Taking Care of the Household while on a World Cruise

You have to ask for a special request ( which you could do only once a year )..

The one thing I haven't noticed anyone mentioning is turning off the hot water heater and incoming cold water. This action is self explanatory.

If you use tankless water heaters or instant hot water appliances this is not necessary.

My in-laws are snowbirds and they cancel their phone land line for 6 months, but pay a small fee to keep their number reserved for when they return.

Even when working we took extended holidays of 6 to 8 weeks, and in retirement we RV/cruise extensively, so have left the house on numerous occasions.

Our first preference is to have daughter and/or son-in-law live in the house. On the couple of times that wasn't possible we have one of our friends or friend of one of our kids stay in the house. They have to be well known to us, trusted implicitly and get on well with our large breed dogs.

Pets - we would never consider leaving any of our pets in a kennel. If we can't have somebody take care of them, we reschedule.

Bills - all bills are on auto-payment and our daughter has a credit card on our account for emergencies. She also has a power of attorney so can conduct various transactions we require while away.

Vehicles - I have somebody arranged to start them at least once per month, run up to operating temperature and take for a short drive to work the brakes and prevent flat spots on the tires.

The only time we ever left our house empty we advised the insurance company, turned the heat and hot water down, unplugged all electrical appliances and had somebody check inside daily.

Depending on your area, you may also consider calling the police departments non emergency number in advance. Here they run by houses more frequently if the owners put them on notice that they are on extended vacations.

I also highly recommend programming your thermostat and not shutting off your heating or cooling completely. We once responded to a multimillion dollar home where the owner instructed the person watching the house to shut off the heat in winter. We responded to a water flow alarm and found the sprinkler pipes and domestic water pipes were frozen.

Also keep your insurance info in a handy location. Your sitter will have to have you call them directly if there are any issues. We attempted to contact the insurance agent and they would not talk to a fire department representative. At the time we were unable to contact the owners.... We shut the water off and mopped up as best we could. The house had extensive wood flooring.

How much do you pay to have a house sitter ??

I realize I am livening a thread whose last post was 8 months ago but I believe the info in the thread is still pertinent. Our longest cruise so far has been 33 days. Our longest time away from home has been six weeks but that was when we lived in Southern CA and had no trouble having a nearby friend check our home weekly, and picking up mail from PO box then too.

Now we live in rural desert in southern NM, quarter mile from nearest neighbor, 25 miles from nearest town or PO box. We aren't planning a world cruise but are currently looking at a 42 day cruise late next year with pre and post cruise day stays for a total of about 50 days away from home.

Mail, believe it or not, is usually no problem since the nearest neighbor's rural mailbox is right next to ours so they get it for us and toss it into a laundry basket for us and we pick up the laundry basket of mail when we return. They aren't comfortable with looking at the envelopes. So hopefully no important mail. All our bills have been on automatic payments for years so no problem.

If they're gone RVing for a week while picking up our mail they just have whoever does their mail do ours also. PO is too far to bother having mail held. In return, when we're home and they're rv'ing for a week we go over and let their cats in/out, feed them, TLC them.

Our biggest problem is finding someone to check our mobile home weekly, flush toilets, run water etc. Our young handyman isn't always available and also isn't comfortable with keys to home or going inside when we're not home. Neither is our neighbor. Both will check outside of home but not inside.

We've thought about trying to find a college student from nearest college town, 45 miles, to do it and paying their gas as well as time, getting character recommendations, but not sure the best way to go about that. Newspaper ad? Craig's list? College bulletin board?

Also, what would you recommend as payment for their time & gas, including travel time, if we could find someone.

Any other ideas in our rural situation. Adult offspring live in other states with families of their own. None are interested in vacationing in our mobile home so far from civilization. :)

We like long cruises so have developed a plan over the years. Here are a few things we do:

Mail: we do a 'temporary forward' of our mail to my sister as no family in town and no children. The post office will do this for up to 6 months at no charge.

Services: We have our phones, cable, internet put on a 'vacation hold'. This drops the monthly charge to only a few dollars to keep the accounts open. Some are better to just cancel, like Netflix.

Credit cards: Do not believe in accessing our financial records while cruising due to safety concerns. We give my sister access to our credit card web pages, let her know when we use a card, and she takes care of the payment out of our checking account after verifying the charge. Thought about auto-pay but really want someone to look at the charges before they are paid.

Cars: These are in the garage with batteries pulled out, Stabile in the gas tank, and the insurances minimized to only what is required by state law or if the roof falls down.

House: We leave a key with a neighbor who pops in maybe once a week, we are thinking about turning off the water to the house as the sprinklers are separate, we cover the toilets with saran wrap so they do not dry out (and write on the wrap so we remember), put covers over all sink drains to prevent bugs from coming in (we live in FL) - plastic lids with a can on top works well, unplug everything except the lights on a timer and the refrigerator. We fill up the refrigerator and freezer with water jugs for efficiency after we clean out most everything from the fridge. We have a lawn service so no worries there.

Bills: everything for the house is on auto-pay and my sister opens any bills that come in the mail and handles them if necessary. We have a joint account with my sister for this and as she is also our estate executor, she will also use this account for our final expenses.

We also make sure to alert the security people in the area (we now live in a closed community) but we used to alert the police when we were gone.

After many long cruises, we have had no issues - thankfully.

How much do you pay to have a house sitter ??

There are agencies who will provide house sitters who are licensed, bonded and insured. Would strongly recommend AGAINST using Craigslist, newspaper ad, etc. You can also call the local university or college employment office for a referral. Angie's List may also be an option. Depending on where you live airbnb dot com is an international company where you can rent a house in many areas of the world. Maybe you can get your house listed but then you will not be able to 'turn off' most things in your house.

We have our cleaning lady come on her regular schedule, as well as the man who knows our lawn. The pool service comes once a week, though my husband usually does that himself. We also have great neighbors. Mail goes to husband's office and we stop the paper. Bills paid online as usual. So far so good.

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How do you think prescription drugs would be handled.

 

I know my insurance only pays 1, sometimes 3 month supply?

Most insurance companies have a 'vacation' allowance for 2x normal so 6 months supply. We also renew as soon as possible so have a small cushion of meds.

These are certainly helpful tips from everyone! I can't wait to take my first long haul cruise. I think it's a bucket list item! I had Panama and Alaska on the list and the world cruise is in the ' it will be my miracle! section of the bucket list...

These are certainly helpful tips from everyone! I can't wait to take my first long haul cruise. I think it's a bucket list item! I had Panama and Alaska on the list and the world cruise is in the ' it will be my miracle! section of the bucket list...

Life is short, the world is vast and truly amazing. Isn't that why we have credit cards!

I just spoke with our cable company. They have a program called "Seasonal Billings". Instead of turning the cable/internet/telephones off, they charge a reduced rate and just reduce your service to the lowest (basic) rates for the three. The savings for us for all three services is over $150 per month. They ask for three days notice for initiating the program and two days notice for reinstating the services to their previous level of service.

 

That sounds pretty cool to me.

 

Has anyone ever tried something like that?

My mom does it every year for the summer. Like Keith said though, I know she had to call them and have them come out because they had done something in the neighborhood while she was gone and it now needed in house fixing.

"The one thing I haven't noticed anyone mentioning is turning off the hot water heater and incoming cold water. This action is self explanatory.

If you use tankless water heaters or instant hot water appliances this is not necessary."

I WOULD DISAGREE WITH THE ABOVE STATEMENT. If a hot water line breaks, you don't need the extra cost of Gas to heat that leaking hot water.

We have a electric hot water heater , I shut off the electric to it . I have our neighbor flush the toilets every 30 days

We have a electric hot water heater ' date=' I shut off the electric to it . I have our neighbor flush the toilets every 30 days[/quote']

 

Also recommend you have them run all faucets, then close the drains again. Also cover the open drains like the one we have in our shower - a plastic lid held down with a can works well. Had a neighbor get infested with insects that came in thru her drains -it was ugly. To help with the toilet drying out, cover the bowl with saran wrap - but draw on the wrap so it is obvious and less embarrassing for your neighbor should they use the facilities.

I just spoke with our cable company. They have a program called "Seasonal Billings". Instead of turning the cable/internet/telephones off, they charge a reduced rate and just reduce your service to the lowest (basic) rates for the three. The savings for us for all three services is over $150 per month. They ask for three days notice for initiating the program and two days notice for reinstating the services to their previous level of service.

 

That sounds pretty cool to me.

 

Has anyone ever tried something like that?

Do it every time I go on a long cruise. Our cable company will put their service on 'hold' for $5 per service (so $10 for cable and internet) per month and the phone charges $7.50 per month for a similar hold. Nothing we can do about the sewer and trash as restarting is expensive where I live so just leave these as is and the water and electric bills are what they are.

This list was just posted on our world cruise roll call -

TRAVEL PREPARATION:

• Assemble travel tickets/boarding passes. When we get the personalized cruise booklet, add a copy of the info page to your travel documents.

• Review passports and all required visas; include yellow fever documentation; have several extra photos.

• Assess trip insurance, including emergency-evacuation coverage.

• Register your trip online with the U.S. State Department: step.state.gov/step/

• Confirm all private tours with organizers, providers and participants; make full payments or deposits as necessary.

• Treat a few outfits of clothing with Permethrin if you are planning a safari or other activities in risk areas for malaria, dengue fever and chikungunya virus.

• Update all passwords for secure online transactions while abroad, and make sure you have a way to remember them.

FINANCIAL:

• Make sure your finances and bill-paying systems are in order.

• Get cash with lots of new or nearly new bills, mostly in small denominations.

• Review your credit cards and debit cards. Make sure they won’t expire during the trip. Know your debit-card PIN number for use in foreign ATMs; notify banks and credit-card companies of your travel plans.

• Make arrangements for filing income tax returns or an extension.

FAMILY/HOUSE/CAR/

• Make arrangements for someone to check on your house while you’re away, whether renting it out or not or have a housesitter.

• Leave a list of favorite providers (electrician, plumber, et al.) in a handy place.

• Make a list with your personal information, bank, insurance and other important contact numbers; travel with a copy, and leave a copy at home with your emergency contact person at home.

• Update your POA (medical and financial), plus contact information to share with your emergency contact at home, in the unlikely event both you and your travel companion need emergency care or transport.

• Plan to store your car/vehicles properly.

• Talk with your insurers regarding coverage of home and vehicles while you are away.

• Suspend/hold home internet, phone and TV service; put a hold on or discontinue Netflix and other such providers

• Have birthday and holiday cards ready to mail by a reliable person; put a stickie note with a “mail by” date on each stamped envelope.

• Make arrangements for your mail: forward, hold, or have a trusted friend collect it, sort it, toss the junk, and alert you to items that might need your attention.

• Alert your trusted neighbors that you will be away; share your local emergency contact info if they see something amiss at your house.

• Start to empty your refrigerator, freezer and pantry of anything that will expire; if you’re going to keep the fridge running, fill it with bottled water, etc. to minimize energy usage.

HEALTH & MEDICAL

• Consult your health-care providers; get flu shots, etc.; decide if you need anti-malarials or other special meds.

• Make sure you have enough of your Rx meds to last at least the length of your trip; allow plenty of time to order “vacation refills” on any daily Rx meds.

• Get spare Rx eyeglasses, readers and sunglasses.

• Make sure your medical insurance (Medicare and supplemental) is in place for next year. Your supplemental policy might cover medical expenses while traveling abroad, but Medicare will not