How to prepare residential property for a long absence of owners

Recommendation points

• Pay for services and rest in peace
• Checking pipes, taps and risers – preventing leaks
• The refrigerator is also on vacation
• “Life support system” of indoor plants
• We negotiate with neighbors
• Let’s cheat the thieves
• Protecting windows from the sun and furniture from dust
• We turn off communications, take out the trash and on the road

Ahead is the favorite time of most of the townspeople – hot summer, the time of vacations, trips to the country, to the warm sea, to relatives in another city or to a favorite boarding house on the banks of a clean river. Such trips often become the main event of the year, they begin to prepare for them in advance by ordering tickets, vouchers and buying a summer wardrobe..

At the same time, a vacation trip assumes that your city apartment or beloved house will remain in “splendid isolation.” Therefore, when planning a trip for two weeks or even a month to a summer cottage village or “to the blue sea”, you should make not only a list of things you need during your vacation, but also those things that need to be completed while still in the city.

How to prepare your property for “loneliness”? What should be done so that after returning from the trip, you will be met by a dusty, but intact apartment? Things to remember when going on vacation and leaving home for a long time?

Hotels in Turkey, Croatia and Bulgaria are already waiting for the happy vacationers who have “escaped” from the noisy city. But the native apartment remains empty, therefore, in order not to worry while lying on the beach – “How are our taps, flowers, refrigerator …”, you need to draw up a plan of necessary actions that should be done before leaving

Pay for services and rest in peace

First of all, one week and even more before departure, you should pay off debts for utility services. Even if you do not have any debts yet, think – you will not be around for quite a long time, and they can cut off the light even for a very small debt that has managed to run up during this time. Of course, you don’t have to pay for heating in the summer – after all, you need money now for something else entirely, and it’s a long way from the start of the heating season.

But you must pay for the light and the apartment, as well as for the services of the concierge and security, if you live in a business-class residential complex. Yes, you don’t need extra expenses now, but it is the security and the concierge who are responsible for the safety of your apartment during the absence of the owners. In addition, electricity can be cut off even without entering the apartment, from the entrance, and you simply will not see warnings in the form of instructions to pay debts and receipts from the energy company. Agree, it will be very unpleasant to return from vacation and find that you are left without light.

Timely payment for housing and communal services will allow you to avoid many unpleasant moments, such as accrued fines and penalties and even disconnection from the power supply

Checking pipes, taps and risers – preventing leaks

Before leaving, the apartment’s water supply system and, oddly enough, heating require especially close attention. It seems that nothing threatens pipes and radiators in summer – there is no water in the system. But right now, before the start of the heating season, the management company may decide to test the system under high pressure and the weak points in your pipes may simply not withstand. The result is flooded and outraged neighbors below and unforeseen expenses.

Therefore, you should inspect in advance all pipes, joints and risers for the appearance of rust and drips, which will indicate their poor condition. Call the managers of the management company and show the discovered weak points – it is better to replace everything in a timely manner, anyway, sooner or later, leaking pipes will cause a leak, so why not prevent the problem in advance.

If you have taps in your bathroom that shut off hot and cold water, great. Just check the quality of the taps themselves, otherwise they can cause leakage. If your taps have been standing for many years and have had time to rust, it is worth replacing them, moreover, use the services of a professional and check the quality of the installation in advance.

The current taps, even if they did not bother you before, should be replaced before leaving, and the supply of cold and hot water should be shut off – so it will be calmer

The refrigerator is also on vacation

Of course, if you are traveling for only two weeks, then the refrigerator may not be turned off, especially if the freezer is full of shelf-stable products. In this case, you should just conduct an audit and throw away everything that definitely “will not live” before your return.

But if you have no stocks or you are traveling for at least a month, you need to turn off the refrigerator, wash it, throw away everything unnecessary and leave the doors ajar – to prevent the appearance of an unpleasant old odor.

Arrange a “vacation” for your refrigerator so that it does not work in vain during your absence. Leave the doors ajar after washing and cleaning the food.

“Life support system” of indoor plants

It is clear that all the living inhabitants of your home will need special attention. It is better to take a dog or cat with you (take care of a carrier for a cat, a leash and a muzzle for a dog in advance) or temporarily give it to relatives and neighbors. Loneliness is destructive even for an independent cat, and a dog will definitely yearn for you, even if a kind neighbor takes on the responsibility of walking and feeding her. By the way, the services of the hotel for animals will also be necessary, although they cost a lot. The aquarium will also have to be attached or negotiated with someone who will regularly come to feed the fish.

Flowers are also living inhabitants of the apartment and will simply disappear without watering, especially in summer. If you do not have a familiar neighbor who is ready to shelter a tub of ficus and pots of cacti, you should provide the plants with water.

This can be done in several ways. In any case, remove the plants from the windowsills and place them in a shaded area of ​​the apartment. The easiest option is to put the pots of flowers in a bowl or bowl of water – a layer of five to six centimeters is enough, for larger plants – more. The pallet must, of course, be removed first. The flower will gradually receive water through the hole in the bottom and will not disappear.

You can also arrange a system of “communicating vessels” – put a jar of water next to the plant and lower a thin hose there. We lower the other end of the hose into the pot and thus ensure a gradual supply of water.

But the most reliable method is a ready-made drip irrigation system, which operates on the same principle as larger systems for the garden. Automatic watering systems for indoor plants will be a real salvation during your absence, and after returning will allow you not to do your own daily watering.

Just choose systems that can work without connecting to the water supply, because during the vacation you plan to shut off the water in the apartment, for example, the autonomous G.F. AcquaGenius (Italy).

Some of these drip irrigation systems, such as the Tropf-Blumat, have ceramic cones that react to the moisture level of the ground and trigger watering if the potted soil is dry enough. The best option that not only keeps your flowers hydrated, but also saves water

We negotiate with neighbors

It is when you go on vacation and leave your apartment “in splendid isolation” that you begin to especially value good relations with your neighbors. Agree, it is convenient if you can entrust the keys to the apartment to well-known people who have become close people, if a neighbor regularly comes in and checks – how are your flowers and whether the toilet tank has leaked.

Even if you don’t need to water the flowers, the help of a neighbor who could ventilate the windows every evening will not be superfluous..

In any case, even if the relationship cannot be called good-neighborly, be sure to exchange phone numbers with your neighbors on the site, above and below. In this case, they can always call you and “please” with a message – “you flooded us” or notify that “everything is in order, the apartment is intact”.

Unfortunately, now in big cities it is not customary to “make friends at home” and relations with neighbors are limited to a restrained nod when meeting. But how convenient it is when you have someone to entrust your home and a vigilant neighbor will not let the flowers disappear and will keep order!

Let’s cheat the thieves

Home safety comes first when an apartment or house is left without owners. Of course, the most reliable option is to install an alarm, but this is also the most expensive option. If you don’t have extra money, then you can try to deceive the thieves by creating the appearance of your presence..

You can, for example, turn on the night light by the window – during the day it will not be visible, and in the dark, the night light will create the appearance that the apartment is not empty. It is logical – the light is on, it means that someone is at home. It is also worth asking one of the neighbors to pick up your correspondence – if advertising brochures are already falling out of your mailbox and newspapers are sticking out the week before last – therefore, you have not been home for a long time and the apartment has been left unattended. For the same reason, you should not leave linen on the balcony or loggia – firstly, it will dry out, and secondly, it will be a clear indication that no one is at home.

Yes, no one has canceled reliable locks, window bars and other security measures.!

Many thieves just check whether the owners have left for the summer – they follow the correspondence in the mailbox of the entrance. So why give them another reason to try to break your door?

Protecting windows from the sun and furniture from dust

Usually, vacation occurs precisely in the summer, when the hot sun literally burns out the room located on the south side of the house. If you have blinds, lower them during your absence. You can also purchase a special covering gardening material or foil that will allow the ultraviolet light needed by your flowers to pass through, but will not let the apartment overheat and turn into an oven..

A bright new sofa should be covered from dust with a sheet or a special cover – dust is taken from somewhere even in an empty apartment, and if the floor can be quickly wiped off, then you will hardly want to vacuum all the upholstered furniture immediately after arrival. For the same reason, it is worth rolling up and putting away all the carpets somewhere in a corner..

Some experienced travelers also advise to protect the apartment from insects by gluing the ventilation holes and treating the baseboards and the perimeter of the front door with special means. In general, even if an ant or a cockroach comes to visit you while you are not at home, it will not do much harm. And if you have removed all the food supplies, most likely, he will simply leave this inhospitable apartment. The main thing is not to forget to clean and wash the breadbox, throw out the remaining cookies from the vase on the table, hide the sugar supplies further away, take the sweets with you (they will melt or disappear anyway), pour the water out of the kettle, and so on. Leave insects hungry!

So whether to carry out prophylaxis against small pests or not – see for yourself. If you have had such “forays” on a regular basis before, it is probably worth taking preventive measures. If not, cleanliness and the absence of “objects of attraction” will be enough.

Even ordinary horizontal blinds, when closed, will already protect your apartment from the hot sun. But best of all, Roman blinds made of special fabric or sun-protective foil for windows cope with this task.

We turn off communications, take out the trash and on the road

So, the taps are checked, the water is shut off, the upholstered furniture is hidden under the sheets and bedspreads, the neighbors’ phones are recorded, the bills are paid, the drip irrigation system is installed, and the cat is securely attached to the grandmother – you can get ready for the trip.

Just before leaving the house, walk through the apartment again, check – you haven’t forgotten anything, be sure to shut off not only the water, but also the gas (why risk it again), and you can go on the road. Just don’t forget to bring your trash with you, even if it’s not enough. Just imagine what “aromas” will be hovering in your apartment in two weeks!

If you turned off the refrigerator and decided not to leave the night light by the window as a “scarecrow” for thieves, you can turn off the electricity as well. But if you have an alarm installed or an automatic plant watering system requires electricity, of course, you have to leave the light on. Or, at least, find out to which machine the alarm system is connected and leave it on.

It is also necessary to unplug all electrical appliances from the sockets – there have been cases when household appliances burned out during a thunderstorm or due to voltage surges. Therefore, only leave what is needed, such as a refrigerator, plugged into the outlet..

And to make the return even more pleasant, leave order in the apartment – wash things in advance so that the apartment smells not of dirty linen that has lain for an unknown number of days, but cleanliness, lay out the things that were scattered during the collection of suitcases and so on.

Seeing at least once in the news information about an explosion of domestic gas in a house, you will definitely not forget to cut off the supply of “blue fuel” to your apartment. It is very easy to do this – just turn the valve, and many problems can be avoided.

Returning from vacation, you will be incredibly happy to see your favorite home – so familiar and familiar. And no matter how good it is on the seashore, returning home is also always joyful and pleasant. All the more so if a cozy, albeit a little dusty house awaits you, perfectly “surviving” your absence. And all thanks to the correct, thoughtful preparation!