13 Things to Do in Your Home Before You Leave on a Trip

Hey RVers, I'm Lisa McEwen. My family and I started camping back in 2019 and I remember feeling wildly overwhelmed by the amount of things that we had to do just to leave the driveway to get to the campsite. So today I thought we would make a checklist for new RVers to look over of things to do before they leave the house. Now, this list focuses on things you need to do a few days before you leave and things that you need to do the day that you leave. Ready to dive in?

Let's go. Number one, hold the mail. If you're leaving for a long period of time, put your mail on hold. You can do that online by visiting the USPS website. Number two, make a plan for bills.

Either pay your bills in advance or plan to pay them on the road by setting up online invoices or bill pay. Number three, hide a key outside. Take a minute to hide a spare key somewhere outside or leave one with a neighbor. You never know when you might need it. Number four, lock your windows.

Go around the house and make sure each one of your windows are locked. Number five, do laundry and start packing. A few days before your trip, get some laundry done and plan to put those clean clothes directly into your bags or suitcase. It's a good idea to leave a few clean outfits behind, that way you'll have something clean to wear when you return. Number six, food prep.

Plan out your meals. If you have time, do some prep work beforehand so you can spend less time cooking and more time enjoying yourself. On the day you plan to leave, here's what you should do. Number seven, change the thermostat. If you're not going to be in your house for a few days, you can adjust the temperature a bit to save energy and money.

What should you set it to? It really all depends on where you live and what season it is. In the summer take it up five degrees higher than you would usually keep it, but not above 80. In the winter keep it at least five degrees cooler, but I wouldn't go below 60. If you have a smart thermostat, you can adjust the temperature remotely before you return as well.

Number eight, close your window blinds. Whether you have curtains or blinds, before you go close them up. It's a good idea for two reasons, it helps regulate temperature and it keeps prying eyes from peeking inside. Number nine, put lights on a timer. As an added safety measure you can put a few lights on a timer.

You can buy a timer just like this on Amazon or any big box store, really, and set it up to program the lights to go on and off at certain times. Number 10, check the fridge. If you are going away for a long weekend, the food in your fridge is probably fine. But if you're gonna be gone for a week or more, go through your fridge. Go ahead and check the expiration dates and toss anything that'll go bad.

Number 11, leave your washer door open. To prevent mold and mildew from building up, leave your washer, door and dryers open just a crack. Number 12, take the garbage out. One of the last things you wanna do is take the garbage out. If garbage day is soon, drag it to the curb.

If not, ask a neighbor to help out. Number 13, close and lock all of your doors. On your way out close and lock all of your doors. Don't forget to lock your back door too. Now that's a look at some of the things that we do before we leave the house.

Can you add to the list? Absolutely, there's a lot of other things that you could put on the list. You might unplug all of your electronics or clean your house. Some people even like to clean their bedsheets so that when they come back home they dive into a nice clean, fresh bed. You can certainly customize the list and make it your own.

But I will say this particular list did not include any of the safety checks that you need to do on your camper and on your SUV before you leave. But we'll put those tips in a separate video. Until next time.