In retrospect of my preparation for my last trip out of town, I thought that I'd take a minute and share my top 10! These are my top ten to-dos before driving down the road. I hope that you find them useful and feel free to add your thoughts along the way!
Vacation can be lots of fun, but it can also be disastrous if you don't take the necessary precautions.
10. Water the plants. If you are going to going to be out of town for several days or weeks you might want to find a kind neighbor to help keep them hydrated! I've come home to droopy plants more than once in my life!
9. Unplug unused electric items. You never know when there might be a power surge causing a blow up. (This actually happened to my brother's house this last week.... he blew a light over his kitchen sink while our family was out of town...thankfully his renters were home!)
8. Turn the water off at the main switch. Especially in Minnesota weather - you don't want to risk and frozen pipe situation or an accidental overrun of water if you spring a leak. It's amazing how much damage one little leak can do.
7. Put a stop on your mail. Can you just imagine your nosy neighbors leasurely reading your bills? It'd be nice if they'd pay them, but somehow I think that's doubtful!
6. Leave your animals in good hands. If you are leaving your animals home it's a great idea to make sure that they will have enough food, water, noise and shelter while you are away. We had a bird growing up and always left the radio on for him... I'll never forget the vacation that he learned to talk static!
5. Close those windows and blinds. If weather turns sour a good rain storm could certainly wet the carpet, but you also have to keep track of the nosy neighbors (again!) You wouldn't want snoops peeking in the windows and seeing the dirty undies that you forgot laying on the floor.
4. Take out the trash. Nothing stinks worse than days old or weeks old garbage that's been sitting in the can!
3. Leave my travel plans with some I know. In the event that something SHOULD happen while you are away - it's great to know that someone would know how to contact you. This spring we had tornadoes in the area and several families came home to destroyed homes.... leaving a phone number with someone could have given them forewarning to the situation.
2. Turn off the fax and on the message recorder.... I know a funny one. But, we realized two hours out of town that we had left the fax running instead of voicemail. My hubby likes to call home while we are away and it left him buzzing this time around.
1. And, the obvious, close and lock the front door! Growing up I can't tell you how many times my parents stopped to call a neighbor and asked them to make sure that the door was locked and shut! Oops. Guess there's always something!
Okay, so I don't really expect that your neighbors would truly be the ones to snoop or cause trouble. It's just funny to imagine that it's the people that I know in the picture of something that could be more than troublesome.
Hopefully when you leave your driveway you will feel confident that your home will be safe and sound when you return home! Have a great getaway!
If you are looking for professional real estate services I am only a ring away! I am looking forward to working with you.
Lindsey Hasford
Coldwell Banker Vision
231 Main Street - Elk River - MN 55330
763-241-5488 (office) 763-218-1347 (cell)
lindseyhasford@coldwellbankervision.com
http://www.hasfordhomes.com/
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The obvious one of close and lock the door. Seems the last trip I took I was anxious to get underway. Our neighbor called a few days after we'd left to say he had noticed the back sliding glass door had been left open. Nice!!! Luckly, we live in the country and have a pretty good support system with our neighbors. He only noticed because he'd been out working on fencing. He did walk through to make sure no wild animals had gotten in before he locked it back up. It seems I always forget something!