how do you do a longer trip to Europe?

We like to travel for extended times in Europe. We have handled some of your concerns this way.

Mail: we pay a neighbor kid to pick up our mail 1x a week from our locked mailbox on our street.

Bills: we have transitioned to auto pay for everything but insurance and property taxes which we pay early before we leave if we need to.

House concerns: the neighborhood kid can also water for us but we have transitioned to a great irrigation system that adjusts for weather conditions. We have drought tolerant landscaping.

Packing: we pack as though we are going on a 1-2 week trip but stay in one location for longer periods and plan our lodging choices with an occasional washer for a few weeks. We don’t take anything differently for a 2 week or 2 month trip. We don’t want more “stuff” with us or to move from place to place.

We favor longer stays in fewer places on our two month annual trip. We pack much like Mona, although we take a larger, 24” rolling bag to accommodate medications and things we need for the longer trip as our absence spans late summer hot to mid autumn chill and we are frequently in the mountains. The 24” bag gives us some wiggle room to carry some things that make longer travel more comfortable.

As to house and garden, we get a house sitter through https://www.TrustedHousesitters.com. Have done so for years now. They care for our pets, of course, but even when we did not have a pet for a few years, we had someone stay for reasons of security, garden care, picking up mail. There are many nuances to having a sitter, but THS is very helpful and there is a lovely community of support to help get you started. There is a modest (to us, well worth it) annual fee.

I signed up for the USPS Daily Digest so I get a scan of the mail arriving each day and in the rare occasion something needs to be opened, I have the sitter do it and send me a scan or at least a photo so we can decide if it needs handling.

Editing to add, as much as possible is on autopay and online bill paying with a VPN is as easy as it is at home.

It is essential to have a phone plan that allows you to maintain your US number so if you need two-factor ID via an SMS it is not a problem.

John, you beat me to this same question although our longer, slower travel begins in 2025. We will be traveling from mid-April through September in the USA and Europe. I was wondering how folks plan longer travel. We anticipate spending about 10 days in each location.

what do you do about mail? USPS will only allow holds for 30 days
I have the mail forwarded to family members; cost = $1.10 to set it up.

how do you handle bills? Do you set up autopay, or just logon abroad and pay them?
Everything is on autopay. I avoid logging in to the accounts from Europe.

what do you do with your house when you're gone? There are some areas that we need to hand-water

The irrigation system is on an app that I can adjust from my phone according to forecasts. I was also hiring a neighborhood kid to do some hand watering but have decided to skip that this time. I've told the grass and plants they are on their own.

My neighbors park their car in my driveway occasionally to make the house look occupied.

how do you pack for the trip?
The tricky part is when the trip extends across seasons. I pack a few extra layers for warmth and rain. Shoes are toughest for me because I will bring both rain ankle boots and sandals.

To add to the auto-pay comments: Travel with a record of which bills are linked to which credit card. That will simplify matters if a card is lost or stolen; you'll know which accounts need to be updated. (I've been through this several times.)

Other things I do:
- Check with insurance company on procedures for vacation overrides on prescription meds. Start the process as early as procedures allow.
- Be sure library card is valid and allows access to ebooks.
- Carry three credit cards and two ATM/debit cards.
- Carry a master list of all account numbers and (encoded) passwords. I bank with a credit union with limited online presence, so I include a telephone number for use if my ATM card doesn't work on Day 1 (has happened twice despite travel alerts).
- Check all clothing carefully for impending problems--loose buttons, thin spots on socks, etc. It's a pain in the neck to deal with clothing failures when you'd rather be sightseeing. Ditto with the suitcase; it's really risky to start a long trip with a bag whose wheels are not in good shape.
- Pack a small sewing kit; it's likely to be needed.
- Start the trip with new, but broken-in, shoes. New socks are also a very good idea. Shoes and socks get a lot of wear on a long trip.
- Start early on the packing list, and make it specific. Include quantities of toiletries and OTC medicines. If not packing supplies adequate for the full length of the trip, be sure suitable products can be purchased at each destination. That list can be modified, based on experience, and reused for future trips.
- Think about how eating practices may be different on a long trip--maybe more shopping at supermarkets? Take a reusable shopping bag and a variety of Zip Lock bags.
- Build a to-do list. There are lots of things to think about; it's easy to forget something critical. Put "check validity of passport" on that list, because you will reuse the list for future trips..
- If part of the trip will be planned after leaving home, travel with a small notebook where you can record info on reservations, museum pass numbers, etc.
- If you take a lot of photos, investigate cloud-storage options.
- Think about sun protection. I wear a sun hat religiously.
- Aim for a healthy diet. It's more important on a long trip. It's all too easy to grab convenient food and be very short on fruits and vegetables.

An unexpected problem I've encountered is that a heavy cross-body purse can wear a thin spot on a blouse over the course of a long trip. I don't mind shopping for a replacement top, but I wouldn't want to take a favorite, irreplaceable blouse on a long trip.

Put "check validity of passport" on that list,

I check my calendar every morning as part of my breakfast ritual. So when I get a new passport, I put a warning in the calendar 6 months before expiry date. Problem solved :-)

That wouldn't work for me, since my trips can be 4-1/2 months long and it's taking months to get US passports renewed at the moment. I'm going to send my renewal in shortly after I return from this year's trip in October, 10 months before the old one expires, because I have a short trip planned in February (not sure whether that non-European destination requires 6 months of validity or less) and then another long trip starting in the sprinr.

We have a Ring security system but I typically don't have the alarm feature turned on. I am fortunate to have a family member who lives close by so I give her viewing permission for that system; she will get alerts on her phone. The best feature, for us anyway, is the cameras I have in the house. She will get an alert if any movement is picked up by those cameras, and she can view that activity. She has permission to enter my house so she knows her movements will trigger an alert by those cameras. We also have a doorbell camera but I typically don't set it for alerts since it sometimes picks up traffic (which is very light on my street). Due to the time difference between our European location and home, I don't want alerts in the middle of the night. But you could monitor yourself with such a system. It's handy to view the cameras every so often and to check to be sure the grass was cut as scheduled, for example.

With the right payment, neighborhood kids will likely cover any time you are away. We have a neighbor we pay to do the hand watering.

On our 2 month trip last year, mid-trip, it was hotter than I expected so I bought some linen pants and shirts (very useful at home as well) and we never needed our rain jackets. I travel with an extra folded up bag and could check it for free so it got stuffed with items I could do without if the bag didn't make it home.

We have taken several two month trips to Asia and Europe. We have a woman who watches our home while we’re away. The mail is delivered to a locked box and she brings it to our home once a weekShe waters plants inside the house.
We also have a landscaper who takes care of all things outside the house. They both come extra times when there are severe storms. Wonderful and very capable people and we feel lucky to have them working for us. They have taken care of this home for years plus other homes before we moved to current home.

We recently (mid-2023) had our mail forwarded to a family member for a period longer than the hold mail allowance. USPS could not manage to get the dates correct, despite our original form submission and a required confirmation of the dates. USPS decided to begin the hold weeks after we left and was to continue it for months after we returned. We learned this from the family member who was as stunned as us to find notification of the dates they activated. We are are still wondering what might have gone wandering or missing during our 8 week hold!

I hope others have a better experience.

As noted above, the possible damage should be minimized by having autopay and email notification of periodic bills. I have also used cell data, not public WIFI, to pay bills online when abroad. However, I'm still wondering if USPS helped something slip through the cracks that will pop up later.

We pay upcoming bills in advance. For the credit cards that we take on the trip and for which payments will be due while we're on that trip, we pay extra on those accounts. We do the same for utility bills.

We empty the refrigerator. Starting two or three weeks ahead of our departure we plan meals around the food we have on hand so we use all of it, except for some condiments. On departure day we turn off the power to our house. This works in our situation, but know it won't for everyone. We also turn off the water to the house. Our local police dept. drives by the house periodically for a look-see.

We always email a copy of our basic itinerary to a family member. This includes flights and hotel contact information, just in case something comes up. We also give that person our house insurance information and contact. She also has access to our home, if necessary.

If you forward your mail be sure to account for situations where travelers have different last names. In that case you have to choose the "individual" option and make multiple requests. If all travelers have the same last name you can choose the "family" option.

It's possible that some mail won't be forwarded. Some marketing mail will not be forwarded (PO collected and tossed ours every 10 days) and packages could be troublesome. From the USPS website:

What Mail Is Forwarded

First-Class™ mail and periodicals (newsletters and magazines) are forwarded for free.
Priority Mail Express®, Priority Mail®, and USPS Ground Advantage™ items are forwarded for free.
Media Mail® items are forwarded, but you must pay the cost for shipping from your local Post Office to your temporary address.
USPS Marketing Mail® is not forwarded.

Good advice so far as we're in the same situation that we're hoping to take extended trips in the coming years. One thing not mentioned is to check your home insurance. Ours states that the house cannot be unattended for more than 30 days at a time. Not a problem for us as our kids live nearby and do come once a week to collect the mail and do a quick wander of the house and yard to check everything.

I'm curious about other's mail situation. 100% of our bills are online and so we can pay wherever we are. How much mail are people getting nowadays? I've been counting ours lately and last week was typical. We got two pieces that I'd consider necessary and 15 pieces of junk mail. That's it. If the mail service stopped, I wouldn't miss it.

Allan, I agree, most of what arrives in my physical mail is junk mail. With the occasional important piece that must be sent in the US Mail. I like the USPS emails that give visibility into what's arriving.

During my last 30+ day trip, I decided I didn't need to forward the mail and took advantage of the USPS option to collect accumulated mail myself at the post office, which gave me an additional 10 days to collect.

I put a warning in the calendar 6 months before expiry date. Problem solved :-)

Might want to move that up, if you plan a trip anywhere near that time, it will be an issue between current long wait times and the need for 3-6 months of validity left on the passport when traveling. Might want to put in the reminder with 12 months left, then assess based on what you have planned.

Even then, renewing a passport with a year of validity left is not a big deal, some see it as a financial waste (wait until it has expired and then renew!) but if you are traveling often, and taking advantage of deals, you need to keep it safely valid.

As for the OP, lots of good answers, but in general, you need to plan your life now to allow extended travel. We are lucky to have a couple family members who "owe" us and can do much of what you are concerned about, and our remaining pets enjoy staying with my wife's parents, but that still limits us to about a month max. To make it to two months, or three, we likely would need to wait until the pets are gone, consider selling our house for something lower maintenance. We already can do much automatically or remotely, have accessible cameras, and neighbors who watch things, so do not worry much when we are gone.

Rough estimates and pay bills in advance.

Luggage not a problem. Large suitcase each, rent a car, do not change locations/apartments often.

One of our children pops by fairly frequently. Otherwise, good neighbours retrieve our mail (street box) and check the house. No plants inside. Timed night light in the hallway.

"I've told the grass and plants they are on their own." - I can't do that. Fortunately, this summer we've had more rain than I can remember.

I also like to have someone check on my house while I'm gone.

During one trip, my nephew checked periodically and discovered a security camera that was sparking! (Old house with old outlets.) He said he hoped it was OK that he unplugged it. (Ummmm, yes!)

During a 3 month trip, I had friends stay at my house, which they took advantage of as a vacation base. During their stay, the main line to my sprinklers developed a leak that turned into a gusher. Thankfully, they were at the house.

And... importantly...I had given them a list of emergency numbers, including neighbors and service providers.

I got a huge water bill, for which the water department's leak program refunded 50%.

If I take another 3 month trip, I'll arrange a house sitter or frequent house checks. And a list of emergency numbers.

But at some point, things still happen. Even if you're gone for a few days.

CW- curious why you avoid logging into accounts while in Europe.

After my sprinkler leak fiasco, I've begun paying my gardener extra to come to the house once a week while I'm gone to systematically check the water meter for leaks and check the entire sprinkler system. He runs each circuit and looks for broken valve and sprinkler heads, repairing anything he finds.

CW- curious why you avoid logging into accounts while in Europe.

I would have been more accurate in saying that I avoid logging into my accounts whenever I'm on a public wifi, whether that's in the US or in Europe.

I do have a VPN on my phone, but I'm not that well versed to know if I'm protected. Since the bills all get paid automatically (or some I schedule payments in advance) there's not usually a need.

Re mail that might be important if missed, the one item from the few things forwarded that was important was a car recall notice for a security system repair. We would not have been aware of the recall except for the mailing. I'm glad that did get through so we could schedule an appointment. This isn't something I would have thought about occurring, but perhaps others are more on top of auto recalls!

I do agree with the above poster that if the bills are online, there is little in the daily mail that is of consequence. It's those exceptions that I wonder about!

I signed up for the USPS Daily Digest so I get a scan of the mail arriving each day and in the rare occasion something needs to be opened, I have the sitter do it and send me a scan or at least a photo so we can decide if it needs handling.

This is a must, in my opinion. If you haven't signed up for this, I would strongly encourage you to do so. It scans your mail every day and emails it to you. That way if there is anything important you need to take care of, you can arrange that while you're gone. I'm lucky in that I live with my daughter and her family, so they get all my mail, but it's nice that I can have them open a particular letter or package that comes if it's necessary.

A few trips ago I received an email from the Clerk of Court because I had failed to show up for jury duty. (How nice to be in the CoC's Rolodex.) I'd been traveling for about 2 months and must have left just days before the written summons was delivered. They wanted me to show up on a new date that was still before my scheduled return.

I was just as happy not to have known about that particular piece of mail. I emailed back, explaining my travel schedule. To my surprise, they told me not to worry about it. Now that I'm past 70, I think I'm exempt. Six juries; I've done more than my share.

Like Laurel, we use Trusted Housesitters when we are gone. Our house is at the end of a lonely cul-de-sac, and too attractive to anyone wanting to break in or, even worse, decide to squat. And we have animals that need daily care. We've had great success with finding housesitters for over ten years -- they take care of the animals, the house, and the yard and we let them drive our car. Our only costs are the annual fees to TA and the cost of running the utilities while we are gone.

We are sometimes gone for three to four months, and have had no trouble finding someone to sit for that long.

We can’t travel for more than 4 weeks at a time. We do the mail hold etc.

However, I want to emphasize the water turn off part. I know it isn’t always easy to do but a friend had a pipe burst behind the toilet in the upper level of her house while she was away. Her once per week house checker didn’t catch it very quickly. Suffice to say a lot of damage and some challenges with the insurance company because she had been away several weeks.

My elderly neighbors' snow thrower quit working one year. Normally her 40-something year old daughter used it every sizable snow to clean up her mothers' rather large drive and walk. Our drive is rather wide and long as well so I've always maintained a snow thrower. That winter I started doing the snow at both homes which saved them the expense of another snow thrower and a number of trips for the daughter.

It turns out that her daughter loves doing lawn work and volunteered to look after our yard when we travel. Since the lawns usually grow at the same rate she can do both at the same time. She's always here at the times we travel.

It's a good reciprocal relationship that works out pretty evenly. I do try though to do even more by maintaining the common privacy fence. You might find opportunities like that.

I appreciate the suggestion to sign up for the USPS Daily Digest. Our son brings in the mail, but this will let me know if anything important comes in.

Great question. Others have mentioned a wifi-enabled irrigation system that can even 'read' the weather - We just installed a "Rachio" irrigation system in a small backyard. It has up to 8 zones, using 3 zones now & it wasn't cheap ($250~) but it means no need to ask neighbors to change frequency of irrigation, or stop the system when it rains.

I really like having reciprocal relationships - A neighbor likes to work from the quiet of our home rather than her noisy one, so that's a nice exchange, she watches the house & comes & goes at odd intervals. Another neighbor parks in our driveway, she likes having her second car off the street.

If someone offers to help out, take them up on it! Our very small front area suffers from under watering around the edges during heat spells, so another neighbor does that hand watering a few times a week, they offered.

I do 8 weeks to 12 week turnarounds in the US, so as soon as I return, I start ticking off my to-do list for the next trip. My friends joke about it, but it helps me get ahead of departure. If something needs doing, I want it done sooner rather than later, that way I'm more relaxed leading up to the trip. Some of these projects take more time than imagined, what I thought was a simple oil leak took 3 trips to the mechanic. All bills are automated, but today I got a notice I need a smog check - Not something I had thought of, and I'm not making an EXCEL spreadsheet of every bill, just no. But I will get the car in to have smog check this week.

If an appliance leaks or is faulty, replace it early, which I've just done with an old refrigerator. (PS, the new refrigerator arrived with a huge dent in the door, took 3 weeks for a new door to be shipped and installed.) And recently the plumber stopped by to review the house - is there anything he thinks needs to be changed? Oops, the water heater was ancient and he was horrified, so it's been replaced. Why wait until it breaks? He also put new hoses on the toilets & washing machine.

Get a low-voltage battery charger & leave your car battery hooked up, it will lessen the drain on the battery. For less than 2 months, no need to have someone move a modern car, but others may want to have the car moved around a bit for the sake of the tires.

My doctor knows about the travel, so I get prior approval for the medications & pick them up a week early, in case there's an issue I have time to sort it out.

Hope that's helpful!

John,

I've travelled to Europe for up to two months at a time on several occasions, and the pre-trip steps I take are the same whether I'm travelling for three weeks or two months. A few comments on your questions.......

• I have a trusted pet sitter that stops by for 30 minutes each day to feed the cat, so she brings the mail in for me. Having someone check the house once a day also satisfies insurance requirements in case there was a water leak or whatever. The service is a bit expensive, but it's the best solution for me.
• Bills are relatively easy to handle, regardless of the length of trip. I make a list of the due date for each account, so I know what date they have to be paid. Utility accounts are generally the same each month, and with credit cards I pay an amount that's greater than the minimum. My credit union has a feature on their banking system to allow members to pre-program payments to occur on a specific date, so I program one or two payments for each account on their respective due dates. I also have the ability to program money transfers from one account to another, so that the chequing account always has money to pay bills. It's nice to have everything done so my trips are worry free in that respect. Hope that all makes sense?
• The house doesn't really need anything other than being checked daily. I set the thermostat before I leave and and can control that and the security system from my phone.
• I always take one checked pack along with carry-on items, regardless of the length of the trip. I do a sink wash of undergarments and smaller items every five days or so. I also use local laundromats or service wash places periodically through the trip to give everything a thorough cleaning. I tend to stay longer in each location these days, so I set aside one day for "housekeeping chores".

A few other things to mention......

• My ATM card draws from my chequing account, so I ensure that there's only a limited amount of money there. If my ATM card were stolen, the scammer wouldn't get much, as they wouldn't be able to access other accounts.
• I always travel with at least two debit / ATM cards and at least three credit cards. These are stored in different locations, so if one were lost, I'd still be able to get cash. I have all the numbers to report stolen or lost cards stored in my phone.
• I always travel with my mobile phone, and that has been invaluable on a couple of occasions. On a trip to Greece a few years ago, one of my credit card transactions wouldn't go through, so I called the bank's customer service number. It turned out there was a problem with the merchant's payment terminal and when that was corrected, the transaction went through right away. I was still on the phone with the bank, and they saw it instantly.
• If I access online banking whilst in Europe, I never use public or hotel WiFi as I don't trust it. I switch WiFi off and use LTE / 5G instead, and I try to limit the number of times I do that.
• As others have mentioned, it's prudent to check the Passport expiry date.
• I always travel with a comprehensive travel medical policy, and don't go anywhere out of my home province without that.
• I prepare a comprehensive Itinerary, which includes details of travel between locations, hotel addresses and reservation details, sightseeing details, etc.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the scheduling of medical check-ups. Most of us who have the freedom to take long trips are probably at an age when we have multiple doctors to see each year, and certainly everyone should be going to the dentist twice a year. It can take some fiddling to get the appointments made at suitable times. I don't want to go to the dentist 3 days before departure only to be told I need a filling that can't be done until the next week. Same thing with lab tests that could result in callbacks or adjustments in medication. And don't get me started on the problems I've had getting eyeglasses that are correct in a timely manner.

Some insurance policies apparently insist that annual check-ups be a full year apart.

Yes, I do have a master list with dates for all these details.

Mail: We get almost none. My solo trips are typically 6 weeks or less, and my husband is in WA when I go on them. Where we live we have a lockable mail box in a bank of them similar to what you might see for businesses. It wouldn't work for an 8-week trip but I learned that I could extend the 30 day hold time by making the start date 7 days after I leave and checking the option for me to pick up the mail when I return, which allows me to get it up to 10 days after the last day of the hold. So I can have mail held a total of 47 days or a little over 6 weeks.

Bills: Everything is already on autopay, either by credit card, debit card or direct draft from my checking account. If some stray one-off bill turns up by mail, it can just wait until I get home.

Water: With our natural landscape we don’t water anything. I turn the water off at the house (not at the street). I also turn off the water supply hoses to the washer, hot water recirculation pump and and the water softener. I flush all the toilets, making sure that they refill and don't keep running.

Exterior services: The company that sprays the exterior of the house for insect control and the area within about 50 feet of the house for weed/fire control continues to do so quarterly whether we're home or not.

Sheriff: I use the service the county sheriff's office provides to check on the house occasionally while we're gone.

Key: I leave a key with friends in the neighborhood, list them as my contacts with the sheriff, keep up with them while I'm gone and hope that they're home if anything happens.

Alarm system: I set our alarm system. Due to our lack of decent nearby wi-fi or data access, it doesn't connect to any service, but it's very loud so anyone who tries to break in as well as neighbors within a half mile will know something's amiss.

Curtains: Our curtains are closed, but with the shears we have it's hard to tell if they're closed or open.

Interior lights: Our normal night lights stay on. I set up lights on timers in different rooms to go on and off at different times. Those light changes can be seen around the curtains and through any glass that doesn’t have curtains.

AC: I set it at a high number (about 90) if it's hot (most of the year) and a low one (about 50) if it's not.

Fans: I turn off the ceiling fans we have in every room regardless of season.

Electricity: I leave the power on primarily for the fridge and freezer and the alarm, but also for the AC system.

Gas: We have a gas cook top, heat and hot water heater. I leave the gas on because of the complications of turning it off and back on.

Dog: The dog goes to Camp Bow Wow, the absolute best place I've ever boarded a dog.

Packing: No matter how long I'm gone, I coordinate everything (usually around a scarf I love), layer, pack for a week and do laundry along the way. I wear everything (except underwear) 2-3 times before washing it or having it washed for me. Last summer I traveled for 5 weeks. My laundry methods included doing it myself (sink, laundromat) or having it done for me by a service.

I limit my 2-wheeled carry-on to 20 pounds and wear my heaviest clothes on the plane. I can get all that can go in the plane's overhead bins in a 22×14x9, 42L or smaller bag which I carry-on. I use compression cubes to keep my clothes organized. My basic exterior wardrobe includes the "coordination scarf," 6-8 tops, 3 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of socks and 1 rain jacket. Underwear, other outerwear or sleepwear may change due to the weather. I choose my plane clothes from those garments. My personal item goes at my feet and holds the hard to replace essentials required for the flight and for the trip like meds and electronics.

Apologies if you are already covering this off, but aside from all the maintenance, utility, and packing needs/concerns, you need to be wary of Visa requirements by country. For example, if traveling to the Schengen area, you can't stay there for more than 90 days within a 6-month period. Anything beyond that requires a Visa of some type. You don't want to be fined.

More info: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/travelers-with-special-considerations/schengen.html

Planning to stay somewhere in Europe for 2 months next fall myself so this has been top of mind for me!

I thought of a few other things that concern me this week - 1) Order whatever you need on-line a few weeks to a month early, so you have time to return them within the return limit, rather than coming home to packages that are now yours no matter what. 2) Tech - If I buy a new device or even a book on my Nook, I work on the tech ahead of time. Impossible to download a book at the airport, in my experience. The new iPad mini arrived a month ago, lots of time to fiddle around with it before flying.
PS, @Lo, well done on that master list! Mine is a tad shorter but I start the list on Google notes while still traveling, transcribe it weirdly to paper so I can see the list (s). Divide by 'must', 'this week' and 'next trip'. Just can't handle doing it with all the bills, but it's a very good idea!

Mail, I ignore it. You can forward your mail to someone you trust (neighbor, friend) for, I believe, 90 days. I don't worry about it because I don't have a place with a mailbox that can fill up and look odd. Another option, if you want to spend a little, is to get a post office box (either UPS or commercial) and have all your mail go there.

Bills, I don't have many. The ones I have are either set up for auto pay or ebilling. I go on my bank electronically, check what's due and make payments from anywhere. I also check for any unusual transactions each time I'm online.

When I had a house to worry about. I'd make arrangements to get the lawn mowed, I had sprinklers, and junk mail/flyers/ads cleaned up by the neighbor. Now I have a condo and it's short-term rented by a manager when I'm not in town. We are having a house built now, but I'll do the same as I did before.

I pack the same for any length trip, five shirts, two pants, five underwear/socks, a warm layer or two, waterproof rain shell, board shorts, one pair of all-purpose shoes and a pair of flip-flops, dry and liquid toiletries plus a pair of running bottoms for laundry days/pajamas all in a small carry-on that works for Ryanair (and everyone else). It can change slightly depending on time of year and destination. I do a little laundry in the sink but find a laundromat about every other week to completely wash everything.

Brad

Something just got added to my list - Gas tank was on 1/4 full - so do you leave your car with a full tank of gas or semi empty? My Toyota mechanic brother said best to leave it full - and to add "STA BIL - 360 degree Protection". (NOT the whole bottle, follow directions, for 15 gallons it was only 3 ounces, and there are little measuring line on the side, put in BEFORE filling tank.) It's usually for older cars, but he said it's a decent 'insurance' for my Toyota that will be sitting in the garage for 2 months in California. (Leaving later tonight for 2 months in Sweden, so it was a very timely thread thank you!)

Re: water. Normally, if I'm gone more than a couple of days, I'll turn the whole house water off. But I see some people want to leave it on because of lawn watering (which i dont do). After a neighbor had severe water damage from an overnight leak, I installed a leak detector/ automatic shut off valve. It will notify me via phone app if it detects unusual water usage, as from a leak) and will shut off the whole house water automatically, or allow me to control the valve remotely. It has detected a couple of leaky toilets and taps left on, so it's useful not just for the big problems. Check Consumer Reports for article about them,

Have your adult child move back home...they take care of everything...the only downside is they are still there when you get home.