How to Prepare Your Home for a Long Camping Trip

It is the very time to avoid the heat and leave for camping with friends or family. Such trips, especially long ones always require a lot of packing and create chaos around the house. We don’t mean to add to the chaos that you are already in, but packing essentials is not the only prep that you should be doing.

Your house needs preparation too, after all, you are going to be gone for a long time, and for one thing, you need to ensure safety. How do you prepare your home for a long camping trip? No worries, we will go through it point by point.

#1 Unplug your appliances

It is safety 101—you won’t be in the house to do damage control or troubleshooting in case of a short circuit or any other electrical problem. To avoid such issues, unplug your appliances before leaving your house. TV, coffee maker, or hairdryer—big or small, unplug them.

The only problem is your refrigerator because your food will go bad if it’s not plugged in. In this case, if you are leaving for a month or more, empty the fridge and unplug it too. If, on the other hand, you are gone for a week or so, you can leave it on.

#2 Leave the Inner Doors Open

When you are in the house, the doors are constantly closed and opened, which enables and regulates the airflow. When you are leaving, open the doors to your rooms and closets, if you have any, so that the air circulates around the house. Closed doors are especially harmful to closets since, without proper airflow, they tend to develop a bad odor.

Speaking of doors, if you have backdoors or ones that lead to the garage, double-check that those are closed.

#3 Adjust water heater and thermostat

Even though you will not be needing hot water and you can technically turn off the water heater, it is not recommended. Instead, you can turn on the vacation mode if your thermostat has one, or check your manual and turn it down for a couple of degrees.

As for the thermostat, you need to find the perfect temperature that will make your home neither a greenhouse nor an ice cube. You want to avoid humidity by all means, especially if you have plants in the house. So, set your thermostat on a high and low range.

#4 Keep your house clean

It’s pleasing to return to a clean house, but there is more to it. Cleaning is a mandatory step if you want to avoid bugs in your house. Pay particular attention to your kitchen because food attracts bugs more than anything else. Clean the dishes, store the food inside the cabinets, take away the trash, and clean your garbage disposal.

Dirty floors are a big no too. For quick and effective cleaning, use a robotic vacuum cleaner to clean the dust and any crumbs from the floors and the carpet. You don’t need to do a deep and thorough cleaning of the house, but some touch-ups are absolutely necessary.

#5 Make your house look like you’re in it

It is a common safety measure that you need to follow if you are leaving for a long trip. There are several things that you can do, which will make your house look like it’s being lived in. You can:

• Park your car in front of the garage or in the driveway.
• Cancel your newspaper subscriptions, so they are not left in front of your door regularly. If it’s not too much trouble, you can also ask your neighbors to pick them up for you.
• Leave some of the lights on, preferably the one outside, so that even if something happens to it, it doesn’t create a bigger problem inside the house.

You’re good to go

If you follow these simple steps then you can enjoy your camping with a peace of mind. And one last tip, if you have a security system in your house then let the company know that you’re away, so they restrict the security.

That’s it, enjoy your trip!