How long can you leave home and leave it empty?

[RockyMtn]

For those which empty the toilets, what if you do all 3 or 4 bathrooms in your residence (remove water, add oil etc, then nature calls that minute before you need to leave?

Gas station!

 

[calmloki]

For those which empty the toilets, what if you do all 3 or 4 bathrooms in your residence (remove water, add oil etc, then nature calls that minute before you need to leave?

When nature calls one must answer. Go thou and water yon shrubbery.

In reality, rest stop, park, or McDonalds.

 

[pb4uski]

For those which empty the toilets, what if you do all 3 or 4 bathrooms in your residence (remove water, add oil etc, then nature calls that minute before you need to leave?

Hold it - we're old but not THAT old.

 

[audreyh1]

The RV has a toilet

 

[harley]

Back to the mail issue. I notice a lot of people stop/hold mail, but if you are going for 4-6 months that's not practical. I looked into the forwarding thing, but it's like $17/week, plus the cost of the express mail. I don't want to miss anything important, but I also don't want to be paying $20+/week for mostly catalogs and charity hits. Do any of you change your address each time you go? It looks like you can do a temporary address change for 6 months. I was thinking just change my address each time and let the post office handle it all. Anybody got any experience with this?

 

[calmloki]

Back to the mail issue. I notice a lot of people stop/hold mail, but if you are going for 4-6 months that's not practical. I looked into the forwarding thing, but it's like $17/week, plus the cost of the express mail. I don't want to miss anything important, but I also don't want to be paying $20+/week for mostly catalogs and charity hits. Do any of you change your address each time you go? It looks like you can do a temporary address change for 6 months. I was thinking just change my address each time and let the post office handle it all. Anybody got any experience with this?

We do this - stop delivery and forward the mail a day or two before we leave (to be sure it really gets stopped and we don't have a day's mail mouldering in the mailbox for 6 months.
We arrange to have the mail held when we stop the forwarding. Then we pick up the mail at the PO at the other end and start mail delivery. Some stuff won't forward - a few bank statements, newspapers and magazines, new credit cards, some tax forms. Now we have settled on getting all our tax forms online as well as all bank statements. Credit cards get sent to the address where we are located, then I call in and change the address to our primary up in Oregon. If we are having mail forwarded and we go past 6 months we call and get a 30 day extension. A bit fiddly, but no cost. Health insurance is a bigger issue - we can be visiting members for 3 months at a time, with an extension possible. Really need to find a west coast company good in all the left coast states.

 

[Malcolm2]

Back to the mail issue. I notice a lot of people stop/hold mail, but if you are going for 4-6 months that's not practical. I looked into the forwarding thing, but it's like $17/week, plus the cost of the express mail. I don't want to miss anything important, but I also don't want to be paying $20+/week for mostly catalogs and charity hits. Do any of you change your address each time you go? It looks like you can do a temporary address change for 6 months. I was thinking just change my address each time and let the post office handle it all. Anybody got any experience with this?

Services like this one: http://www.sbimailservice.com/mail_services.htm Seems to be more like $20 a month. Things are scanned for your review or disposed of how you direct. Other than first class mail, it doesn't seem to bother me if the rest is tossed.

If you are staying in the States just forward all to the new address if more than a month. If you are headed overseas then consider the service.

 

[audreyh1]

Back to the mail issue. I notice a lot of people stop/hold mail, but if you are going for 4-6 months that's not practical. I looked into the forwarding thing, but it's like $17/week, plus the cost of the express mail. I don't want to miss anything important, but I also don't want to be paying $20+/week for mostly catalogs and charity hits. Do any of you change your address each time you go? It looks like you can do a temporary address change for 6 months. I was thinking just change my address each time and let the post office handle it all. Anybody got any experience with this?

We do this. But we use a mail service to handle our mail when traveling. We used it when we were full time RVing, and kept it. I think the basic service is like $80 a year? Escapees mail service. We do the temporary address forwarding when traveling for more than a month, then they send us collected mail wherever we are when we call.

 

[Al in Ohio]

Will this thread never die?

(I am amazed how many times we are skinning this cat)

 

[steelyman]

Will this thread never die? (I am amazed how many times we are skinning this cat)

I am not sure why you posted, then.

It's a good topic.

 

[MichaelB]

Will this thread never die?

(I am amazed how many times we are skinning this cat)

I read the entire thread and didn't see anything about cats. If you find the topic tiresome you always have the option of not reading it.

We are away for long periods and this thread is helpful.

 

[REWahoo]

Some people are easily amazed.

 

[harley]

So, we're leaving for our first big snow birding adventure in a week. I called Mediacom (our cable and internet provider) today to arrange for doing the seasonal shutdown process they have. They told me that it would "only" cost me half price to shut everything down for the 4-5 months we'll be gone. I told them that I had previously been told we'd only be charged $10/month, but they said that option isn't available to us. I called again, got a different rep but the same story. So I told them to shut down the service completely, and we "might" re-up when we come back. I have to return the boxes and remotes before we leave.

Just out of curiosity I checked the current deals they offer to new customers. It looks like we'll actually come out way ahead in the long run by being a new customer each year. Better TV packages, faster internet, and lower prices. It's a bit of a pain having to return the stuff and get new equipment later, but not that big a deal. I guess I'll have to go through the same thing in FL with Comcast.

 

[sengsational]

So I told them to shut down the service completely, and we "might" re-up when we come back. I have to return the boxes and remotes before we leave.

I routinely switch ISP's just to get the new customer incentive...not even under a snowbird scenario. Years ago it was key is to NOT use the 'free email address' they give you. But nobody does that any more, with gmail available. One thing you may find is that they say that you've got to be gone 12 months before you're considered a new customer. I've had 'em tell me I had to leave for 6 months, then when I was signing up, they said I wasn't eligible for the new customer deal. I'll admit to having suffered with an inferior ISP for a while sometimes, but it's saved me a ton of money.

 

[jetpack]

This is a big problem for me. I have a 200 year old house, so lots of things breaking and leaking. I have plants and pets.. . so I pretty much need a sitter if I'm gone more than a few days. (I put plugs in the drains if I'm going away.. that's the easy one)

I also have a few rentals, so there is always something going on there too.

After picking those up, I've almost immediately regretted them... it's nice steady income, but still.

The new rule for me is downsizing... no more stuff added that needs to be taken care of.. and slowly get rid of the rest.

 

[harley]

One thing you may find is that they say that you've got to be gone 12 months before you're considered a new customer. I've had 'em tell me I had to leave for 6 months, then when I was signing up, they said I wasn't eligible for the new customer deal. I'll admit to having suffered with an inferior ISP for a while sometimes, but it's saved me a ton of money.

When I was looking at the new customer deals, they specifically said there was no time requirement. They did say that if you cancel part of the bundle you have to pay full price for the rest of the service, but they specifically said there's not early termination penalty. I'm not going to tell anybody I'm only in for a short period of time.

Sadly, I only have inferior ISPs to choose from (in MD, anyway). Satellite or Mediacom are my only choices.

 

[MRG]

There was a couple of mentions of cleaning out the fridge, great idea. My FIL/MIL went away for 2 weeks, their full size freezer went out during that time. FIL was an avid fishermen, freezer was stocked full. Probably a good idea to empty that as well.
MRG

 

[calmloki]

There was a couple of mentions of cleaning out the fridge, great idea. My FIL/MIL went away for 2 weeks, their full size freezer went out during that time. FIL was an avid fishermen, freezer was stocked full. Probably a good idea to empty that as well.
MRG

We hadn't emptied our frig or freezer out in the past - the day before we left to go south for 6 months this year the gal was cleaning by the freezer and said "hey - this water isn't supposed to be here, right?". We feel very fortunate to have been able to dispose of a freezer full of thawed food in a neighbors trash can rather than find it after getting back.

 

[harley]

We're in the process of cleaning out the pantry, getting rid of opened packages of crackers, chips, things like that. Found a case of tomato paste that was exploding. Good to get rid of that. The fridge is on the generator, we're not emptying that. But we're getting rid of things that won't last the 5 months even refrigerated (yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit and veggies). We're taking a bunch of meat from the freezer, but leaving a lot too. Especially if it's vacuum packed. We'll just have to see how it all goes.

 

[steelyman]

I seem to not be good at semi-long trips. The worst is remembering if I closed my garage door. I generally think of it when I am about two minutes away from the airport

 

[REWahoo]

I seem to not be good at semi-long trips. The worst is remembering if I closed my garage door. I generally think of it when I am about two minutes away from the airport

Based on multiple "Did we remember to...?" situations, I highly recommend creating a checklist, with the last item being "Close the garage door".

 

[steelyman]

Based on multiple "Did we remember to...?" situations, I highly recommend creating a checklist, with the last item being "Close the garage door".

Man. No kidding! This happened to me this fall but luckily a guy I know lives down the road so I called him and he checked.

 

[sengsational]

I went away for a week once, luckily it was summertime and just a small upstairs part of a duplex. I had left the front door open! When I got back I detected that there had been an intruder. This was based on the droppings on the headreast of my easy chair. But the intruder has flown the coup before I arrived home. Otherwise, everything was in perfect order!

 

[calmloki]

Based on multiple "Did we remember to...?" situations, I highly recommend creating a checklist, with the last item being "Close the garage door".

Didn't you bring the checklist? No, I thought you had it...