When you are traveling out of town do you worry about your house?

Not really, when I go, I go. I will worry about any problems that occur when I get back.

We were in Seattle a couple of years back when a hurricane hit the Texas coast (we are more inland but still get heavy rains and winds) and our feeling whas relief that we were not there.
As for the robbery aspect, I have good neighbors who watch out for each other and each others property.

I have a neighbor that keeps an eye on my house when I’m gone and I do the same for them. My house sits out on a 10 acre open field so it would be obvious if someone was there other than me. Plus it’s on a hill, so it’s reasonably safe.

I have an alarm system and a neighbor who, if I ask him, will check my house, so I’m covered about as best I can be. Still, I always fret a bit about snatch and runs.

We just got back from a cruise. It is the first time I haven’t unplugged everything. I still had to go through my other rituals though. The house had to be spotless. All laundry done. Fresh sheets on the beds. All garbage taken out. Newspapers and mail put on hold. Everyone who I deem important must be notified of where I’ll be and when I’m suppose to return.

For years, I’ve been a freak about leaving for more than one night. It is a control and ego thing for me. I am just really learning (baby steps) to leave my home and belongings behind without freaking out about having no control over what was going to happen to everything and everyone while I was away. I worry about dying while I’m gone and someone having to go through my belongings. I want it all in order.

I live on a 5 acre property on a tiny dead end road and am the middle of only 3 neighbors on this road. I never worry about crime or break ins, leave the house unlocked when I am gone, no worries whatsoever, but…I need a 2x daily pet sitter and plant waterer and that is what I worry about. My geese need to be locked up in their barns at dark and let out in the mornings and in the summer I have about 25 HUGE potted plants around my deck and patio that need lots of water. Bamboos, miscanthus and zebra grasses, urns of morning glories, himalayan honeysuckles, dwarf trees and a giant, potted blue spruce.

The evening watering chores take about 40 minutes a day.
My cats are fine, they have their cat door and only need their food and water checked and litter boxes scooped every other day.
I don’t worry but I do need a lot of pet.house sitting help when I go away.

Two neighbors to watch it and a dog sitter comes twice a day to feed the black Lab cross dogs we have.

I do a bit. I always make sure that plugs are pulled out of sockets (not just switched off), the only thing I can’t do this too is the fridge as it’s too heavy for me to move to be able to reach the plug and that often worries me.

Do you know where we hide the key to our house? We don’t either. It’s unlocked.
I tell the neighbors when we are going away and always (half-jokingly) tell them to shoot out the tires of anyone who pulls into our driveway.
I turn off the water pump and set the thermostat to a low temp. In the dead of winter we have a light that will turn on if the temp gets below about 3C or ~40F . That means the heating system is not working and we are in danger of having our pipes freeze. My neighbor knows to look for it.

The only real concern I have is running the generator if we lose power for a long time. The sump pump needs to empty every 2 or 3 hours if there is a lot of rain. My neighbor will come over and start it – just as I do for him when he is away.

@Leanne1986 I would never unplug the refrigerator. Surely you don’t empty it every time you go away, do you?

@LuckyGuy My fridge is hardly ever very full. I could easily empty it before I go away because I usually just have some milk, cheese and a can of coke in it!!!

@Leanne1986 I don’t think I have ever seen a refrigerator that does not have: bottles of salsa, ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, mayonnaise bottle water, a semi full freezer, cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, lemon juice – and that’s just on the right hand door. On the left door is salad dressings, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, tabasco, sesame oil, butter, margarine. The racks hold wine, salad fruits, veggies, cheese, milk, soy milk, left overs, etc. It would be a big deal to empty it out.

Oops! Almost forgot about the requisite bundle of wilted celery that everyone has in the bottom drawer!

I always get housesitters and they have to cuddle the animals as well as feed them. I clean up but I don’t empty the fridge, the stuff in there is to be used. My house is romantic so I never pay housesitters, they line up to have a chance to stay here for awhile. Once the daughter of a friend housesat with her heinously smelly boyfriend and they got some substance or other on our sheets, which didn’t wash out, but they did everything else exactly right, so we didn’t care.

I guess if there were a natural disaster I would, but otherwise no.

I make sure everything is switched off and unplugged and I make sure I lock up but once away I forget about the place. It is very unlikely to be broken into and robbed due to its location and I am insured anyway.

Since two adult grandsons live with me, I don’t think my house has been empty for even one full day for many years.

@LuckyGuy After reading your answer I wish I had lowered my heat even more. I turned my house down to 60.

I never unplug anything, here I still am. lol
I make sure appliances are off, obviously, but otherwise I have never gone through the house and unplugged anything.I do leave lights on too for my cats.

I unplug small appliances like toasters and flip the switch off on the power thingy I have computers and printers hooked into. Back in the day those small appliances would just catch fire or short, it probably doesn’t happen much anymore,

I have a girlfriend whose upstairs toilet malfunctioned while she was away for a long weekend. She and her husband came home to water dripping down the walls and through the ceiling to the first floor and water to slosh through all along her first floor. It was awful. Ruined the entire house practically. She lived in a hotel for months waiting for all of it to get repaired.

@LuckyGuy Nope, none of that! I love a fully stocked fridge but sadly, mine is never that impressive!

Full fridge and freezer saves energy.

@JLeslie You are absolutely right. If you have almost nothing in the fridge then you should at least put bottled water in there. It will take up some of the volume and keep it colder if you lose power. I keep frozen ice packs in empty space in the freezer.