Whenever you go traveling, even if you’re only set to be away for a few days, you need to prepare your home for your absence before you depart. Doing so will allow you to head off on your travels safe in the knowledge that your home is protected against any and all dangers that have the potential to occur.

Here’s what you should be doing to prepare your home before you go traveling:

Open your closet doors

You don’t want to leave your HVAC system running while you are away on your travels, as that will just waste your money. Having no air flowing through your home will, however, leave your closets smelling musty if their doors are left sealed. Be sure to open up your closet doors, and you won’t be greeted by a horrible smell when you return home.

Clean out your garbage disposal

It is imperative that you clean out your garbage disposal before you head off on your holiday. If you don’t and you leave things like eggshells and orange peels lying around, you will return home to the most pungent of smells. Not only that, but ants and flies will no doubt descend upon your garbage while you are not there to swat them away.

Before you go, be sure to flush your garbage disposal out using white vinegar.

Unplug your appliances

Leaving appliances plugged in, even if the outlet they are plugged into is switched off, will see you fall foul of what is known as ‘vampire energy.’ This sees you spend money on electricity usage for absolutely no reason — you’ve already spent enough on your holiday, so why pay more than you have to on your electricity bill? Unplug all of your appliances and stop allowing ‘vampire energy’ to bump up your bills.

Pause your newspaper and magazine deliveries

If you have newspapers or magazines delivered to your home regularly, you need to ensure that these deliveries are paused while you are away from home. As you are not there to open the door and pick your items up, a pile of them will grow on your doorstep. If a burglar were to walk past your home and see this ever-growing mountain of newspapers and magazines, they would take it as an instant sign that you are away, and that your worldly belongings are ripe for the taking.

Pausing your delivery subscription should be made easy by the provider. If it isn’t and they insist on delivering your products, simply ask a neighbor that you trust to pick them up for you.

Fortify your entry points

Should a burglar get wind of your absence and subsequently try their luck at breaking into your home, you need to hope that your entry points are strong enough to deter them.

To give you a bit of peace of mind in this instance, you should resolve to fortify your doors and windows before you leave. If you’re not particularly handy when it comes to tasks such as this, fear not, as there will always be people out there that are. Head online, search for “handyman services near me”, and watch as hundreds of local tradespeople appear on your computer screen. From the list that appears, it will then be down to you to pick the worker that you believe will be able to repair your doors and windows and make them as strong as they can be.

Set your lights to a timer

In order to deter criminal activity, you have to create the illusion that you are home. The best way to do this is to set your lights to a timer. This will see them come on in the morning and in the evening (the times when you are most likely to switch on your lights when you are home), thus making it look like you are there making use of them. They will then switch off after a certain amount of time, just to ensure that you are not wasting electricity for no reason. Alternatively, you could ask your neighbor to enter your home and switch on your lights for you.

If you want to go the whole hog in this instance, you should also consider setting your TV to a timer, too. This will make anybody that may be lurking around your home believe that you are in, which should then see them hightail it away from your premises in fear of being caught. 

Before you depart on your travels, be sure to put the above advice into practice. Doing so will see you keep your smelling nice in your absence, it will stop you from using electricity for no reason, and it will help you to deter criminality.