If you’re planning to take a vacation away from home during the winter season, there are a few things that you should do prior to leaving to help ensure that your home is going to be safe and secure when you get back and that you can avoid running into any issues that can make for a headache upon returning.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways to prepare your home before leaving on your winter vacations.
Winterize Your Home And Pipes
If you live in a place where winter comes with very cold weather, you’re going to want to make sure that you’ve properly winterized your home before you leave for your trip. Otherwise, the cold weather and storms that could come your way could wreak havoc on your home while you’re away and not able to batten down the hatches yourself.
To help you in doing this, you should focus your efforts on keeping your home warm, including your pipes. One of the worst things that can happen to a home in the winter is to have the pipes freeze and burst. And if you’re not home to take immediate action, the damage can be catastrophic. So to keep this from happening to you, you should keep your home heated to about 55 degrees when you leave and ensure that you’ve either turned off your water or have properly insulated your pipes beforehand.
Unplug Whatever You Can
Another big hazard that you’ll want to try to minimize as much as possible before leaving for a winter vacation is to protect your home against fires.
Oftentimes, people put up lights around their homes in the winter. And while leaving these lights on can help your home look lived in while you’re away, it can also be a fire hazard. So to keep the chance of a fire starting from appliances that you’ve left plugged in to a minimum, make sure you unplug everything you can before you take off on your trip.
Protect The Exterior, Too
It’s not just the inside of your home that you’ll want to protect before you leave on a winter trip. Things can happen outside of the home that can have an impact on your property as well.
For example, if you’re expecting freezing and thawing, you’ll want to consider raising your sunken driveway and sealing it so that it doesn’t get damaged. And if you frequently experience high winter winds, bringing patio furniture inside or anchoring it down can be helpful.
If you will soon be leaving on a vacation during the winter months, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you make sure your home is ready for your absence.
