Pre-Trip Peace of Mind: 8 Essentials To Do Before Your Travels

The moment of departure for a long-awaited trip should be filled with excitement, not anxiety about what you might have forgotten at home. So many travelers have experienced that sudden panic on the way to the airport – "Did I leave the curling iron plugged in?" or "Did I forget to lock the door?" This episode tackles those pre-travel worries head-on with a practical, comprehensive checklist to ensure your home remains safe while you're exploring the world.

From arranging house-sitters and managing mail collection to properly preparing your living space, we cover the eight essential tasks that should become part of your pre-travel routine. Learn why unplugging small appliances matters, how to handle subscription deliveries, and the importance of proper thermostat settings based on the season. These simple preparations not only protect your home but provide the mental freedom to fully enjoy your adventures without nagging worries about what you left behind.

As summer travel season reaches its peak, this timely guidance offers peace of mind for both weekend getaways and extended journeys. The episode also includes personal insights from my upcoming road trip to Austin, Texas, highlighting how these practices apply to trips of any distance or duration. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or planning your first solo adventure, this systematic approach to home preparation transforms what can be a stressful process into a confidence-building ritual.

Ready to embark on worry-free travels this season? Grab a pen and paper, create your personalized pre-trip checklist, and join our growing community of solo women travelers over 50 who are embracing new adventures with confidence and excitement. Share your own travel plans and connect with like-minded adventurers in our Facebook group as we celebrate the joys of discovery and exploration together!

Chapters

• 0:00 Avoiding Last-Minute Travel Chaos
• 1:35 Home Security Preparation Checklist
• 4:30 Taking Care of Your Home Environment
• 7:44 Final Travel Tips and Community Invitation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Have you ever found yourself scrambling at the last minute, throwing all kinds of stuff in your bag before you leave for a trip? Or maybe you have an early morning flight and you're just not a morning person like myself and you forget things, and you're maybe on your way and suddenly it hits you oh my gosh, I left my curling iron plugged in or I forgot to turn the lights off or lock the door, and many of these things can nowadays be done, you know, remotely. But what if there's something you forgot that can't be done remotely? Well, I'm going to talk today about the things that you should be doing before you leave for a trip, and I know summer travel is here for most of us here in the Northern Hemisphere. Many of you have already left. This is in the US. This is July 4th week and many people are already on the road or planning to leave on the road this week. So get a piece of paper and a pen and let's make a little checklist of our own of things that you should do before you leave your house for travel, to make sure you are safe. So welcome to Solo Travel Adventures.

Speaker 1: 1:38

I'm Cheryl Esch, your travel coach and solo travel adventurer. So I'm actually leaving on a trip as well. I'm taking a road trip. I'm leaving a little later this week to Austin, texas, and I'll be visiting a few people my sister and just having a good time. I haven't been to Austin in a long time, so I'm really excited. I know it's only about a four, four and a half hour drive for me and no big deal, but just getting on the road is just so fun. But I have created in my own mind, of course, but I did write it down, and so I want you to also get a pen and paper so you can write this down, create your own little checklist and maybe you already have one and you have other things that you have to remember to do but these are kind of your bare minimum.

Speaker 1: 2:24

So, first of all, you want to probably have someone check on your house, a neighbor or a friend, having that person in mind in case there is an emergency, and maybe they just kind of check your house every other day or so, for example. Obviously, if an alarm goes off, you want to have somebody probably nearby that can handle that, and you know, especially if you're not accessible. Along with that number two, that person could be bringing in your mail and packages. Do not make the mistake like I just did and I ordered something that a package that may come while I'm gone, so I'm not real thrilled that I didn't think ahead on that one. But if you have somebody like an extra neighbor or somebody who's already planning to come and collect your mail, maybe water your plants while you're gone, they can pick up your packages as well, right, in addition to that, that person might be watching your pets. Hopefully you have already lined that up Way in advance. As a pet sitter myself, I do book out pretty quickly and you know you want to obviously have that in place. If you don't have a pet sitter, then sometimes pets need to be put in, you know, to a kennel or some doggy daycare kind of place. So obviously you want to plan that, especially around certain uh, summertime or holidays can get a little busy, so make sure you do that. Um.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Number three I recommend you unplug any small appliances that might be your toaster, your air fryer, things like that that just don't need to be plugged in and a you just don't know if it. You know you might have a fuse or something happened. You know electrical storm that you know kind of does something to your appliance and it could even possibly cause a fire. So I just unplug all that before I leave town. Obviously you're leaving that refrigerator plugged in for yourself, right?

Speaker 1: 4:39

Number four adjust the thermostat. Now we are in some really hot weather here already. In Texas and I think really across the US, we're feeling the heat already, even though it is not quite well. When this goes live it will be July, but it's getting hot. But you don't want your AC running the whole time while no one is in the house. Now you most likely will want to adjust that upward a little bit so that it's not running. And sometimes, if you forget to do that, most people have smart meters now and they can do that remotely. But if you don't make sure you adjust your thermostat before you leave and if it's cold, then you might adjust differently, right? So with AC you adjust upwards so it's not going running all the time, keeping your house cold when no one's here. And if you are in the southern hemisphere and you are dealing with just some colder weather, you probably want to turn the thermostat down so you're not heating your place the whole time you're gone, all right.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Number five speaking of kind of packages many people have like subscriptions that they subscribe to, whether it's maybe it's a HelloFresh or some sort of meal delivery or meat delivery, anything like that, that is on a schedule. You want to look at that, look to see when your subscriptions are due to deliver and maybe pause them while you're gone. Number six I would clean out your refrigerator. Don't leave anything, especially if you're going to be gone extended time. Maybe if you've only gone about two or three days it should be fine, but say you're gone a week or more things that are kind of getting close to that expiration date. Make sure you take care of, particularly vegetables that might go bad. That is not a fun thing to come back to smelling that especially broccoli or cauliflower Oof, those get kind of nasty smelling when they go bad in the fridge. All right, so that would be number six. Number seven take out your trash. Of course we don't want to leave that behind and most of these things you probably know. But if you have it written down it's going to be less chaotic when you get ready to go on your travels.

Speaker 1: 7:11

And finally, number eight I recommend this and most people also sort of have maybe some sort of remote way to do this. There is Alexis that can do it. There's other of those systems where you can set a timer for your lights and if you don't have that system, which most people actually do, you can get the old fashioned, you know timers I know that I grew up with and they plug into the wall and maybe have a lamp plugged into that timer and that just will turn the light on at a certain time and turn it off. But everything is so technically, you know, just easy to do remotely. But that kind of lets people know that the house is not empty, which is always a good sign. They see some lights going on and off and besides, maybe your next door neighbor or someone who's taking care of your house. You know, it might just be a good idea not to tell people that you're leaving town so that your house is just not a target or your place is not a target for thieves or people to break into knowing that there's nobody there. So that'd be another little tip I would just kind of add in there. But hopefully you wrote those down. You got your little check box, maybe next to each item, and I want you to be able to walk out that door with your suitcase, headed to the airport with not a worry about what you have maybe left behind or have forgotten to do at your house, so this will put your mind at ease and be able to enjoy your travels.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Well, sisters, I hope you enjoyed this and you are going on some sort of fun adventure this summer, and I'd love to hear about that. You can join the Facebook community group. It's Solo Travel for Women Over 50. And you can just Google that and you can get join the group. Got to share where you're going, so other people are inspired, and if you are also inspired by this podcast, please share it. Share with your friends. I am working on trying to get to 100,000 downloads and we are getting close. I think through the summer I should get there, but the more we share, the more people will listen and the more we will get those downloads and I'll be able to have a nice celebration with you all of that time. So get out there, sisters, and have that adventure.