1 Month Cruise - home checklist, anything Im forgetting?

[CruiserBruce]

59 minutes ago, clo said:

USPS Hold Mail^® service can hold your mail safely at your local Post Office^™ facility until you return, for up to 30 days. To hold your mail longer or to reroute your mail, please sign up for a forwarding service. You can make your request up to 30 days in advance or as early as the next scheduled delivery day.

 

Hold Mail - Pause Mail Delivery Online - USPS

 

USPS

https://www.usps.com › manage › hold-mail

Thanks...I had not seen that before. I will check to see if it is on my forms.

[clo]

17 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Thanks...I had not seen that before. I will check to see if it is on my forms.

I thought I remembered something had to resort to my BFF, Ms. Google.

[Wayfairers]

2 hours ago, lynncarol said:

If you are traveling in the winter and your weather is cold, you need to be concerned about pipes freezing if you turn off all the heat.  We leave it on, but turn the temperature down to the low fifties.  Our water heater is gas, but it has a 'vacation' setting on it that keeps the water from freezing. As far as the water goes in winter, we turn it off at the main line, but then make sure we flush all toilets and bleed the faucets so no water remains in the system.

Our water heater vacation setting resets to normal after 30 days.

[AKJonesy]

Turn off breakers especially to garage doors.  We also turn off breakers to appliances other than fridge and freezer (we have dirty power and lose power quite often causing surges).  Turn off the wifi.  Definitely use timers on lights.  We always pour water down all of the traps in case they should dry out if you have a whole house air exchange.  Put a hold on mail.  We do a few more things in preparation for snow so that it looks like someone is here.  

[neeuqdrazil]

My parents travel to Barbados every winter for 2 months from a cold-weather country, and generally have someone come by and start their car and drive it around a bit, at least every few weeks, to avoid the battery discharging. It may not be necessary, but it does avoid nasty surprises when you get home (assuming you're not leaving your car at a parking lot at the airport/cruiseport.) 

 

If you are leaving your car at the airport/cruiseport, make sure you have CAA/AAA/local equivalent membership so that you can get your battery boosted when you get home, if it's discharged. 

[9tee2Sea]

this may sound odd, but, I have a fax machine ( yes...they still make them) plugged into my landline.  Anyone who knows me, calls my cell, telemarketers who call the landline, get that loud fax tone ringing in their ears 9 I never pick up my landline).  The reason I mention this is because folks can do cross searches with name and phone.  If someone ( with lots of time on their hands) calls you and the phone just keeps ringing, they will know nobody is home.  They can find your address, and possible break-in.   Also, get some motion lights around the perimeter of the home.  Being from Los Angeles, I just might be a little more security minded...its a jungle out here.

[PJsArtFun]

On 7/31/2024 at 4:28 PM, AKJonesy said:

Turn off the wifi.

Not if you have Smart Home features you need to access remotely 😳 I made that mistake twice a year apart 🤦🏼‍♀️ Even the ones you don’t need to access (like Keurig smart coffee maker and Ting electricity monitor) will keep notifying you to reconnect them to wifi. 

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, PJsArtFun said:

Not if you have Smart Home features you need to access remotely 😳 I made that mistake twice a year apart 🤦🏼‍♀️ Even the ones you don’t need to access (like Keurig smart coffee maker and Ting electricity monitor) will keep notifying you to reconnect them to wifi. 

Learned that on our most recent vacation when I accidently turned off our WiFi modem.

[AKJonesy]

16 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Learned that on our most recent vacation when I accidently turned off our WiFi modem.

Breakers off to appliances.  Hot pot, washer dryer and other unplugged.  Freezer door locked.  The only thing for us that can happen is most likely an earthquake which did happen in 2018 while on a cruise.  Nothing we could do about it but friends that had keys picked up everything that could produce more damage from aftershocks.  Don't worry about most stuff because we have insurance if something major happens, like freezing pipes which is doubtful because we have a whole house generator.  But, for those who don't have (pilot) backup after backups, it's a good idea to have the wifi and things like freeze warnings.  Then, you just need someone to go deal with it.  

[AKJonesy]

18 hours ago, PJsArtFun said:

Not if you have Smart Home features you need to access remotely 😳 I made that mistake twice a year apart 🤦🏼‍♀️ Even the ones you don’t need to access (like Keurig smart coffee maker and Ting electricity monitor) will keep notifying you to reconnect them to wifi. 

Responded to Cruiser Bruce response.  My point is just that you still need someone to deal with it.  The only time we had a problem was when we had the big 2018 earthquake when we were on a cruise.  You can't do anything about a damaging earthquake other than have friends mitigate damage by taking all liquids off shelves, or cleaning up liquid that was all over floors.  They can't deal with broken windows, etc.  We have insurance if something happens, just like we have insurance when we cruise.  That is our piece of mind.  When we had that earthquake, I was resigned to the fact that there was nothing we could do about it or the hundreds of aftershocks.  When we got home, we dealt with it.  

[9tee2Sea]

I have to tell you my story while on a 3 week vacation.  Our house was under construction.  It was all framed and sheeted waiting for stucco.  No tiles on the roof, but we did have the jacuzzi tub already upstairs ( not installed).  1 week before coming back, someone broke in ( I am guessing crack heads), and burned the place down to the foundation!!!!!  We didn't know about anything until we got off the plane in our home city.  Tuned on the cell phone, and there TONS of calls from the Fire Department and three very close friends.  One of the friends had a fencing company, so he put a protective fence around the entire burned out property.  They didn't tell us anything about it until we got back home.  They figured, what can they do, they are not in town, why ruin what's left of the trip.  And the icing on the cake..., we didn't have insurance ( didn't want to pay extra for construction insurance).  So we actually built the same house all over again.  I can still see some of the burn scars on the grapefruit tree in the front yard ( that was about 20 years ago).   Now, when going away for a long period of time, we do everything that was mentioned.  Turn down the water heater to vacation, turn of water at toilets ( need water for auto sprinklers), and TELL my neighbors to take a peek around every once in awhile.  we have security cameras that I program to constant on when away, and I will check the clips when wifi is available.

[PJsArtFun]

@AKJonesy Sorry for the confusion! My comment was only meant to bring up a situation when someone should not turn off the wifi. I didn’t intend it to sound like disagreement with your entire list of suggestions, you have some great ones 🤩

[AKJonesy]

27 minutes ago, PJsArtFun said:

@AKJonesy Sorry for the confusion! My comment was only meant to bring up a situation when someone should not turn off the wifi. I didn’t intend it to sound like disagreement with your entire list of suggestions, you have some great ones 🤩

Didn't take it that way.  I agree time NOT to turn off wifi as well.  We live in Alaska, so it is a little "different" here. 🙂

[CruisingGrandmaW]

Instead of turning off your water heater - just set it on "Vacation Mode".

 

Water Damage from broken line is biggest threat.  We turn off at main shut off & drain all the lines.  Since you have houseplants needing to be watered - I agree with others shut off every Valve & drain each sink faucet.  (Keep in mind - IF you have older water valves - they can break - causing water damage. If worried about that I'd have your older valves replaced - CHEAPer than coming home to extensive water damage)

 

In addition to what others have posted:

 

We also disconnect our car battery - on 60+ Day cruises we were coming home to dead car batteries.

 

For added security - DH cut 1" thick wooden dowels to fit each window - to prevent breakins.  While we live in a gated community - we had neighbors whose houses were broken into when gone for an extended time.  (Maybe because we live along Golf Course this happens?)

[SelectSys]

1 hour ago, CruisingGrandmaW said:

For added security - DH cut 1" thick wooden dowels to fit each window - to prevent breakins

This can help, but it is really no guarantee.  At our home, the thieves simply threw a rock  and smashed a double-paned glass door.  Our neighbor's house was robbed by someone using a crowbar on the front door. 

 

I am starting to think it's best not to make your house too secure as it only results in more damage being caused...

 

BTW - the "funny" thing is that we supposedly live in a nice and secure neighborhood...

[donaldsc]

On 8/1/2024 at 7:53 AM, neeuqdrazil said:

My parents travel to Barbados every winter for 2 months from a cold-weather country, and generally have someone come by and start their car and drive it around a bit, at least every few weeks, to avoid the battery discharging. It may not be necessary, but it does avoid nasty surprises when you get home (assuming you're not leaving your car at a parking lot at the airport/cruiseport.) 

 

If you are leaving your car at the airport/cruiseport, make sure you have CAA/AAA/local equivalent membership so that you can get your battery boosted when you get home, if it's discharged. 

 

Don't have to do that.  A better solution is to buy a trickle charger which  keeps the battery charged.  We are away from home for 3 1/2 months in the summer and when we get back home the car always starts w/o problems. 

 

I don't know if anyone has mentioned upgrading your home thermostat to a smart thermostat so you can monitor the temperatures inside of your house.  Smart thermostats also save you money on your heating and cooling system.

 

Another thing to consider if you have a sprinkler system is to upgrade your sprinkler timer to a smart wifi enabled timer.  A year or so ago one of the valves on our sprinkler system failed and we lost a bunch of plants.  My new system automatically sends me a text message if I have either a low flow or high flow problem with my system.  To make this work your sprinkler system upgrade has to include a flow meter.  In addition to monitoring system operation I can monitor daily flows and change the sprinkler run times from any place in the universe.  The smark sprinkler system timers will also connect to the cloud you you get the proper amount of water regardless of the weather.  If the temperature gets hot it automatically increases the watering time.  If it is cool it decreases the watering time.  If it rains the system will not run either while it is raining or even after it has rained.  My irrigation bill this summer is lower than it has ever been in spite of the fact that Las Vegas has had a really hot summer.

 

Hope this helps.

 

DON

 

 

[PJsArtFun]

9 hours ago, donaldsc said:

A better solution is to buy a trickle charger which  keeps the battery charged. 

Thanks for this 😊

It makes me wonder now, if I need to do anything special for my hybrid battery. Does anyone know? Another thing for me to Google 😂

[ecs66]

On 7/28/2024 at 7:19 PM, Wayfairers said:

Clean toilets before you leave and put the lid down to prevent water from evaporating.

Also re toilets, after using the toilet for the last time, and before leaving the house, be sure the water isn't running in the toilet.  My friend's son spent some time at their vacation cabin and didn't to this.  When they got the water bill it was horrendous, as the toilet had run for almost a month.

[ecs66]

We have pets, so don't have this particular issue.  We've had the same pet sitter since 2011 -- an angel who stays in the house while we're gone.  If issues arise, she can reach us some way but usually by text.  It's much easier now that communications technology has improved so much over the years.