Must-Know Travel Hacks: Expert’s Exclusive Insights on Leaving Your Home and Car Secure for a Holiday Abroad…

With many Brits looking to escape the UK and get away this summer, it can be exhausting preparing everything before you head to the airport. A sure way to ruin your holiday is by wondering if your home and vehicles are safe when you are miles away.

The best way to keep anxiety and stress at bay is by making sure your home and vehicles are prepared safely and are left in perfect condition for your return. Still, it is easy to forget things in the excitement, so insurance experts at A-Plan Insurance have prepared some top tips for those planning to get away this summer.

Home Preparation

1. Clean and Tidy – Although this might seem impossible in the run-up to your holiday, there are steps you can take that can make tidying up your home easier:

• Clean 1 or 2 rooms a day: On the lead up to the holiday, make sure you eliminate stress by hoovering, disinfecting, and generally tidying up each room at a time; this way, you don’t have to leave it all till the night before, and your home will be squeaky clean when you return.
• Ask the kids to help: Planning a family trip can be even more stressful as kids are bound to create a mess. Try involving your children in the clean-up process by giving them some responsibility and asking them to tidy their spaces. Try offering incentives like extra ice cream on holiday or allowing them to bring their favourite toy on holiday for helping to clean.
• Unplug ALL unnecessary appliances: One way to rack up your energy bills while away is by leaving your devices plugged in or on standby. By unplugging them, you also reduce the risk of electrical fires, which will easily put your mind at rest.

2. Kitchen preparation – By leaving the heart of your home in a settled and prepared state, you will thank yourself in the long run:

• Empty out your fridge: No one wants to return home from a holiday to the smell of mouldy and gone-off food. Throw out any food set to go off during your holiday and freeze any food you may want to keep.
• To avoid wasting milk, purchase long-life milk from the supermarket before you go away, as this will last longer and still be useable on your return.
• Stock up on snacks: Add a few long-life snacks to your cupboards or ready meals into your freezer to indulge in when you return; this will keep you going until you can stock up again.  
• Schedule a food delivery for your arrival home: You will allow yourself more time to unpack, reset and prepare for work after your return by scheduling a food delivery for the day after you return home.

3. Utility Preparation – Avoid unneeded spending on bills while you are away:

• Switch off your water: Although new homes are less likely to have leaky taps, it is always advised to turn off your water system in your home while you are away. This way, you will avoid any chance of flooding and leaking, which will waste water and money.
• Check your boiler: Many new homes are equipped with a more energy-efficient holiday mode that allows you not to have to turn your boiler off for the few weeks you are away.

4. Overall maintenance – The most important deterrent for burglars is ensuring your home is secure and impossible to get into. There are also a couple of things that can make sure your home still looks like its occupied:

• Mow your lawn: An overgrown lawn is a huge indicator that your home is empty, so before you go, make sure your front lawn is freshly cut.
• Turn off any outside lights: Any home with its outdoor light on all day, every day, is wasteful in electricity and can open questions as to whether the home is vacant.
• Avoid post build up – This is a potential giveaway, so make sure your post box is empty, or there is no way you can see the state of your mailbox through any windows. Avoid any deliveries to be made to your home while you are away to be left outside.
• Ensure all your alarms are set: Before leaving, lock all your doors and hide your valuables. Secure any outbuildings, garages or sheds, and keep any tools that could be used to break in out of sight.

Vehicle Preparation

1. Apply a steering wheel lock: This method of protection against vehicle theft is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to avoid this crime. They offer an obvious deterrent to any thief and a locking system that prevents the turning of the wheel, which means if they do manage to get into your car to steal it, they won’t get far.

2. GPS Tracker: A tracker is a great way to ensure you know your vehicle’s whereabouts at any time. They can connect to your smartphone, making it super accessible to view while you are sitting at the beach.

3. Wheel clamp: Another visual deterrent that will prevent your car from going anywhere is a wheel clamp. It will also put off any chancing thief as it would take a long time for them to try and remove it, posing more risk of being seen or stopped by neighbours and passers-by.

4. Key signal blocker: One of the most common ways vehicles are stolen is by duplicating and cloning the signal from your key fob. To reduce this risk, you can purchase a key signal blocker lined with special isolation that prevents the frequency of your key from being duplicated, reducing the risk of your vehicle being stolen.

Credit to https://www.aplan.co.uk/, who provided the expert commentary and the above post.