mt 23/Flickr Creative Commons
I was reading an article recently about taking care of your home before you hit the road for an adventure in your home on wheels and it got me to thinking. I guess I do have a little routine that I go through whether I’m leaving on an RV adventure, or hopping a plane. I’m going to share my check list with you, but you need to promise not to laugh.
A day, or two before I leave, I always leave my itinerary with my neighbor and my daughter. Everyone should be as lucky as I am because I have the greatest neighbors in the world and a daughter and son in law who are always there for me.
Now here is my check list….
- Make sure to move all my potted plants to one area in a shady spot in the yard where the sprinkler will hit them. I got tired of coming home to dead plants.
- Water my two or three house plants.
- Check to make sure all my lights on timers are working properly. I have a few upstairs and downstairs scheduled to come on and off at different times.
- Run the last load of dishes in the dishwasher
- Make sure all my laundry is done. I hate to come home to a mess.
- Run the disposal one last time. There is nothing worse than coming home to a horrific smell from last nights dinner scraps left in the disposal.
- Empty all the trash cans and get the trash out of the house.
- I actually change my sheets the morning I am leaving so I come home to my nice clean bed.
- Set thermostat on ac or heat. In the winter I set it at 50 and in the summer I set it at 80. Of course, I am considering a new fancy thermostat that I can set from my phone.
- Stop mail and newspaper delivery.
- Grab my last minute things for the trip. Set the alarm and leave the house.
This little list gives me peace of mind. Basically, I always had a fear that something would happen and a friend or family member would have to come into the house to take care of something for me and I wanted to make sure they didn’t realize what a messy person I really am. Plus, it just makes it really nice to come to a fresh, clean home.