Your essential checklist before heading home for the holidays

Aqeelah Bawa-Osman Aqeelah Bawa-Osman
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With just a few days until Christmas some of you may be looking forward to spending your vacation time away from your solitary apartment and heading back home to the busy environment of family and familiar faces, but that doesn't mean that going away on holiday gets you off the hook and ensuring that your living space is in perfect shape for your return. 

To help make sure that you have all your bases covered this holiday season, the homify team has compiled a checklist of tips and tricks to ensure that you know exactly what to do before leaving your home for that long awaited vacation!

Close all the windows

The first thing to remember when leaving your home for a good couple of days is to ensure that all your windows are closed. This is essential for security purposes especially if you are living on the bottom floor of your complex as criminals might take advantage of the situation while you are away. 

Also ensuring that your windows are closed will go a long way in keeping insects out of your home that may infest your home in your absence. And if you live in an area where animals are a problem, you might wake up to a family of opportunistic rodents having taken over the home.

Turn off and unplug appliances

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It is extremely important to remember that appliances should be turned off and unplugged to ensure that extra energy is not being sucked up by these vampire appliances unnecessarily. Once these appliances are disconnected completely you can safely go on holiday without having to worry that you might have left the iron on? 

Appliances that are not unplugged continue to drain energy, causing a higher electricity bill even while you are away, so disconnect your items completely and you'll actually end up saving money when you come back from your vacation!

Clean out the fridge

Next up is to make sure that all your items which are due to perish while you are away on your holiday and disposed of… this means starting with leftovers. Often the refrigerator may be full of last weeks leftovers, so its up to you to decide what is safe to eat and what might cause a trip to the hospital. 

Once that has been taken care of then the next issue to handle will be the groceries that can be salvaged in the fridge, this is anything from vegetables to eggs and milk. Basically anything that is due to reach its sell by date while you are on vacation, this includes meat and chicken products. Send what you can to a compost heap and just throw away the rest. While you at it, put together a meal for when you return, that way you don't have to scratch your head thinking what you are going to do for food when you arrive.

Put out the rubbish and recycling

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Next on the list is throwing out the rubbish and taking what you can to be recycled, this is an imperative step now that your fridge is clean with all the useless products disposed of, the next step in the process is definitely throwing the rubbish out. You definitely won't want to come back to a smelly apartment after you've forgotten to throw out eggs three weeks later. 

If you recycle, then now is the best time to take out what you can for organic dumping or the rest of the products that can be sorted for recycling purposes later. The best thing for the sake of your sanity is to come back to a clean, odourless home after your relaxing vacation.

Turn off/down the heating

When leaving your home for a few weeks you may not want to turn down or turn off your central heating or air-conditioning for the sake of your own comfort when you return from your lovely vacation, however, if you do turn off your central heating, underfloor heating and air-conditioning system a great surprise awaits you when you return from your vacation in the form of a reduced electricity bill. 

So even though your home might be a bit uncomfortable when you just enter, the temperature will reach optimal in no time once you come home and adjust it to the desired requirement. This way you can keep your home comfortable once again when you arrive home. Have a look at these Eberle Controls to suit all your central heating needs!

Give the bathroom a quick clean

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By making sure that you clean your bathroom before you leave for your vacation, you can enjoy a relaxing warm bath without worrying about the state of the place when you return. So take a mop and go through the space quickly to ensure that the floors are clean and pick up anything that doesn't belong there, do a quick tidy up. 

If you have an OCD about how your bathroom cupboard should be packed, then you are probably lucky because this will ensure that everything you need is exactly where you placed them for everyday use, making packing a quick and easy task that is not an annoyance to endure. If you make sure your bathroom is clean before you leave you may just have to clean up the dust on your return, easy enough, right? If you need ideas for making your bathroom amazing then have a look at these inspirations from homify!

Do laundry

Doing a load of laundry before you leave on your vacation is a sure fire way of ensuring that your home is less stress on your return, this means that you can sit back and actually enjoy your time before heading back to work. 

Plus having enough clean underwear for your trip is always a must, so to make sure that your clothing hamper is empty when you return from your break and can actually load the washing machine with the load of dirty clothes that piled up while you were away, then always do a complete load of laundry and make sure that there is nothing out of place. Another tip is to change your bed linen a day before you leave for your vacation and you will come back to clean bed sheets!

Notify your neighbours you'll be away

So while you are away on your vacation you might want to ask a trusted neighbour or friend to pop in and check that everything is in place, this is very necessary if you have pets that need feeding and some company now and then or pot plants that need to be watered every other day. 

If your neighbour is not the perfect option to stop by your home and check on all the state of the security, then a trusted friend or colleague might just have to do as plan B, it's definitely better than having wilted plants on your return and a starving cat that has since gone missing.

If you liked the exterior image of The Coolest House in the Hood, check out the Ideabook for a full view!

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