Summer happens to be the ideal season to go on vacation and enjoy the view of much hidden, known, and unknown treasures that the world offers.
While out there, you don’t want to be interrupted by some occurrences back in your home. For this reason, you should plan and keep everything in order before leaving.
Keep the dog in the kennel, put deliveries on hold, turn on the alarm system and security cameras and ensure your bags are well-packed with everything you may need.
But before you leave, have you checked your kitchen and bathroom faucets? If they are all turned off, remember to check your toilet.
In this regard, Should You Leave The Toilet Seat Up Or Down When You Go On Vacation?
When checking on the condition of bathroom faucets, you may quickly decide to put down the toilet lid. However, the best thing is to leave your toilet lid up to allow for consistent airflow when you are away for an extended period of time.
Opening the toilet lid prevents the formation of scum, which can be hard to clean. You obviously don’t want to come back to a stuffy bathroom that might just destroy your vacation experience.
This post will cover more on this to confirm their appropriateness before you lock the doors of your house and jump out for an extended vacation.
See Also: How Often Should You Sweep and Mop Your House?
How To Prep Your Home For An Extended Vacation – Checklist
While planning to leave your house for a long time, remember to put all the necessary things in order.
Returning home, you can hardly recognize after the sweet pampering at the hotel can be a real vacay buzz killer.
Organize your kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom before leaving to avoid coming back to handle clutter. Here is a checklist to help you adequately organize your home before you leave.
Kitchen
1. The Fridge
Clean the fridge by checking on the perishables and comparing it with your vacation period.
If you cannot consume the fridge contents within a week, you can give it out or just throw it away.
Keeping items in the fridge for a long time and unattended may not be helpful as they can go bad in case of power fluctuations. It is also risky to leave a fridge on when not at home.
2. Trash Bins
Remove all the trash from the house and place it somewhere with adequate airflow.
If you have bottom dwellers and don’t have a trash bag, you can have the garbage sprayed with disinfectants.
Clean the garbage bins and disinfect them before returning them to the house. This way, you will have avoided inviting hungry glitters into your house.
3. Coffee Pot
Moisture breeds mold significantly faster than you could think.
Dump away any used coffee grounds and filters. Rinse the coffee pot and filter holders carefully and let them dry out.
Allow air to flow in the coffee machine by leaving the lid open and flip it upside down on a cotton towel.
4. Floors And Counters
Pick a towel sprayed with an all-purpose cleaner and run it over the counters to clean any spills and ensure that ants won’t party in your kitchen by sweeping any dust and flour particles on the floor.
5. Disposal And Drains
Turn the faucets on and run water through the disposal to ensure that all food remains have passed. Do not assume that because you can see any food remains, then it is not there.
There might be so much food rotting at the disposal. After cleaning with plenty of water, run lemon wedges through your disposal to give them a sweet aroma.
You can also run more water to clean the drains if you don’t have a disposal unit. Add a cup of vinegar to deal with all odor-causing remains in the drains.
6. Sink And Dishwashers
Unload your dishwasher and run it to remove any dirt particles. Afterward, dry all your dishes and keep them safely in a closet or cupboard.
Open the dishwasher to keep it safe the whole time you are away. If you don’t have a dishwasher, use your sink to clean your kitchenware and keep them safe.
Thoroughly wash the sink and dry it out before you lock the kitchen door.
Bathroom
1. Toilet
Take time to wash/spruce the toilet until it appears sparkling clean.
Remember to open the toilet lid if you are turning your air conditioning system off. This prevents moisture buildup in the toilet.
See Also: Can You Put A Regular Toilet In A Manufactured Home?
Otherwise, the moisture inside will build up and create toilet rings if the lid is closed. This also speeds up mold formation within the toilet.
2. Septic
If you have a septic tank, you will have to treat it before you leave. Flush the septic treatment down your toilet before you leave.
3. Shower Curtains
Remember to pull the shower curtains straight.
See Also: Manufactured Home Shower Curtains Guide: 9 Shopping Tips To A New Curtain
If you push to the side, mold will easily form in small crevices that may fail to fry properly.
4. Turn Off The Tap
Check all your taps in the bathroom for leakages. Fix the leakages, if any, and turn off the taps to prevent unnecessary water wastage.
5. Floor
Clean the bathroom floor and ensure no dirt can promote mold formation.
Bedroom
1. Make The Bed
Change your bed sheets and put on clean ones that you can comfortably sleep on when you come back home.
Getting back home from a vacation is already a hard decision, and you don’t want to be grated by a wad of pillows, bedsheets, and blankets.
2. Bedroom Curtains
Check if your curtains are secured well on their holders.
If not, fix the holders appropriately and pull down the curtains. Make sure no one can peep and see your bedroom contents while away.
General Home
1. Turn Off The Lights
While some people suggest leaving lights on when going out for a long time, this can be risky in terms of safety.
However, if some lights are near strategic camera positions, you can use different timers to light and off the lights.
2. Turn On The Security Cameras
Turn on your home security cameras.
If they are advanced, you can link them to your phone or other portable devices so that you are able to monitor the happenings in your compound when you are away.
3. Turn Off The AC
To lower energy bills, turn off the air conditioning system; after all, there will be no one in the house serving it. This also reduces the possibility of fires in case of an accident.
Conclusion
When you get back home from your vacation, you expect to get everything in good condition and might not be ready to start cleaning a toilet filled with scum on the surface.
All the same, you can’t be comfortable using such a dirty or stuffy toilet.
If you want to keep in the sweet vacay mood even after you return home, make sure you put everything in order. This includes leaving your toilet lid up.
