Coffee Break

Planning a Vacation? 9 Things to Do before You Leave Your Home

A vacation should be a fun and relaxing break from your everyday life. If you want to be able to relax during vacation, you should make sure that you have taken care of everything at home before you leave. There is nothing worse than getting to your vacation destination only to realize that you forgot to take care of something at home. It can put a damper on the whole trip. Before you leave for your trip, there are a few things that you should take care of.

#1 Pay Bills or Schedule Automatic Payments

If you are going to have bills that become due when you are on vacation, you should either pay them before you leave or schedule an automatic payment with your bank. You don’t want to come home to overdue bills that can result in late penalties or that will have a negative effect on your credit report. When the bills are paid, you can relax.

#2 Suspend Your Rubbish Pickup

If you hired a company who handles your rubbish removal Sydney North Shore needs, it is a good idea to suspend your service until you come back from your trip. Since you are not going to be home, you will not be creating any rubbish that needs to be picked up. If you don’t suspend your pickup service, you could end up getting charged for nothing.

#3 Make Arrangements For Your Mail

Before you leave for your trip, you should make an arrangement with a friend, family member, or neighbor to pick up your mail. If you don’t have anyone to do it for you, you should ask the post office to hold your mail while you are away. If your mail starts to overflow in your mailbox, it will be visible from the street. This is the perfect opportunity for someone to go through your mail to steal your identity using your personal information that can be included in your mail.

#4 Call Your Bank and Credit Card Companies

If you are planning to use your debit card and credit cards while you are on vacation, you should contact these companies before you leave. If these companies notice that there are charges in a different state or a different country, they could suspect credit card fraud. This can result in them putting a hold on your card. If this happens, it can put a huge damper on your vacation. If you let them know that you are taking a vacation ahead of time, you should have no problems accessing your funds while you are away.

#5 Unplug Electrical Appliances in Your Home

Even if your electrical appliances are not turned on, they can still use energy if they are plugged in. Since you are going to be gone for an extended period, you should unplug everything in the home. Doing this will save you money on your electric bill. You should also cut off the power to your water heater. You should not pay for the electricity that it takes to keep the tank of water hot if you are not going to be using it.

#6 Clean Out Your Refrigerator

Before you leave for vacation, you should go through your refrigerator. You should throw away any leftovers that you may have, as they will have spoiled by the time you get home. You should also check the expiration dates on the food in your refrigerator. The last thing that you want is to come home to spoiled food.

#7 Create an Automated Email Response

Before you leave for vacation, you should create an automated email response to respond to any emails that you get. You don’t want to worry about checking your emails while you are away and you also don’t want to worry about important emails being ignored.

#8 Check Your Calendar

Before you leave for your trip, you should check your calendar to see if you have any appointments or commitments scheduled while you are going to be gone. If you have anything scheduled, you should reschedule it before you leave for your trip.

#9 Check and Re-Check Your Suitcase

It is important that before you leave, you check and then re-check your suitcase. Make sure that you packed everything that you need, including medication and chargers for your electronic devices.

A vacation should be a time to have fun. If you take care of things at home before you leave, you will be able to relax more and worry less.