How do you leave your house before you go on holiday?

[AJOC]

I'm the sort of person who has to come home to an immaculate house! Clean bed sheets, hoover lines, mopping us out of the house sort of thing!
DH really doesn't mind how the house presents when we return! He thinks mopping us out of the house is an unnecessary stress added to the already stressful task of packing for a family of 4.

Just curious to see if anyone else shares my passion for a deep clean before going on holiday or am I OTT and should help more with the loading of the car and come back to whatever state the house is in lol

Remove any food that will go off, empty bins, close the stopcock.

Doesn't matter how clean my flat was if I get back to it being underwater...

Ha, yes. We switch off the water and gas. The electric has to stay on for the burglar alarm.

I think the other people in my block might object to that.

It would never cross my mind to turn the water off! Is this a regular thing to do? I don't know why i don't know this

My cleaner comes in when I'm away

I do change the beds so they're fresh for us coming home so the only thing I have to do is the washing and ironing but as I get older, I'm very tempted to outsource the ironing as well

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain you should all have valves that isolate just your property.

I've only lived in one place that didn't and the landlord got an absolute roasting from the water company. Its a legal requirement to have one.

I do it partly because we are on a meter, so if something starts leaking while we are away, even if it doesn't damage anything, it would be running up a bill.

Interesting, didn't know that. Where might I find it? (Victorian conversion with a freeholder who can't be arsed). Could I ask the water co?

Depends on your circumstances. I'm in flats so wouldn't just be damaging my property but also the one below if there was a leak.

If you know any plumbers it's worth asking because it varies from home to home.

I don’t have lawns, so a, now imagining a copy of perplexed burglars peering through the hedge, scratching their heads.

You can but they won't know!

Always worth having a grub about under the sink, if in doubt, follow the pipes as best you're able, they have to come in somewhere.

It's usually a little brass tap.

In addition to the clean/bleach I turn all electrics off except the two night lights. Also turn off the wifi.

We might have a communal water valve, according to Thames Water.

For flats, you may have a communal inside stop valve if your water supply is shared with your neighbours. This is normally located where your water supply enters the building. Sometimes an additional inside stop valve can be found where the water supply enters

Got a plumber coming to do some work so I'll ask them.

It's always a good thing to know!

"and regard a lawn not obviously mowed within an inch of its life as a clarion call to burglars"

Read the post, it's Police advice. I suspect they know more about burglars than MNers.

I tend to spend the day before both packing and cleaning. Changing beds and washing sheets and towels. Cleaning bathrooms, emptying fridge, emptying bins etc.

So it's easy to leave the place neat and tidy in a hurry when we leave next day. I'll often set dishwasher running as we leave. But I'm not the best at mopping anyway so the hoovering the day before and sweep the floor as we leave is about my limit.

I leave it tidy but always arrange for my cleaner to come round while we're away so it's sparkly and sheets are clean

I am with you. Love coming back to a clean house.

But after turning my stopcock off once before a holiday and coming back to find it completely wedged tight and then flooded everywhere when we turned it back (and us unable to turn it off again!) I will never turn it off again before we go anywhere. I figure if it’s not leaking when we’re there it’s not likely to suddenly leak in a week or two.

I wasn't joking about doing the washing on holiday.
I actually research whether a place has a washing machine and dryer before I book it.
Do you all bring your dirty washing home?
I never do.

I just unpack everything and put it away when we get home.
I wouldn't like a massive pile of washing to tackle as soon as I got home.

Do you all bring your dirty washing home?

Yes, I wouldn't leave it behind.

I wouldn't like a massive pile of washing to tackle as soon as I got home.

Stick a load in the machine, have a cup of tea, get on with day to day mundane things whilst occasionally loading or unloading the machine and hanging/drying washing. Its not such a big deal. Planning your holidays around washing machine availability and actively taking time out of a holiday to do said washing though?

And this is why us women are exhausted before we even get to the airport. Does anyone else really appreciate the spotless house…….no.

I feel like I should mention that I did all the washing, packing and cleaning. I only asked he entertained the 2 kids whilst I mopped us out and did a once over so it's all looking and smelling beautiful for when we get back 😅

I only didn't help to load the car bit I did load the baby into the car seat!

I enjoy doing washing.

I pack. Kiss dh goodbye and we go.

He hates travel and sees no point in it so I either go on short trips with friends or a week away with our adult children and leave him behind to feed the cat and potter in peace.