Vacation Away Checklist
Leave your home worry-free. Steps to secure, clean, and prep your house before you head out on your trip.
By Dan Gold · Sources reviewed
Prepare for the systems in your particular home, including pets, plumbing, fire protection, and remote monitoring. Do not turn off a shared supply or appliance without understanding what depends on it.
Work through the checklist
- Arrange a trusted check-in. Give an authorized person only the access they need, your contact details, and instructions for leaks, alarms, pets, and weather emergencies.
- Review water shutoff compatibility. Consult system instructions or a plumber before shutting the main if it supplies fire sprinklers, boilers, irrigation, or other essential equipment. Never disable fire protection.
- Check appliances and drains. Inspect visible leaks and hoses. Follow the water-heater and appliance manufacturers’ away instructions; do not casually drain or power down a heater.
- Set climate controls for the home. Use equipment guidance and local weather needs to protect pipes, humidity-sensitive belongings, plants, and pets. There is no single safe away temperature for every home.
- Handle food and waste. Use or discard perishables as appropriate, empty trash, and leave appliance thermometers in the refrigerator and freezer.
- Plan for an outage. Arrange for someone to check temperature and power history. Follow CDC discard/refreeze guidance on return; a coin frozen in a cup cannot establish food safety.
- Secure ordinary access points. Check doors and windows, stop or collect deliveries, and avoid public announcements of your absence.
- Check alarms and monitoring. Verify smoke/CO alarms and necessary cameras or leak alerts work. Keep power and internet running for systems that need them.
- Walk through before departure. Turn off unneeded equipment using its normal controls, verify the plan with your sitter, and record any systems deliberately left operating.
Progress is saved in this browser. Revised tasks start a new checklist.
Check the result and follow up
On return, check for leaks, unusual temperatures, alarms, and evidence of an outage before resuming normal use. Restore only the settings you intentionally changed and assess questionable food using temperature/history guidance.
Sources and scope
- EPA: home leak checks
- CDC: food safety after a power outage
- USFA: smoke alarm placement, testing and replacement
These references support the guidance above. Source review is not a hands-on test of your home or a certification of a product. Follow the instructions for your exact model and local requirements.
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