<p>On Friday, my daughter and her roommates will be leaving their off-campus apartment for 5 weeks for Winter Break.</p>
<p>If your offspring have done something similar, what have you advised them to do when they’re planning to be away for that long?</p>
<p>All my daughter and I have been able to think of so far is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Get the mail forwarded to your parents’ address.</p></li>
<li><p>Empty out the refrigerator.</p></li>
<li><p>Take out the garbage.</p></li>
<li><p>Turn the heat down to 55.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Leave a key with a friend or neighbor who will be around over break. Take all valuables (and computer disk back-ups of the semester’s school- work) when you leave. Make sure you’ve paid all the bills for electric, rent, cable. Call the landlord with the number where she can be reached.</p>
<p>Make sure all doors and windows are locked. Set a couple of light timers so it looks like people are still around. If a trusted friend can drop by from time to time, give them a key. Unfortunately, lots of off-campus apartments get burglarized during break, which reminds me to say that they should have renter’s insurance.</p>
<p>get a couple of timers and set lights to go on and off.
suspend newspaper delivery if they are getting it.
check for other perishables - no one wants to come back to a moldy bag of formerly bread.</p>
<p>Unplug unneeded electronics except for those couple of lights on timers. Instead of forwarding mail you can have it held. Sometimes for that short period forwarding and then changing it back can be a pain. DD is leaving her car in the garage. We had her back into the space in case she needs a jump start when she returns.</p>
<p>Cleveland, I had not thought about locking windows. I will advise my daughter and her roommates to do that. </p>
<p>Blossom, I wish they could leave a key with a neighbor, but they live in a college community where essentially all the undergraduates leave for winter break, and they do not have any friends among the graduate students. They get e-mail notices of their utility and cable bills, so that is not a problem, but I’ll remind them to get the landlord’s address so they can pay their January 1 rent bill easily. Usually, they drop off the rent checks in person, so they may not have that address handy. </p>
<p>unbelievablem: Thanks for the advice about the bread. Yuck! </p>
<p>Singersmom07: I wish they could have their mail held, but the Post Office will only hold mail for 30 days, and their Winter Break lasts for about 35 days. My daughter and her roommates do not have cars, but your advice about backing the car in is a great suggestion for those who do. I would never have thought about that.</p>
<p>Clean the bathroom. Wipe down the sink and use a cleaner on the shower. I think that closing the blinds or shades is a good idea so that people can’t see in. Most apartments in the area do this all-year around.</p>
<p>Perhaps vacuuming if there is a carpet or sweeping the floors would be nice.</p>
<p>Certainly wash the dishes and put them away. It’s always nice coming back to a tidy place instead of a mess just in case they’re really rushed for time when they return.</p>
<p>Also turn off the internet (goes with turning off electronic devices). Students usually go with wireless and some of them set up their routers without any security for convenience.</p>
<p>Not directly on topic (I know) but I’m making a mental note to check with my older son about his computer backup procedures and how diligent he has been about it. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the hard work and efforts of many kids reside solely on that laptop they lug around. So, when it’s swiped or lost or damaged, so goes the work. Many kids also think that the external hard drive they back up to is enough. Well, when he goes out to a party and returns to find his laptop and external hard drive gone … where does that leave him? </p>
<p>I advise my son to e-mail his important documents to his ‘free’ Internet-based e-mail accounts. On major papers I suggest that he keep his different versions of the paper using the ‘save as’ option and to send drafts to himself. That way ‘my laptop crashed’ is not now dependent on crisis mode of how up-to-date he is on his backups. I also use Google Docs for such things as Word or Excel files as it is free and works reasonably well. Knowing that ‘free’ may not last forever, I burn a CD-ROM every six months and drop it into my safety deposit box. Doing that for my son isn’t a bad idea to consider.</p>
<p>Depending on where they live, turning the heat down to 55 may be too low. Check perhaps with a plumber, maybe with the town’s building department to determine how low the heat can be without risking frozen pipes.</p>
<p>Are they responsible for shoveling steps or sidewalks? If so, hire someone to do it.</p>
<p>Washing dishes and getting rid of chips, crackers, etc. is essential not just to make it nicer to come back to, but to avoid little critters.</p>
<p>Chedva, fortunately they are not responsible for shoveling. And you make a good point about uninvited small guests if they leave any food around. </p>
<p>ctyankee, those are good points about backing up files. I think my kids use memory sticks or e-mail documents to themselves. I do the same things. </p>
<p>BCEagle91, I think that cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming would be nice but is unlikely to happen because the time between the kids’ last exams and the time when their buses leave town is a matter of hours. They’re focused on exams now, not on moving out, and once the exams are done, there will only be time for the most essential things to be accomplished.</p>
<p>I think it very important to hide or take all valuables. </p>
<p>My son’s apartment was broken into over winter break two years ago. The bad guys know the college kids are gone. Valuables should include computers, ipods, tvs, stereos, credit cards, checkbooks, all small electronics etc. Putting such things into a closet with a closed door would be sufficient … and smaller things into a locked desk drawer. </p>
<p>FYI marian … I think we are speaking of the same college town.</p>
<p>this is for off campus students in general, not specifically with respect to the issue of leaving for vacation –
re shoveling for snow – just in general, off-campus students should know what their rights are – many municipalities have regulations on these types of things – often the landlord is responsible, but tenants, especially student tenants often don’t realize this. one of my kids just assumed that they had to deal with it until they learned otherwise and knew to call and nudge the landlord if it wasn’t done. </p>
<p>if they’re lucky, their college may have an office for off-campus housing thru which they can get info as to what they have a right to expect from their landlord – and not just with respect to shoveling.</p>
<p>truth is burglars will know where to look – hiding won’t help. we’re not talking here about on-campus theft where leaving a door open and something in plain view invites someone to grab something quickly. we’re talking here about someone who has already broken in thru a door or window into an apartment and building where people aren’t going to be around to interrupt them and they can take more time – a locked drawer won’t stop them – it’ll just tell them where to look. </p>
<p>if you’re worried about something being stolen – don’t leave it over a vacation break.</p>
<p>We use Mozy, which is similar to Carbonite (sp?) to back up our computers automatically. These systems only cost about 50 dollars for 14 months and this way we don’t have to worry about backing up to an external hard drive, making copies on CD, keeping things on jump drives “just in case”.</p>
<p>My son’s off campus burglarly was definitely a smash and grab job … the door was smashed in but they didn’t talk much. The things that weren’t completely obvious were missed. Apparently that particular landlord has a roving security patrol over break that visits all their properties several times a day/evening to check on suspicious activity.</p>
<p>My son flies home tonight. I talked with him last night at 9 pm. He was still working on the project that needed to be presented at 1 pm today. He hadn’t packed. I mentioned to my H that I hope they don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink. My H laughed. I think my son will be lucky to make his shuttle on time let alone get his apartment cleaned and ready for a break. They have already had one break in. It was as CNP55 son’s case a smash and grab job. I think in his town the local thieves know when the college kids go on break.
I just texted him to remind him to bring home his computer and camera. He doesn’t have anything else worth stealing.</p>