I see that Patrick is leaving for a month. Which prompted this.
I'd like to start a thread about closing one's home (in the south) for an extended period. What are the dangers?
What to do about: birds, bills, mail, AC, water, pay someone to look after house etc?

Actually I'm leaving for a little over two months (I guess you noticed the first month I'll be in NYC -- but then going on to Europe for six weeks).

But each summer we leave for anywhere up to 5 months at a time, so I've gotten pretty good at this.

Here's what I do:
First we have a long time friend who checks in on things about once a week. My next door neighbor collects my mail, and our friend gets it from her and checks through it for anything that looks like a bill. He'll also start the cars and take them out on an errand rather than let them sit all summer. I let him use my SUV when he wants to move or pick up something too big for his little car.

I've turned to automatic billing for nearly everything, and the rest I pretty much do on line. Electric, cable, phone, etc. are automatically paid by credit card or bank transfer. Things like our credit card bills, I go online and pay by bank transfer. So we've eliminated the bill paying. For one month it should be pretty easy to prepay or figure out what is coming and take care of that in advance. Make sure you can access all accounts by internet so you can keep tabs on things while away.

We live in a condo now, so a lot of this is easier that when we had the house, but the AC is set on a timer (thermostat set very low so it will definitely come on and run 2 hours a day when the timer kicks in mid afternoon). Many others have humidistats installed to kick on when the humidity gets high. Two lights are also on timers.

But I also know people who hire or offer the house to "house sitters". And there are other people you can pay to stop by once a day to check everything else.

I do a month long trip every year. In fact I just came back from one.

I make sure all my bills are paid up. I use electronic payment system through my bank so keeping up with any upcoming bills is not a problem as I use the internet to pay couple of the bills that are due during my trip.

I have 2 great friends that take care of my house and my 2 cats. In return I usually bring back a very nice gifts in form of perfumes, clothes or jewelry.

One of my friends is my next door neighbor so she collects all my mail.

I turn up the AC few degrees but still leave it on. It would not be a good idea to turn it off completely as I live in Florida.

The only thing I turn off is my DirecTV service. It saves me about $100 for the month.

I leave the phone service on and check messages every few days for the unexpected call.

Never had any problems.

I've had several bad homecoming surprises over the years: a broken water line that gushed for days; once a fridge quit working (a lovely smell after a few days!); and last, but certainly not least, was a weekend-long party for 50 kids "hosted" by my then 19 year old. Needless to say, I no longer take chances and hire a responsible house sitter. It doesn't cost much more than housing my dog at the kennel.
I leave a list of emergency numbers and where to turn off gas, water, etc. Any more tips on keeping a house sitter safe and happy?

I love our house sitter - she's a friend and a starving artist. Here's what I do to keep her happy and safe:

Stock up the fridge and freezer with her fave foods including beer, wine, vodka (she polished a bottle a couple of trips ago). I also cook a few meals and keep them in the freezer.

She knows how to use the alarm system.

Fill up my Blockbuster que with any movies she wants to watch.

Let her drive our cars - her's is in bad shape - and give them to her with a full tank.

Plus I pay her depending on how long we'll be gone.

Now I have a problem. Last time she housesitted, she felt a presence in our house that freaked her out so much that she had to spend the night at a friend's. Not sure that I've felt it like she has...probably my first husband (deceased, obviously)...I'm guessing that I'm just used to it and don't notice any more.

1. Turn your water heater to vacation.
2. Turn off the water to your washing machine.
3. Clean out your refrigerator and flip bar on the automatic ice maker up.
4. Put sprinklers on timer, and arrange for yard to be done.
5. Pull stoppers up and cover all drains so water does not evaporate out of traps.
6. Stop paper and stop mail, or arrange for neighbor to pick up.
7. Have someone walk through house once a week to check on things and also keep flyers off front door.
8. We too live in the south and when we leave in the summer we turn the ac way up to keep humidity out of the air. In winter if we leave we turn the heat way down just in case there is a freeze.
9. If you have a pool that obviously must be maintained too.

Make a list, check it twice, have fun!

Remove the head of lettuce from your vegetable drawer. Have you ever seen a five month old head of lettuce?

(can you say -- personal experience?)

I've never been away for more than 10 days, but as far as the mail goes, you can go to the USPS website and have your mail stopped from being delivered
usps.com

We go barblab one better...we pull the circuit breaker on the hot water heater. Why keep heating 50 gallons or so of water over and over while you are gone? Thermostat for the house on 50. Her other suggestions are excellent.

check your insurance...many policies will not cover you for some things if the house is left vacant for over X days (60?). i travel long term a lot for business and i was nearly caught out with that rule when i had to make a claim during a long absence.

Good stuff, Walkinaround. This also applies in the UK. During a 3 week US holiday a few years ago, water damage caused by bad, uncaring upstairs neighbours was not covered...why? because I had not informed the insurance company I would be away for more than 14 days.

Careful everyone.

Patrick, if you want to be really grossed out leave a cantaloupe on the kitchen counter in the middle of a hot spell for three weeks. Trust me, you do not want a description, lol.

Felschurch, I think you have received good thoughts. I am fortunate because I have my daughter that goes through my mail while I am gone and can pay any bills that need to be paid before I return home as she lives close by.

One thing I always do that I do not think was mentioned. I take my jewelry to my daughter and son-in-law house. I have jewelry that would absolutely devestate me if it was stolen or if there was a fire while I was gone. Everything else could be replaced. Or put it in a safe depost box at your bank.

Agree with all above and add: make a back up copy of important stuff on your computer and place the copy in safe deposit box or somewhere for safe keeping.
Just in case someone steals your pc...

I asked this because my mother is no longer able to check on the house.
I can farm out the parakeets, I have a "tankless" water heater; I know about holding mail-do it often for short trips; bills I can take care of; I need to check on insurance--I had an AC in the attic overflow on a short trip--I get it checked semi annually now. Moving jewels/valuables is a great idea. Do you move important papers to the bank box? Can cars sit for a month/six weeks?. Making sure the fridge is a clear is good idea. Is it worth it to cut off cable --I'll check

Regarding the car - if it is faily new, it shouldn't be a problem. If it isn't, you may come back to a dead battery, in which case you call AAA and they come jump it for you - or even sell you a new battery. Six weeks isn't long enough for other problems to start though - corroded hoses and so forth.

Basically, anything that you can't afford to lose, such as expensive jewelry, important papers, etc should go to safe deposit box or wherever for safekeeping. IMO

Do you notify the police?--Fairhope is small enough they might check it

Re the car,if you live in a humid climate fill it with gas to prevent moisture in the tank.

Hmmmm... pulling the curcuit breaker on the water heater ... I like that.

If you live where hurricanes hit and you plan to be gone during that time of year you should secure your yard just as you would as if you were at home. We do that now as one time we were gone with no way to get home even if we wanted to and our kind neighbors did all this backbreaking moving for us while also dealing with there own stuff.

If you don't want to burden someone with watering your pots and houseplants just put them in your beds where the sprinklers will hit them.

We do not tell the cops when we are gone but do have an alarm, and our neighbors know we are out of town.

And again, make a list, check it twice. I cannot tell you how many times we forgot to do stuff until we wised up and wrote it down.

Hurricanes--what hurricanes? Do you mean Katrina, Ivan, Danny, Isadore, Georges,--those hurricanes!!

We travel frequently and use usps.com to stop and restart our mail. It's wonderful. We don't have to have it held by neighbors, and the day after we come back, it's ready and waiting for us.