Common Sense Ways to Protect Your Home Before Your Next Trip

Vacation Destination

Whether you’re taking that overdue summer vacation or traveling for business, an empty home can be an invitation to criminals. You might worry about other problems while you’re gone, such as a fire or plumbing issue. When you’re vacation planning, make some time to plan to keep your home safe. Here’s a checklist that can help you prep your home for a trip.

Make Your Home Look Occupied

If it appears as if someone is living in your home, it won’t be as inviting to burglars.

• Have someone pick up your mail and newspaper or have them stopped while you’re gone. Or, arrange to have someone housesit (or petsit) in your absence!
• Park your car inside the garage or have someone move the car occasionally. You could also ask a neighbor to park in your driveway.
• Install motion-activated floodlights. Outdoor lighting is the enemy of thieves.
• Arrange lawn care or snow removal while you’re gone.
• Notify your home security company. In some communities, you can let the police know that you’ll be out of town.
• Ask a neighbor to take your trash can out before garbage pickup and to take it up to your home after pickup.
• Leave emergency numbers with the person who is watching your home.
• Leave your window coverings as you normally would. Take a walk outside to see how they look.
• Set a timer on your bedroom light that turns it on about an hour before you normally go to bed and then turns it off at your bedtime.

Shut Off Appliances and Plumbing

Flooding and electrical fires are a real possibility anytime, but when you’re away from home there’s no one to deal with the issue quickly. You can take precautions that increase home safety and give you peace of mind. Additionally, you’ll save money on your electric bill.

• Set your thermostat to closer match the outside temperatures. Turn it up in the summer or lower it in the winter. You don’t want to completely turn it off, because it protects your furniture, artwork, and plants.
• Turn off the water valves to your washer, dishwasher, toilet, and sinks, if possible.
• If your water heater has a vacation mode, use it.
• Unplug chargers, fans, small appliances and electronic devices.
• If you do leave items plugged in, protect them by using a surge protector.

General Home Preparation

Home safety isn’t the only reason you should prepare your home for a vacation. Avoid coming home to a mess by planning ahead. When you get home, you just want to rest and get ready to get back to work. Make sure to prepare your home for an uncomplicated time when you get back:

• Clean out your fridge. Get rid of any food that won’t last while you’re away.
• Take out your trash. Go through your entire home to get trash from the bathroom and bedrooms.
• Lock and secure all windows and doors. Check the basement, sunroom and outside buildings.
• Run the dishwasher while you’re handling last-minute tasks. You don’t want to come home to a sink full of dirty dishes.
• Check your washer to make sure you don’t leave behind a wet load while you’re away.

If you are a pet parent and you are hiring a pet sitter to care for your pets while you are away, ask them what other services may be included or just a small extra fee. Most pet sitters will help you with bringing in the mail, taking out any trash, rotating lights to make it look like the house is occupied, cleaning up any pet messes, and just keeping an eye on things in general!

Take Your Pet With You or Hire A Pet Sitter!

 Enjoy a Carefree Vacation

Alert your bank and credit card company with your travel plans to expect activity on your cards. As you get ready to walk out the door, go back through every room and double-check that you haven’t left anything undone.

You may not be able to prevent every catastrophe from happening while you’re away from home. However, you can adequately prepare for your trip and ensure peace of mind by doing what you can well in advance of your travels!

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Raven is an engaging entrepreneur who encourages others to celebrate pets as part of the family, as well as keep them happy, healthy, and spoiled with her online specialty pet boutiques (www.TheGiftedPet.com & www.PamperedPetEssentials.com), and premium pet food business (www.PremiumPetFoodStore.com)

She is an enthusiastic advocate for animal rights, including wildlife & nature and likes to dabble in creative projects such as photography, digital art, custom greeting cards and more!

Raven is also dedicated to helping pet parents and other humans stay happy, healthy, and balanced with her 100% therapeutic-grade essential oils, oil-infused nutritional supplements, and oil-related lifestyle enhancements via Holistic Oils For Pets & Peeps! (www.HolisticOilsForPetsAndPeeps.com)

For more information, please use the Contact Me! page on this blog or visit her Facebook page to PM her www.facebook.com/HolisticPetsNPeeps

Pet Sitting Made Simple!

With the upcoming vacation season looming, here are some great tips for hiring a pet sitter to keep your pets comfortable at home . . . ♥

While boarding facilities are a great option for many people, some pet parents feel more comfortable hiring a pet sitter to stay home and care for their pet while they are away. Pet sitters and pet parents can make for a winning combination in companion animal care, but the secrets to this relationship are preparation and communication. If you are planning on hiring a pet sitter, here are some tips that help ensure a seamless experience: 

1. Make sure that the pet sitter you hire is bonded and insured. Ask if they have any certifications relevant to sitting. And don’t be afraid to ask for references. A big plus is if they are current members of a pet-sitting organization. 

2. Try to make reservations as far in advance as possible. Some of the best sitters book up months in advance, so plan ahead to ensure the best care for your pet kid. 

3. Gather everything needed to care for your pet in one easily accessible area. Supplies could include food, treats, food and water bowls, medications, a leash, a can opener, toys, garbage bags, litter and scoop, a dustpan, a broom, a watering can for plants, etc. Be sure to leave your supply well-stocked on the off-chance your return is delayed. 

4. Clean out the refrigerator and empty the garbage before leaving the house, to help avoid food spoilage and to remove all temptation from your dog to go excavating. Pre-program the thermostat before you leave and give specific instructions for the sitter about an acceptable temperature range. Remember ~ an unventilated home can become very hot, very quickly. 

5. Notify your veterinarian in writing that a pet sitter will be caring for your pet. Pre-authorize the sitter to provide emergency medical and/or surgical care during your absence, should a crisis arise. 

6. If you plan to leave a gift for your sitter, i.e. garden produce, candy or a tip, leave a note of explanation. As a group, pet sitters pride themselves on honesty ~ if you don’t make it explicit that the gift is for them, they usually will not take it. 

7. Communication is key to a successful pet-sitting experience. By-and-large, pet sitters want to learn as much as possible about your pets. They want to know about their health, habits, routine and how they might react to certain situations. In addition to exchanging contact information, they also want to know detailed information, such as if the toilet tends to run if other people will be checking on your pet and veterinary contact information. Specific information helps a sitter to do their job to the best of their abilities. Here are some examples of unclear and clear communication to help you know what level of detail you should share with your pet sitter: 

Unclear: Feed twice daily, fill the bowl half-way. 
Clearer: Feed 1 cup of Life’s Abundance kibble in the morning and 1 cup in the evening. Food is located in the pantry off the stairs and the bowl should remain by the back door. 

Unclear: Pills in the morning and evening. 
Clearer: Tilly gets 1 tablet (0.4 mg) levothyroxine in the morning and in the evening with food. Tilly and Max each get one tablet of Life’s Abundance Skin & Coat Supplement once daily in the morning. Pills are on the counter next to the kitchen sink. Tilly and Max will eat the Skin and Coat supplement, but you have to hide the levothyroxine for Tilly in a piece of cheese. Max will eat the medication if Tilly drops it, so make sure Max is in a different room when you give Tilly her medication. 

Unclear: Feed dogs separately. 
Clearer: Max eats his food more quickly than Tilly, and then tends to bully Tilly away from her food. This has resulted in a couple of aggressive acts, but that’s rare. Feed Max in the living room and Tilly in the kitchen. Be sure to keep them separated until they’ve both finished their meals. It generally takes Tilly 20 minutes to finish her food. Each dog may have one dental treat after they finish their meals. Tilly prefers to have her cookies broken into halves. 

This information should be kept in the same area as all the supplies. Save everything in a computer file and you won’t have to duplicate the task every time you hire a sitter. Providing the right information, with all pertinent details, not only makes your sitter’s job easier but keeps your pets happier and safer, which is the common goal we all share! 

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Raven is an engaging entrepreneur who encourages others to celebrate pets (and ALL animals) as part of the family, as well as keep them happy, healthy, and spoiled with her Holistic Healing, Animal Intuition, Aromatherapy, Animal Reiki (www.HolisticPetsAndPeeps.com & www.HealingOilsForAnimals.com), as well as her premium pet food business (http://www.PremiumPetFoodStore.com)

For more information, please visit her Facebook page to PM her (https://www.facebook.com/HolisticPetsNPeeps), or email her at HolisticPetsAndPeeps@gmail.com.