitter and give them use of your automobiles, check with your insurance company - ours and our policy require that we add them to our insurance if they are going to be an 'extended driver' which to many companies means anyone driving your car, with your permission, for x amount of days...

home insurance company may require if vacation over x amount of days to install an alarm system on the thermostat or furnace
(more of an issue up north, we just have the alarm on our furnace so if heat shuts off oil company receives alarm, has key and comes and fixes burner or whatever problem was.

make sure no rubbish/garbage left anywhere - barrles, garage, etc !

offlady

My girlfriend who works for the electric company told me to always shut the power off when going on vacations, including the fridge. There are electrical currents running through your appliances even though they are in the off position. That is the reason why you have instant tv picture when you press the "on" button. We cut the circuit on our last extended vacation and saw a dramatic drop in our electricity bill that month. Shutting the water valves is a good idea too. I know two people that had their washing machine pipes burst while they were away and came home to a giant wet mess. Our tenant also had a toilet pipe break and flooded the place. This is the pliable "mesh" tubing that attaches to the plumbing pipes that seems to give out after a while. Would you believe my friend now shuts his water valve off which is located under his kitchen sink after every load of laundry now? He is terrified and paranoid of having it happen again as it caused water damage to his apt and every apt below his in his highrise.

NeoPatrick

No one in Florida would suggest turning your power off while away, or you'd come back to layers of mold and mildew. AC works with electric. Of course unplugging TVs and other electronics is a must (unless they go through a surge protector.

Nor would I want a house that is totally dark every night and looking deserted.

And unless I were to be gone for at least a year, I can't imagine throwing out all those "staples" in my refrigerator, cleaning the whole thing and propping the door open (to keep it fresh) just to save a few pennies on electriciy.

escargot

offlady: tell your friend to get the automatic water shut off for his washing machine/ that is the one I have, b/c I also always shut it off after a wash, it used to be a simple on/off lever right next to my machine, now it does it automatically.

people don't often do this unless, like me, they've come home to a flood

offlady

escargot, can you tell me more about this automatic shut off switch? Is it something we can get at Home Depot and install ourselves?

tpatricco

We have the shutoff valve for our washer. My husband installed it (he's fairly handy). It is a valve that you install in the water supply line and it easily can be turned on and off. I only have mine on when I'm doing laundry. It's a pretty small investment to avoid the chance of a messy, nasty flood!

OO

bookmark

bigtyke

i used usps.com to stop my mail when I was gone for 10 days. They were late in implementing the stop and only managed to stop it 2 days before my return. I'll use the card at the post office which i put in my box for the letter carrier to see next time.

escargot

offlady: you can get the manual on/off as described above. I really can not say if you can install the automatic on/off type, as I am not handy and had a plumber install, but I bet they could tell you at a home dept or plumbing supply type store.

Bobmrg

When we had our hot water tank replaced last year, the plumber put in a shutoff valve that wasn't there before (duh). Said it was now a code requirement. Check near your hot water heater...you may already have the capability to kill the water supply to the whole house.

TTess

Light timers are important. You can purchase the type that allow your lights to go on and off at different times. If your televisions have "home sitter" on them, set those, too.

djkbooks

Highly recommend turning off the water, even if your washer/hot water heater has automatic shutoff.

We returned from a two week trip some years ago. Two nights later, I fell asleep on the family room sofa watching TV. For no particular reason, I woke up at 4AM and went into the bathroom on our first floor (when normally I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep). Even more strange, I didn't turn on the bathroom light. Once "seated" (and in a sleepy daze), I noticed the rug was very wet under my toes. When I looked around, water was pouring through the overhead light fixture! (Thank goodness for a bit of moonlight!) It couldn't have been leaking more than a few minutes, or there would have been LOTS of water all over, because it was pouring down. Come to find out, when the house was built, a nail ever so slightly pierced a huge plastic pipe, and it sprung a leak at that particular moment. Had this occurred while we were away...or if I hadn't happened to wake up and go into the bathroom...

So, now, we always turn the water off.

Even so, you can't plan for every contingency. We are always so relieved when we pull into the driveway and the house is still intact and no trees are fallen, and nothing is disturbed inside.

A fellow who works with my husband returned home from a long business trip to find that his house (he lived there alone) was struck by lightning and burned to the ground while he was away. His neighbors had his intinerary, but chose not to call him (for which he was grateful).

We have an in-home safe that's really heavy and requires a combination and a key, located where no one would probably guess, but the really important stuff is out of the house in a safety deposit box, along with recent backups from our PC's.

Also, we clear the fridge of everything perishable (but stock a fresh, unopened, carton of half and half for the coffee, just before leaving), typically a good idea anyway.

mamajo

When we leave for an extended time, I have our mail forwarded to our daughters house and leave her several signed checks so she can pay our bills.

Another thing I learned to do was contact our credit cards to let them know we would be gone and where we were going and when we would return. Especially when we leave the states. They (the CC company) told me it was a good thing I did or they might have blocked us from using the cards. I know some people who traveled and ran into this problem and their cards were blocked because they were 'out of their pattern & area of spending'.

Felschurch

Almost time for the 08 trip so I thought I would top this thread and check out the list.