8 SMART Tips to Prepare Your Home for When You Travel

We recently took a trip – a parent’s getaway – to Cabo (Read my review of Cabo here!), and I thought it’d be handy to write up my list of 8 Smart Tips for Preparing Your Home for When You Travel. This will be a great reference for me for any future trips we take, so I figured you might find it useful, too! Let’s get to it.

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1 – Leave Your Home Spick and Span

I know there are a lot of us out there who go into this frantic cleaning mode whenever we’re leaving our homes for extended periods of time. Heck, I do this even when I’m just heading out for a few errands! There’s just something relieving about knowing you’re leaving your home in good (decent) order.

For some strange reason, I tend to feel the need to pick up the pillows and blankets off the floor in the living room, get all dishes at least to the kitchen sink area, and tidy my bed. It’s so silly – I’m just running to Casey’s for pete sakes! haha

Anyway, I think those of us in this club are on to something. It has to do with maintaining control of something and releasing your mind from worrying (subconsciously?) about the state of your home when you’re not there, I believe. I know I feel 110% better when I’ve purged and decluttered my home and things are in a good state of “clean” even when we’re not getting ready to travel.

I put “clean” in quotations because I’m finding after talking with many individuals, in my exhilarating adult conversations, that one man’s clean is another person’s germ-infested shithole. Hahahaha!!

We’re all striving for clean

So… I’m not here to judge. I’m simply stating that a lot of people like to leave their homes “clean”. I say if we’re all striving for “clean”, we’re doing just fine. Let’s not get stuck in the mud on this one, folks. Ha!

Getting back on topic… I have this (almost) obsessive need to leave my home spick and span when we’re leaving for a trip. It’s just got to happen. And it’s so ridiculous that I procrastinate actually packing my bags for the trip, which should be a priority over other tasks until I’ve got the cleaning and tidying taken care of.

It’s like I can’t focus on anything regarding the trip until I’ve spent all of my mental energy on getting my home/life cleaned up. Then, and only then, can I move on to packing and prepping for the actual trip. I’m really hoping I’m hitting a nerve with someone else out there in this universe (please comment if you are just as crazy as I am!). Otherwise, I may need some therapy.

Clean, Clean, Clean

So, my point is – it’s going to take some work and effort in the days and weeks leading up to your trip, but I think it’s a great idea to get things in order before leaving. This includes (but not limited to):

• Catch up on all laundry – I’m talking wash, dry, fold, and put away!
• Clean your floors – vacuum, mop, sweep, etc.
• Clean your bathroom/s – focus on the toilet and sink area, let everything else go
• Declutter and tidy – pick up toys, sort and handle mail, get things off the floor
• Kitchen – get all dishes done, leave one dishwasher load to start the night before you leave, declutter counters and wipe them down, purge your fridge!
• Take out all trash in the home
• Get all of your existing mail handled – pay bills, throw away or file anything else

I’m sure I’m forgetting some items you might feel the need to tackle, but these are the main areas I tackle to free my mind of them.

The reason I find it so important to leave my home clean is that when I return home after our trip, we typically hit the ground running. The thought of getting back to reality is depressing enough, but I can’t handle adding coming home to a house full of undone chores to my list of to-dos upon entering my home. It’s just not fun.

One of my favorite things is to come home to a warm, nice smelling, clean and tidy home. My mind is able to focus on other things that need to be done to get back into the daily grind (ugh). I also find that you’re able to ride that “vacation high” a bit longer if the boring, mundane tasks you loathe aren’t waiting to bite you in the butt when you return home.

2 – Have someone check in on your house

We are rural mid-west dwellers. It’s not an absolute must to have someone check in on your home when you are gone. But it’s definitely nice if you have trusted neighbors or family close by that can stop in periodically to make sure things are on the “up and up” while you are away.

You can have them do a variety of easy tasks to check-in and also make it appear that someone is currently home. They can check your mail, feed your pets, shovel some snow (if it’s snowing out)/mow the lawn (if you’re super-duper lucky!), do a quick walk-through of the house, turn your outdoor lights on, etc. These are easy ways to keep any “trouble” at bay.

3 – Schedule Home Projects

This is something many people don’t consider or think about when they are planning their travel. And to be honest, some people just won’t be comfortable doing this, and that is okay.

However, we’ve found it helpful to hire out home projects for when we’re away. One year we had our bathroom re-done while we were gone. Another year, we had the popcorn ceilings removed and drywall fixed throughout our entire house. This year, we had our house renovation going on while we went to Cabo.

In doing this, you’re making life easier for both parties involved. The contractors don’t have to worry about intruding on your schedule and routines. They can come and go as they please. They can make as much noise as they need to, without complaint.

On our end, we don’t have to worry about people being in our house while we’re trying to get something done (or simply just live). We aren’t there to fret and stew over how things look or critique the work being done. And last but not least, we get a break from living in a construction zone 24/7!

Really enjoy your travel time

Instead, we’re off enjoying our time away, and progress is still being made without our presence at home. And, we get to come home to updated spaces, which are always super fun to see in real life!

Most people have security systems in place these days, so it’s not like much can go on that you’re unaware of. And remember, you’ve already coordinated to have someone look in on your home, right?! This is something else to add to their list of tasks.

We let our contractors know to reach out with questions/concerns and provide updates along the way. That way we’re still in the loop, and they don’t feel like we’re completely out-of-pocket if things arise that need to be discussed.

4 – Hold Your Mail

If you choose to have someone check in on your house while you’re away, you can skip this one. But if not, it’s super easy to have your mail held for a specific time period through the USPS website. You will need to create a login to do this, but it’s super simple once you’ve got that setup. I believe you can also call your local post office to do this.

Once you’re back home, they’ll deliver all of the mail you received when you were away!

5 – Notify your Financial institutions

This is another very simple thing to do online (or call your bank), but it’s definitely something you don’t want to forget, especially if you are traveling internationally! As long as you let them know what dates you’ll be gone and where you’ll be located, your purchases won’t be flagged or possibly stopped altogether.

We ran into this when we were overseas one time. Eric thought he’d alerted our bank, but it didn’t go through. Luckily, I had a card from a different bank that still worked.

6 – Pets

We have all outdoor pets – one dog and three farm cats. We’ve invested in a couple of electric water buckets, as well as self-dispensing gravity feeders.

The electric water buckets are clutch for wintertime, whether we’re traveling or not. Here’s a large version that we have. We also have this smaller one. For the self-dispensing gravity feeders, we have a couple like these and use one for the cats and one for our pup, Cash.

These are super handy when you’re going away for short periods of time (a day or two). It also provides us with some peace of mind when we’re gone for longer periods. Should our pet caretakers forget to stop by one day or something, we know that what we’ve left them will get them by for quite a few days with no worries.

7 – purchase cell service

If you are traveling internationally, you may want to consider looking into international plans for cell service. Most service providers offer travel add-on packages. Paying the extra fees definitely makes us feel more secure and connected when we’re traveling abroad. We can still call out to family and friends, as well as access the internet to look things up or access GPS/maps.

I definitely think adding this into your travel budget is worth it.

8 – Update Important Information

I don’t know that you need to go to great lengths with this one, but I do think having your important documents in order (especially if you’re traveling abroad or for extended lengths of time) prior to leaving is very important. It’s just as important to notify someone close to you where your important documents and files are located!

Not only will you feel better getting your things organized, as well as a general refresher on what all you have going on, your loved ones will also very much appreciate not having to sift through filing cabinets and drawers trying to find important documents in a time of crisis (God forbid something tragic happen).

Here are items I’d consider getting in order:

• Will/Trust Documents
• Life Insurance
• Financial Account Information
• Healthcare Information
• Estate Planning Documents
• Travel Itinerary (including a copy of passport/ID)
• Updated Photo (of whoever is traveling with you, including you!)

If this list is too daunting, or you don’t feel it’s needed for the type of trip you’re taking, I’d instead focus on these three: Will/Trust Documents, Travel Itinerary, Updated Photo.

I think it’s very important, especially in today’s society, to leave your complete itinerary with someone you trust. It is also nice to make a copy of your passport/ID.

8 SMart Tips to Prepare Your Home For when You Travel Conclusion

Well, that concludes my smart tips for preparing your home for when you travel. I hope you’ve found a few of these to be useful and helpful as you plan your upcoming trips! If you have any other smart tips, please leave them in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you! You can pin this post for future reference. Happy Traveling!

To the Chaos!

-MG