Most pre-trip planning energy goes toward the destination — flights, hotels, an itinerary — while the home you’re leaving behind gets a rushed once-over the night before. That’s how people come home to a flooded bathroom, a dead refrigerator full of spoiled food, or a stack of packages sitting on the porch advertising an empty house for a week.
Mail and Deliveries
A mailbox stuffed with a week of mail is one of the clearest signals to anyone watching the house that nobody’s home. The US Postal Service offers a free Hold Mail service through its official site, letting you pause delivery for up to 30 days and pick everything up at the post office or have it redelivered on your return. For packages, pause any subscription deliveries manually, since most subscription services don’t sync with postal hold requests and will keep arriving on your porch regardless.
Utilities Worth Adjusting, Not Shutting Off
Turning off utilities entirely usually causes more problems than it solves. Instead:
- Set the thermostat to an efficient away setting rather than off entirely — in cold climates, a completely unheated house risks frozen pipes even for a week-long trip.
- Unplug small appliances and electronics that draw standby power or pose a minor fire risk — coffee makers, toasters, hair styling tools left plugged in are a disproportionate share of preventable house fires.
- Leave the refrigerator running, but clear out anything that will spoil within your travel window rather than coming home to a smell that takes days to fully air out.
- Run the dishwasher and washing machine before you leave rather than after, so nothing sits wet or dirty for a week.
Security Details That Actually Matter
Obvious signs of an empty house are what opportunistic break-ins look for, more than any sophisticated planning. Timers on a couple of interior lights set to different rooms and different times are more convincing than a single porch light left on constantly, which reads as exactly what it is after the first evening. If you have a video doorbell or camera system, make sure it’s actually charged and connected before you leave, not just installed — a dead battery defeats the entire point. Ask a trusted neighbor to pull any flyers or packages that do slip through and to park in your driveway occasionally if that’s normal for your street.
Plants, Pets, and Anything Living
Automatic watering systems are worth the modest cost for anything longer than a week, since even a reliable neighbor forgets a watering schedule after a few days. For pets, book a sitter or boarding well ahead of peak travel periods — good pet sitters get booked up around major holidays weeks in advance, and scrambling for one two days before departure usually means paying a premium or settling for an unfamiliar option.
Financial and Digital Loose Ends
Set up autopay or at least confirm due dates for any bills that fall during your trip, since a missed payment because you were unreachable is an entirely avoidable problem. If your bank still expects manual travel notifications, handle that alongside this checklist rather than as an afterthought at the airport, since a blocked card abroad is a much bigger hassle than a five-minute call before departure.
A Simple Written Checklist Beats Memory
The value of writing this down as an actual list, rather than trusting yourself to remember it while distracted by packing, becomes obvious the first time you’re three hours into a flight and suddenly can’t remember whether you turned off the stove. Keep a standing checklist on your phone or taped inside a closet door that you update after each trip based on what you forgot last time — the list gets more useful with every trip rather than starting from scratch each time.
Car and Driveway Considerations
If a car is staying behind in a driveway or street spot for more than a week, top off the tire pressure and consider a battery maintainer if the vehicle sits unused often, since a dead battery on return is a common and avoidable inconvenience. Move the car occasionally if a trusted neighbor is checking the house, since a vehicle that never moves is another small signal that a house is unoccupied, particularly in neighborhoods where street parking patterns are otherwise predictable.
The Night-Before Walkthrough
Do one final walkthrough the night before, not the morning of, when you’re rushed and more likely to skip something. Check that windows are locked, the stove and any space heaters are off, the garage door is closed, and that you’ve left a copy of your itinerary with someone at home in case they need to reach you or a neighbor needs to reach you about the house. This checklist pairs naturally with the broader travel documents checklist, since both are the kind of preparation that’s easy to shortcut and expensive to regret.