Things to Do Before Going on Vacation: Home Checklist

Updated September 2026 · Vacation Checklists

In the last 48 hours, do five things: stop the mail, set the thermostat to a safe holding temperature, shut off the washing machine and ice maker water lines, empty the trash and fridge of anything that rots, and tell one trusted person where you are going. Those five prevent almost every expensive thing that goes wrong at an empty house. Everything else on the list is comfort, not damage control.

The rest of this guide is the full countdown, from three weeks out down to the moment you lock the door. Print it or work through it on your phone.

Get the packing side handled at the same time with our free packing list generator, which builds a list around your trip length and destination so the two jobs do not collide the night before.

Updated September 2026.

Things to Do Before Going on Vacation: The Full Countdown

Timing matters more than the list itself. Half of the classic pre-trip panic is caused by tasks that had a deadline nobody noticed, like a passport that needed renewing or a prescription that needed a refill request days in advance.

Work top to bottom and the last day is calm instead of frantic.

Three to Four Weeks Out: The Things With Lead Times

These are the tasks that will ruin the trip if you find them late.

Check every document expiration date. Passports for international trips, your driver license for domestic flights, and the six month validity rule that many countries enforce on arrival. Our travel document checklist has the full list, and there is a real timeline problem hiding here, because replacing a document takes weeks. If yours is close to expiring, see how long it takes to replace a lost passport for what those windows actually look like.

Book pet care. Boarding facilities and good sitters fill up first around school breaks and holidays. If your pet is coming along, our guide to traveling with a pet covers airline crate rules and health certificate timing, which also has a lead time.

Request prescription refills. Pharmacies often will not refill early without a call to the insurer, and that call takes days. Ask for a vacation override in plenty of time and pack medications in original labeled bottles.

Confirm every reservation yourself. Flights, hotel, rental car, and anything with a cancellation deadline. Screenshot each confirmation so you have it without service.

Tell your bank and card issuers if you are going abroad. Most no longer require travel notices, but a card that gets frozen on day one is a miserable start, and setting it up now takes two minutes in the app.

Two Weeks Out: Coverage and Logistics

Line up a person, not just a system. Cameras tell you a pipe burst. A neighbor with a key can shut the water off. Give one trusted person a key, your itinerary, your flight numbers and a phone number that works abroad.

Set up phone service for the destination. International plans and eSIM options need a little setup time, and doing it at the gate is how people end up paying for the wrong thing. Our comparison of eSIM vs roaming covers the tradeoffs.

Book parking or rides. Airport lots fill during peak weeks, and prebooking is usually faster on arrival too.

Arrange lawn care and snow removal. An uncut lawn or an unshoveled driveway is a loud signal that nobody is home. In many towns, an unshoveled sidewalk is also a code violation.

Plan the plants. Small pots survive about a week. Anything longer needs a sitter, a self-watering setup, or a bathtub with a few inches of water and towels wicking moisture up into the pots.

One Week Out: Mail, Deliveries and Laundry

Start the mail hold. USPS Hold Mail can be requested online and covers up to 30 days. Submit it a few days before you leave rather than the night before, since same-day requests are not always accepted. Our guide on how to stop mail while on vacation covers the hold window, the package problem, and what to do for trips longer than a month.

Pause package deliveries. A porch stacked with boxes is the clearest sign of an empty house. Pause subscription boxes, reroute anything in transit to a locker or a neighbor, and turn off one-click reorder for the week.

Do the laundry now. Packing from a clean closet is faster and you avoid the classic problem of your favorite shirt being in the washer at midnight.

Download what you need offline. Maps for the destination, boarding passes, reservation confirmations, a playlist, and any documents you might need at a border.

Refill and sort medications. Count out what you need plus a few extra days in case of delays, and keep them in your carry-on rather than a checked bag.

Departure Day: The Walk-Out Sequence

Do these in order, because a couple of them depend on each other. This is the part that protects the house.

1. Set the thermostat to a holding temperature. In winter, no lower than about 55 F so pipes in exterior walls do not freeze. In summer, around 80 to 85 F, which keeps humidity from building without running the system all week. Do not turn the system fully off in either season.
2. Shut off the water to the washing machine and the ice maker. Burst supply hoses are one of the most common causes of major water damage in empty homes. If you are gone longer than about two weeks, shut off the main and drain the lines.
3. Set the water heater to vacation mode if it has one, or to its lowest setting if it does not. Gas heaters often have a dedicated vacation setting on the dial.
4. Empty every trash can, including the bathroom and the bedroom, and take the bag outside. Run the garbage disposal with water, then a little baking soda.
5. Clear the fridge. Anything that will expire before you get back goes out. Leftovers, milk, produce, opened deli meat. Do this the night before so it goes out with the trash.
6. Run and empty the dishwasher. A closed dishwasher full of dirty dishes for two weeks is genuinely awful to come home to.
7. Unplug what you can. Coffee makers, space heaters, TVs, phone chargers, anything with a heating element. Leave the fridge, freezer, security system and anything on a timer plugged in.
8. Set lights on timers. Two or three lamps on staggered schedules read as occupied. Timers that vary by a few minutes each day are better than clockwork.
9. Lock everything and check the ones you never use. The basement window, the back slider, the garage side door, the pet door. Set the garage opener to vacation lock if it has one.
10. Take one last photo of the parking spot, the closed garage and the thermostat. It settles the "did I really turn it off?" argument on the plane.

Then confirm your flight, check the terminal, and leave for the airport with the buffer you actually need. Our pre-flight checklist covers everything from that point forward.

Worked Example: 10-Day Trip, Departing Saturday Morning

Here is how the countdown looks for a specific trip, so you can copy the shape and change the dates.

• Three weeks before, on a Saturday: Passport checked, expires in over a year. Dog boarding booked. Prescription refill requested through the pharmacy app.
• Two weeks before: Neighbor gets a key, the itinerary and a photo of the water shutoff valve. Airport parking prebooked. eSIM purchased and installed but not activated.
• Seven days before, Saturday: USPS mail hold submitted for the full 10 days. Two subscription boxes paused. All laundry done.
• Three days before, Wednesday: Grocery buying stops. Two light timers set for the living room and the bedroom. The big packing pass happens, so what remains is only what is in daily use.
• Friday night: All trash out, fridge cleared, dishwasher run and emptied, plants watered deeply, phones and battery packs charging.
• Saturday, 90 minutes before leaving: Thermostat to 82 F, washing machine and ice maker valves closed, water heater to vacation mode, electronics unplugged, all doors and windows checked, final photo of the thermostat, house locked.

Total active time across three weeks: under three hours. The version where you do all of it the night before takes the same three hours and costs you a night of sleep.

Longer Than Two Weeks? Do These Extra Things

A ten day trip and a five week trip are different problems. For anything past two weeks, add:

• Shut off the main water supply and open a faucet at the lowest point to drain the lines.
• Turn off the water heater entirely if the main is off, so it is not heating an empty tank.
• Ask someone to check the house weekly, in person, not just on camera. Insurance policies sometimes require periodic checks for a claim to be valid.
• Set up bill autopay or pay everything ahead. Missed payments are avoidable and annoying.
• Consider the mail hold limit. Holds cap at 30 days, so longer trips need mail forwarding or a neighbor collecting it.
• Move or run down the perishables in the freezer, and put a coin on top of a frozen cup of water. If you come back and the coin is at the bottom, the power failed and the freezer thawed and refroze.

What Not to Do

A few habits actively increase your risk:

• Do not announce the trip publicly before or during it. Post the photos when you are home.
• Do not leave a spare key outside. Fake rocks and door frames are the first two places anyone looks.
• Do not turn the heat completely off in winter. Frozen and burst pipes cost far more than the heating you saved.
• Do not leave the curtains fully drawn everywhere. A house that looks sealed for a week reads as empty. Normal is better than hidden.
• Do not leave the garage door opener in a car parked outside, and do not leave a car in the driveway with valuables visible.

For trips around the holidays, when houses are emptier and packages are heavier, our holiday travel checklist has the seasonal version of all of this.

Frequently Asked Questions

What temperature should I set the thermostat to when I go on vacation?

In winter, keep the heat at about 55 F or higher so pipes in exterior walls and unheated spaces do not freeze. In summer, around 80 to 85 F keeps humidity in check without running the air conditioning hard all week. Turning the system completely off in either season is what causes damage.

Should I turn off the water when I go on vacation?

For trips under about two weeks, shutting off just the washing machine and ice maker supply lines handles the most common failures. For longer trips, shut off the main and open a low faucet to drain the lines. If you shut off the main, turn the water heater off as well.

How do I make my house look lived in while I am away?

Use two or three light timers on staggered schedules, keep the lawn cut or the snow cleared, stop mail and packages, ask a neighbor to park in your driveway occasionally, and leave curtains in their normal daytime position. The goal is a house that looks unremarkable, not one that looks sealed.

How far in advance should I stop my mail?

Submit the hold a few days before you leave. USPS Hold Mail accepts requests in advance and covers up to 30 days, and same-day requests are not always honored. Packages from other carriers need to be paused or rerouted separately, since the postal hold does not cover them.

What should I unplug before a vacation?

Unplug anything with a heating element or a motor you will not need: coffee makers, toasters, space heaters, hair tools, and electronics that draw standby power such as TVs and game consoles. Leave the refrigerator, freezer, security system, router if you need remote cameras, and any lights on timers plugged in.

Do I need to tell my bank I am traveling?

Most major issuers no longer require a travel notice, but it takes two minutes in the app and it removes a real risk. More important: carry a backup card from a different issuer, keep it in a separate bag, and make sure you know your PIN, since many countries use chip and PIN at unattended machines.

What is the one thing people forget most before a trip?

Clearing the refrigerator. Everyone remembers the trash, and almost everyone leaves something that spoils. The second most forgotten is the ice maker line, which quietly floods kitchens while nobody is home. Our list of things people forget to pack covers the suitcase side of the same problem.