Vacations aren’t the first thing that come to mind for a dedicated home owner. Many people pour their heart and soul into their home. It all starts with the house hunting process, when you fall in love with the home you finally settle on. Then it progresses to renovations and repairs before moving in, setting it up just how you like. Finally, after the arduous process of moving in and decorating, there’s still constant love and maintenance that has to go into the home.
The attachment many have to their home is sacrosanct. They experience anxiety associated with leaving their home in other people’s hands while they’re away on business or vacation. Is whoever’s watering the plants going to feed them the right amount? Are they going to show love to your pet or just make sure its fed and walked? Are they going to touch or re-arrange your things? As crazy as it sounds, these are the types of things that go through one’s mind when leaving their home in someone else’s hands. A warranted concern is burglaries.
In today’s world, there are several things you can do to maintain and protect your home while you’re away on vacation. Use this list as guidance as to which best suits you:
1) House Sitter
A house sitter is the tried and tested method. Hire someone to live in your house while you’re away and leave them a list of what needs to be done; plant watering, pet maintenance, cleaning, checking the mail and so on. Depending on what exactly you need done, you may not require a full-time sitter. For example, If you have no pets, you may just need someone to poke in once a day to water the plants and make sure everything’s ok.
2) Lawn Maintenance or Snow Shoveling
If you generally do this yourself and don’t have someone doing this for you, make sure you hire someone to do it while you’re away. Burglars are on the prowl for empty homes and long grass or undisturbed snow are dead giveaways that you’re on vacation.
3) Mail
Make sure you have somebody picking up your mail every few days. An overflowing mailbox and a pile of parcels are giveaways that you’re away, leaving your home vulnerable to burglary. If you can’t find anybody, you can also have USPS stop your mail for up to 30 days and deliver everything outstanding once you are back.
4) Social Media
There is no clearer giveaway that you are not home than a picture of you sipping a margarita on a beach posted on Facebook. Never trust your friends list, most people have a lot of acquaintances they don’t know much about as facebook friends. Although the temptation to one-up your friends is unbearable, don’t fret, you can always post them when you’re back.
5) Go High Tech
If you have a Smart Home, there’s a variety of things you can do to maintain your house and deter burglars. With Smart Lights, you can preprogram when they go on and off or you can also manually control it from your smartphone anytime you want. You also have cameras you can monitor anytime you want, which gives you much needed peace of mind. Access to the thermostat can allow you to ensure the right climate for your plants and pets is set. While I’m sure there are automatic feeding systems you can purchase for your pets, they will at the very least require some love once a day. The other option is to put them in vacation kennels.
Original article found at: http://dreamcasa.org/living/how-to-maintain-your-home-while-on-vacation/