Never been gone this long before...

Always buy some toilet tissue to take along. There are travel packs.

Be sure your bills are paid before due. When you are gone more than a week, you may miss some payment dates. I put my bank accounts on the internet so I could pay on the go. Another way is just to pay in advance.

We travel often (usually 1-5 weeks) and always turn off the water to our washing machine (once had a hose leak while at home!) and toilets. Our hot water heater has a "vacation" setting which we use as it saves on heating water while we are gone. We either turn our air conditioner to a higher temperature or our heater to a lower temperature, depending on the season. We always let a trusted neighbor know we will be gone so that they can keep an eye out for us. Enjoy your first extended vacation and don't worry about home!

That doesn't sound right. There's a big difference between having a temporarily vacant dwelling due to vacation and an actual vacant dwelling due to something like moving yet leaving your unsold house on the market...that might require a new policy altogether. But requiring a policyholder to have someone check on their home every 72 hours while they're on a two week vacation? That's a new one.

Hi Susan, Call your credit card/debit card companies to let them know your travel dates so that they don't put a stop to any of your transactions overseas. Also, check your airline reservations well in advance. I just checked mine (three weeks out from my trip) and there was a serious change to my reservation. The airline eliminated one leg of my trip and didn't notify me of the change. I had to completely rebook my airline reservatoin to Europe. Also reconfirm your hotel reservations.

hi, the best defense against theft was to have a good neighbor know and look after the place. Also, and then bring them back something nice for the bother. if you have pets that arent going to be i the lodging, you could bug bomb and get rid of any critters like ticks/fleas and such. with regards to the fridge, if youre going to turn it off, thats okay. if youre going to leave some minor stuff in there, then i would get several gallons of water and put them in there. It keeps the fridge at a more constant temp and keeps the system from cycling too often. i usually have a friend with a key go in and check every once in a while too. sprinklers is up to you. if you "feed" your lawn, then will be there someone to "mow" the lawn? of course it would depend on how fast your lawn grows. happy trails.

Take out the kitchen garbage before you leave (don't ask how I know this). Don't forget your houseplants. I took mine to work for a co-worker to take care of.

I unplug most of my appliances and lamps, and ask my neighbor to watche my front porch for any packages and to make sure they take any flyers off the door. We turn down the air conditioning, or turn it off all together, disconnect the hoses outside the house. Get someone to mow your grass if traveling in growing season. I also make sure any real valuables are locked and hidden away...as well as my laptop computer I always call my credit card companies to tell them I'm traveling. I also like to change the sheets on the bed so when I get home, we have a nice clean bed awaiting us. I also make sure all my laundry is done...I'm bringing home 2 full suitcases of dirty stuff...that's enough!

In addition to the lights, I also put a radio on a timer - to come on in the morning and evening to the local public radio station - it is "noise" that at least makes it sound like someone is home. To add to other things mentioned like paying bills ahead - if you have birthdays or anniversaries that happen while you're gone, leave a pre-stamped card with a trusted co-worker or friend to mail in your absence. I always seem to miss my Grandma's birthday and she loves getting the card (and sometimes a phone call from a foreign country). Also, if you have a garbage disposal in your kitchen sink, make sure to run it with lots of hot water and baking soda or part of a lemon rind. Personal experience shows that not getting this cleaned out is much, much worse than not taking out the garbage.

George is right. Ours is the same 72hr. policy. Since we have a cat we just get somene to come every three days to check on her and the house. I'm sure it must be a Canadian thing. We always make sure that someone also can mow our lawn once on two weeks and three times in three weeks. To save energy we unplug a lot of our electronics, because they still draw power when plugged in (TVs, computers, small kitchen appliances, etc). Have a great trip!