House Care
House care while away, here is a travel problem you may not have thought about. If you leave home as a traveler and not just a short weeklong trip, “Who takes care of your house when you are away?” Depending how long you are away, there are a number of issues to address.
House Care – Mail
Here in the USA, if you are traveling for thirty days or less than the easiest way to take care of your mail is to have the post office hold it. holdmail.usps.com They will accumulate and hold it for you for up to thirty days and then either deliver it or you can pick it up at the post office. If you are traveling for more than thirty days, it gets a little more complicated. We can suggest three options:
- Have the post office forward your mail. They will do it for you for up to one year for free, however they will only forward the mail to a domestic address. They also offer a premium service that is quicker but has a monthly fee.
- Arrange to have someone pick up the mail after the first thirty days and then re-register with the post office, and repeat every thirty days (not ideal, but it worked for us).
- Use a private mail forwarding service. Private mail forwarding services offer additional features like the ability to see you mail online via a virtual mailbox, and options to scan select pieces of mail and to discard junk mail. They charge a monthly fee for this service and shipping fees for any mail you need shipped. You need to fill out a form 1583 with the post office to activate this type of service and the form needs to be notarized. usa2me.com is considered one of the best services as they have address locations throughout the country.
Cars, Pets and Plants House Care:
You have left home for an extended period of time. You probably need to have someone make sure that your home and its contents will be in good condition when you return. Plants need water. Generally, there are companies or individuals in your local area that will provide those services. In our home area we have engaged viehomeservices.com to provide those services. They do a nice job of checking the home, watering the plants and starting the cars.
House Care for Cars
Speaking of starting the cars, there are some cars which have ready access to the battery. If this is your case, then you may be able to disconnect the battery and reconnect upon return. The only downside is that you will need to reset your clock. However, for those cars that do not have ready access to the battery, another option is to get a Battery Maintainer. A Battery Maintainer rather than just a Battery Charger will keep your car battery charged while you are away.
Amazon has a number of battery maintainers for sale, and the price varies based on the strength of the charger. We just ordered the NOCO GENUIS1 which is their #1 recommended combined maintainer/charger. It is priced well, for maintaining a car battery charge. But not necessarily good for charging a dead battery as it is only a 1-amp charger. We have fairly new batteries having replaced them last year after we neglected this problem. Therefore, the lower amp, less expensive, maintainer should be fine for us.
To see other products that are available for your travel needs, please go to our travel resources post or our Luggage and Packing post..
Care for Pets
As to home care for pets, we both love pets and have had a number of them over the years. Back when we both worked full-time and did short-term travel, we were able to have our pets stay in short-term pet care facilities while we were away. Here in Florida, we used a company called Pet Paradise. However, this becomes a real challenge when it comes to travelling for long periods of time. So, we just don’t have any pets at this time. Nevertheless, we are aware of services that actually find people who will move into your house and watch your pets. Go to trustedhousesitters.com for more information.
Other DIY Travel Strategies
If you need help planning other aspects of your future travel, check out our other Smart Travel Strategy Posts.