What do you do to get your house ready for you to be gone for a trip?

* Notify USPS (United States Postal Service) online to hold mail. It can be done online.
* Set up one or two house lights on timer switches, so that it looks like someone is home.
* Use the deadbolt on all of the doors.
* Clean out the refrigerator of any perishables.
* Take any trash that shouldn’t sit around for 10 days to a public waste site.
* Do a quick tidy-up around the house.
* Adjust the thermostat.

P.S. Wishing you a great trip!

I have the neighbors pick up my mail and papers so it looks as normal as possible and no wayward person (like the paper boy) knows I’m gone, and ask them to park one of their cars in my driveway. I have a couple of lights on timers, but they’re always on timers so it’s not that different from normal. I make sure the heat/AC is at a setting to keep the house from getting too hot/cold. I lock everything.

I stop the mail and ask a neighbor to keep an eye on the place. Other than that not much. I live out in the middle of nowhere, so not much goes on.

My neighbors and I trade house/pet sitting. I need someone to collect mail, tend to my cat and geese and lock the geese up in their barn every night and let them out in the morning.
This also includes dumping and filling their swimming pools and other water features.
In the summer I need massive amounts of watering on a daily basis for my yard and potted plants, of which I have about 30 big potted plants on my deck and patio. I also need the evening delta lockdown of the cat door so the raccoons don’t come in and party in my house. lol

When I house sit/pet sit for them I feed 3 donkeys, 2 mules, a draft horse, 4 sheep and a Llam and two cats. They have more watering to do down here, I have more hay to carry up there, it works out. haha

I always unplug everything.

I know its unlikely, but I’d rather not return to a home that was engulfed in an electrical fire.

Have someone come by to water the plants (I have a lot), and get the mail.

I also unplug everything.

I never unplug anything, I’m all about the animals. lol
Hmm…blondes in the wilderness, oh well, my house still stands. haha

Call the pet sitters, they come over sometime for an entire evening.

They use the oven, bring their own food, clean-up afterwards and dogs love them.

I have to tell the neighbors though…. LOL. Strange car in driveway.

Tell my nosy neighbour 2 doors down. She will be sure to be like a haw . It will give her something to do, supplying gossip to God knows who, about where I am going again.

I put on clean sheets right before I leave so I’ll have clean sheets when I get home. Turn the heat/air off, make sure there is no garbage in the kitchen to smell up the house, and leave a light on in the living room. No, I don’t live at Motel 6, but I like a light on when I get home.

-Make sure someone picks up your mail, newspaper and anything that would pile up.
-Put a ’‘Beware of Dog’’ sign’’
-Put an automatic light on and off system.
-Unplug as many things as possible.
-Turn off the heat.

Come back already – we miss ya!

Second that!