Long Summer vacations or extended time away with family and friends are always fun. Making sure you have everything you need for travel can add some excitement to the trip even before you ever get to the airport. Preparing your home for extended time away, on the other hand, can cause a lot of worry and panic.

Tips on Preparing Your Home for Time Away

• Put a stop on your mail. If you’re going to be gone more than a couple weeks, you might want to have someone pay your bills for you.
• Recruit a trusted friend or family member to check on your house, water your plants, feed your pets, and keep an eye on things while you’re gone.
• Turn off the water supply to each sink or plumbing fixture in your home. This will help prevent flooding and burst pipes, particularly in the Winter.
• Unplug all appliances and tools that use electricity to help prevent fires. This includes alarm clocks, kitchen appliances, computers, televisions, and just about everything else.

• Adjust your A/C, do not turn off invest in digital programmable thermostat to program vacation temperatures for peak and non- peak usage from your utility service provider. Your home

should maintain temperatures substantially below outside temperatures, especially if 100 degree or above. Remember the home is still lived in; furniture, pictures, etc. must be cared for & kept at moderate temperatures while home is not occupied.

• Why would you want to spend money cooling a house you’re not going to live in for multiple weeks?
• Keep shrubs around your windows and doors trimmed to make it harder for burglars to conceal their efforts.
• Close drapes and window blinds when you’re gone.
• Leave a car parked in your driveway, and make sure to have your yard mowed while you’re away.

Home Automation Solutions

Home automation can keep you comfortable all year long, but it can often be an effective criminal deterrent when you’re away. With a home automation system, you can do the following:

• Set a timer on both outdoor and indoor lights, so you appear to be home even when you’re not.
• Create a schedule for your A/C, so you come home to a comfortable temperature.
• Set up motion and vehicle detection capabilities, so that guests (or intruders) are alerted that you are home even when you’re away.
• Call in via telephone to adjust room temps, security lighting, and other features of your home automation system.
• Set up a one-touch system for your housesitter to turn on sprinklers, adjust draperies, control lighting, and much more.

A home automation system can even provide you Internet access to what’s going on in your home from anywhere in the world. Talk about peace of mind!