How to Prepare Your House Before a Long Trip: Checklist

To prepare your house before a long trip, shut off the main water supply valve, adjust your thermostat to 55 degrees Fahrenheit in winter or 82 degrees in summer, unplug small electronics, clean out perishable food, and secure all exterior entry points. Taking these preventative steps protects your home from catastrophic water leaks, reduces phantom electricity consumption, deters opportunistic burglars, and prevents pest infestations while you are away.

Plumbing and Water Leak Prevention

Water damage represents the single greatest financial risk to an unattended home. A burst supply hose or an undetected toilet leak can release hundreds of gallons of water per hour, resulting in structural rot, ruined drywall, and toxic mold growth within 48 hours.

Shut Off the Water Supply

The safest strategy for any absence exceeding seven days is shutting off your home's main water shutoff valve. This valve is typically located in your basement, crawl space, utility closet, or near the street at the water meter. Once you close the valve, open the highest and lowest faucets in the house to relieve residual pressure and drain the plumbing lines. If your home has an automated fire sprinkler system, ensure your main valve does not isolate the fire suppression lines before turning it off.

If you cannot shut off the main supply because an irrigation system or a neighbor watering indoor plants relies on it, manually close the individual shutoff valves located under every sink, behind every toilet, and behind the washing machine. Washing machine rubber supply hoses are notorious for bursting unexpectedly under continuous municipal water pressure.

Protect Fixture Traps and Drains

Every sink, shower, and floor drain features a P-trap, which is a curved section of pipe designed to hold standing water. This water barrier prevents hazardous sewer gases from backing up into your living areas. In dry climates, or during extended trips lasting longer than three weeks, this water evaporates completely. Pour 3 to 4 ounces of food-grade mineral oil or vegetable oil into each drain and toilet bowl before leaving. The oil floats on top of the water layer, creating a seal that prevents evaporation for months.

Configure the Water Heater

Never leave your water heater running at its normal operational temperature of 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit while your home sits vacant. Heating 40 to 80 gallons of water continuously wastes substantial electricity or natural gas. Turn the control dial on a gas water heater to the Vacation setting, which maintains the pilot light without keeping the tank fully heated. For an electric water heater, shut off the dedicated circuit breaker at your main breaker panel.

HVAC and Environmental Control

Completely turning off your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system while away is a common and expensive mistake. Maintaining baseline indoor air circulation and temperature control prevents frozen pipes, warped hardwood flooring, and mold blooms.

Thermostat Settings by Season

If you are traveling during cold winter months, set your thermostat no lower than 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius). Setting the temperature lower risks localized freezing in uninsulated wall cavities where supply pipes run. If you are traveling during hot or humid summer months, set your thermostat to 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius). Running the air conditioning system periodically extracts humidity from the air, which keeps indoor relative humidity below the 60 percent threshold where mold spores thrive.

Air Filter Replacement

Install a fresh, high-efficiency furnace filter 48 hours before your departure. A clean filter ensures maximum airflow across your evaporator coils and heat exchanger, preventing system short-cycling or catastrophic compressor shutdowns while you are thousands of miles away.

Electrical Safety and Phantom Load Reduction

Vampire draw, or phantom load, refers to the electricity consumed by electronics and appliances even when they are powered off. Preparing your electrical system reduces your utility bills and eliminates latent fire hazards caused by electrical surges.

Appliances to Unplug

Walk through every room and disconnect non-essential appliances directly from wall receptacles. Focus specifically on these items:

• Televisions, soundbars, streaming boxes, and gaming consoles
• Microwaves, coffee makers, toasters, and countertop blenders
• Desktop computers, monitors, external hard drives, and printers
• Chargers for phones, power tools, and portable vacuums
• Space heaters, humidifiers, and portable fans

Surge protectors can fail during severe electrical storms. Physically pulling plugs from the wall provides the only absolute defense against voltage spikes.

Refrigerator Management

If your trip lasts less than a month, clean out items that will spoil, but leave the refrigerator running. A nearly empty refrigerator uses more energy than a full one because it lacks thermal mass to maintain temperature. Fill clean plastic jugs with water and place them in empty refrigerator and freezer spaces to maintain internal thermal stability. If you will be gone for several months, empty the entire refrigerator, clean the interior with a mild baking soda solution, unplug the unit, and prop the doors open with a rolled towel to prevent mildew.

Kitchen Sanitation and Pest Defense

Pests such as ants, mice, cockroaches, and fruit flies possess an acute sense of smell and require only microscopic traces of organic matter to colonize a vacant home.

Eliminate All Organic Attractants

Empty every indoor trash container, recycle bin, and compost bucket. Wash the plastic bins with a disinfectant spray to eliminate residual food oils or sweet spills. Clean the kitchen sink, run the garbage disposal with 2 cups of ice cubes and a quarter cup of baking soda to strip grease from the grinding chamber, and pour 1 cup of white vinegar down the drain. Wipe down kitchen counters, clean behind the stove, and vacuum under kitchen cabinets to remove food crumbs.

Pantry Inspection

Inspect opened food boxes in your pantry. Transfer open bags of flour, sugar, cereal, rice, and dried beans into airtight glass jars or hard plastic bins with rubber gaskets. Cardboard boxes and thin plastic bags offer zero resistance against foraging rodents or pantry moths.

Home Security and Curb Appeal

A home that clearly looks unoccupied invites criminal attention. The goal of security preparation is making the house look naturally lived-in throughout your absence.

Automate Your Lighting

Leaving a single porch light or living room lamp on continuously for weeks signals an empty house to observant prowlers. Install smart plugs or mechanical timers on three to four lamps across different rooms. Program them to turn on and off in a staggered, realistic pattern that mimics normal evening routines, such as living room lights turning on at dusk and bedroom lights turning on for 30 minutes at 10:30 PM.

Manage Deliveries and Exterior Maintenance

Place a hold on your mail delivery through the United States Postal Service website beginning the day before you leave. Suspend newspaper subscriptions and package deliveries. Arrange for a trusted lawn care professional to mow your grass every 7 to 10 days in the summer, or contract a snow removal service to clear driveways and sidewalks within 24 hours of a winter storm. An overgrown lawn or an untouched, snow-covered driveway immediately broadcasts your absence.

Physical Door and Window Security

Inspect every ground-level window and sliding glass door. Ensure window latches are engaged. Place a heavy-duty wooden dowel or an adjustable steel security bar in the track of all horizontal sliding patio doors and windows. Disconnect the emergency release cord on your automatic garage door opener, or lock the physical slide latch on the garage door track from the inside. Intruders can defeat garage doors from the outside in seconds using a coat hanger if the manual release remains accessible.

Exterior and Seasonal Yard Prep

Severe weather can strike without warning. Securing your yard prevents wind damage to your house and reduces your legal liability to neighbors.

• Clean leaves and debris from gutters and downspouts to prevent rainwater backup and roof leaks.
• Stow patio furniture, umbrellas, ceramic pots, and grills inside a shed or garage to prevent them from becoming high-speed projectiles during windstorms.
• Disconnect garden hoses from outdoor spigots. If you leave hoses connected during freezing weather, trapped water expands back into the sillcock, splitting the pipe inside your wall.
• Inspect tree branches within 10 feet of your roofline and remove cracked or dead limbs.
• Test your sump pump by pouring 5 gallons of water into the pit to verify the float switch engages and ejects the water properly.

Complete Departure Countdown Timeline

Follow this chronological preparation schedule to distribute tasks logically and eliminate last-minute departure stress.

The Final Ten-Minute Walkthrough

Before closing and deadbolting the entry door, perform one final silent walkthrough through every room in your home. Check that all faucets are completely closed, all toilet flappers have sealed without running, no windows are cracked open, every interior door is left ajar to encourage balanced HVAC airflow, the thermostat displays the intended hold temperature, and every perimeter lock is engaged. With these precautions complete, your property remains fully protected against mechanical failures, weather extremes, and security threats until your return.

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