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If you leave your house and household affairs in order prior to departing for your next vacation,  you will better enjoy your R&R and make your return from vacation a bit less stressful.  Build time into your pre-vacation planning to take care of the following five:

- FINANCES: Pay your bills and alert the credit card companies of travel locations. Prior to leaving for a break, I pay the bills I have already received and schedule additional payments and/or contact vendors from whom bills will be arriving during my absence so that I can submit payments in advance.  Many credit card companies now block transactions in locations in which you have not previously used your credit card.  To avoid potential issues, it is important to notify credit companies of your travel points and dates.

- TIDY: Tidy up your house before you depart.   I am not saying scrub and clean, but definitely tidy things up.  Take out garbage and recyclables, empty your fridge of perishable items and clean it (trust me, you do not want to return to mold and other nasty friends growing in your refrigerator), wash all the dishes or run your dishwasher, clean the food preparation areas, do all the laundry, clean all the bathrooms, and make all the beds.  I like changing the sheets before going away and then coming back to clean bed linens.

- MAIL, NEWSPAPERS, PLANTS: Put your mail and newspaper delivery on hold or ask a neighbor, family member, or friend to collect them for you. Ask the same people to water your plants.  Be sure to provide clear care instructions so you will not come back to dead plants.

- LAWN: Mow your lawn a little shorter than usual or continue your lawn service during your vacation. You do not want to come back to an overgrown lawn, which might also give the impression that no one is around your house – it is not a hint you want to leave for a potential intruder.

- SECURITY PRECAUTIONS: Contact your house alarm company and ensure that they have proper emergency contacts in place. Remind your alternate contacts that you will be away and ensure that they know how to reach you in an urgent situation.  Provide a set of keys to one of your alternate contacts.  Set up timers for lights throughout your house so that they will turn on automatically in your absence.  If you park your car outside your house, ask a family member or friend to take the car for occasional drives to create the illusion of someone being home.

Are you planning to go away this summer?  How do you prepare for a vacation? 

I am guest blogging over at Savvima today….  Go check it out and let me know what you think.

I have New York on the brain.  I miss it.  I often think of my daily walks to work, Central Park, the buzz and the energy of the city, great food, and lovely friends.  These gorgeous Manhattan rooftops reminded me of my favorite city in the world:

6 Columbus Circle

Hotel Affinia Shelburne

Photo: Norman McGrath, Rooftop Gardens, Rizzoli, 2011

Top of the Rock and 620 Fifth Avenue

Salon de Ning at the Peninsula Hotel

Home Alone

My almost 13-year old will soon be flying solo to New York for his close friend’s Bat Mitzvah.  He is super excited and a bit nervous.  Me?!  I am somewhat nervous, but also very excited for him.

Well, what I have figured is that I have a teaching opportunity on my hands.  In fact, we have been talking about this trip for months, but more intensely in the last few days.  Here are some of the issues we have discussed in preparation:

1.  Visualize the trip step-by-step. From the check-in till arrival on the other end (and pick-up by our lovely friends) “walk through” what will happen on the day of the trip. Encourage questions and note taking.

2.  Role-playing. Discuss potentially tricky, challenging, or dangerous situations and act out potential solutions.

3.  Hone in on 3 key principals. As my husband frequently reminds me, he can only remember three things without needing to write something down.  Thus, my son and I have focused in on three key things he needs to remember for and during the trip:

~SAFETY.  Child should never leave the airport or large public areas alone or with strangers.  Stress the importance of turning to a uniformed airline employee or airport police officer if he or she needs help or is feeling unsafe.  If anything or anyone makes the child feel uncomfortable during the flight, teach him or her to get attention of a flight attendant.

~PASSPORT.  Forgetting or losing a passport somewhere along the way would not be good.  Describe the ramifications of that and then come up with a tool to easily store the important travel documents.  We borrowed an over the neck pouch such as this one for our son to keep his passport in a designated place.

~LUGGAGE.  If possible, pack lightly and even avoid checking in luggage.  My son will be traveling with a carry-on bag so that he will not have to worry about finding the baggage claim and/or dealing with a possibility of lost luggage.  Also, stress that luggage cannot be left unattended at any time.

It is good to talk about these things over and over again so that they really sink in.  By doing the above, you are showing your child that important new steps in life require thought, planning, and preparation. I believe that this trip, as slightly nerve-wracking as it might be for my husband and me, is a critical lesson in independence and organization for our son.  I wish him a safe and fun trip.  May he be smart throughout his travels and a gracious guest at our friends’ home in NY.  May he behave like a mentch.  May he not lose his passport.  May he have a blast with his friends, whom I know he misses dearly.

P.S. There is a nice guide to preparing yourself and your child for unaccompanied travel.  Check out KidsAlone-1.