Lady setting home alarm system

Home preparation: getting ready for your vacation

Christmas holidays are just around the corner and many of us are keen to hit the road to our favourite holiday destination for the summer. Once you’ve packed your bathers and sunscreen, there are a few important home preparation tasks to keep your house safe while you’re on vacation.

Home preparation

It’s getting hotter every year during summer and with the ever-present threat of bushfires, it’s important to take some home preparation steps.  A lot can happen while you’re away, from power surges, water leaks to the unwanted intruders. That’s why it’s important to prepare your home, to ensure that your house and belonging are protected while you’re enjoying the break. Here’s some things to think about adding to your pre-holiday checklist.

Turn off your taps

Ensure all taps are turned off, including the ones in the garden. Or better still, shut-off the main water supply to prevent any plumbing leaks that might make more damage when you’re not home to stop or mop the leak for a period of time.

Unplug appliances

Disconnect all the electrical devices like toasters, microwaves, televisions – but especially the smaller items like your hair straightener or beard trimmer – to make sure everything is safe to leave your property for a long haul. Some people even go to the extent of cleaning out their refrigerator of old food and turning them off to really prepare their home for holidays.

Use smart technology

These days you can use the latest technology and apps to prepare your home for holidays – or even if you’re not on holidays – to help keep you home safe.

You can use Wi-Fi enabled home monitoring systems that allow you to keep an eye on your place through your smartphone, like an app that lets you know when someone rings your doorbell and allows you talk to your visitor. You can even set up cameras inside or outside to monitor your home while you are away. Smart technology can be used to monitor things like smoke alarms and security systems which alert you if something is amiss.

Having a security system installed can also be an added benefit for your insurance policy.

If you strengthen your home safety and security, you might be able to lower your home insurance premiums. Call our team at Allsure Insurance for more information on the benefits of home security systems for your home and contents insurances.

Keep up the appearance

Lights can be a simple but effective way of suggesting you might be home. An electrician should be able to easily install timers in your light switches, which could deter intruders and even help to save on your electricity bill.

You might also think about getting a house sitter to look after your home (and pets, if you have them!) while you’re away as another way of keeping up appearances.

Trust a neighbour

Having a good neighbour who can help you keep an eye on your property while you are away is a good relationship to build on. You might ask them to fetch you mail regularly (if you haven’t redirected it while you’re away). This helps to keep the appearances of someone being home even while you are on holidays. Of course, you can repay the kindness when they are away by looking out for their property too.

Be social media savvy

Posting your happy snaps to social media could let savvy burglars know your home is vacant. Think about waiting to post your picturesque holiday photos on social media once you’re home, and not while you are away.

Before you leave

And finally, before you leave home for your holidays, take a quick walk around your home to turn off any cooling or heating, set your alarm system and light timers, and lock your doors and windows securely. These useful tips could help you to have the relaxing, carefree holiday you deserve.

Allsure home and contents insurance

At Allsure Insurance, we believe in the old adage ‘prevention is better than the cure’. Taking some preventative steps before you go away could keep your wonderful holiday memories forever in tact if you don’t have to face an incident when you return. We can also help to make sure you’ve got the best policies available to you in place, and help you calculate the value of your assets to ensure you have the right level of cover should the unthinkable happen to you. Contact us today to find out more.


General advice warning

The information above may be regarded as general advice. That is, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information.

Accordingly, you should consider the appropriateness of any general advice we have given you, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. Where the information relates to a particular financial product, you should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase that financial product.