Summer Travel: 10 Things You’re Forgetting To Do

Isn’t summer the best? The days are longer, the weather is warmer, and your boss seems to be slightly more lenient when you leave for the weekend on a Friday at 3pm. You’ve planned every minute detail of your trip, packed the kids and the dog up and everyone has their Ass In Seat™ – so what are you forgetting? Keep scrolling to find out (hint: they’re important AF)!

10 Things You’re Forgetting To Do Before Your Summer Travels

    1. Turn the AC off. If you accidentally leave your AC running for a week straight, be prepared to come home to an enormous electric bill. No matter how hot it will be when you’re gone, always make sure to turn off your AC before leaving for your trip – unless you have an exorbitant amount of extra money to afford to keep an empty house cool.
    1. Put a bottle of water in your freezer. This tip is a two-parter. Part one: fill a clear water bottle up halfway and place in your freezer on its side. Part two: once the water has completely frozen, turn the bottle right-side up and keep frozen. If you return from your trip and some of the water has pooled and frozen on the bottom of the bottle (instead of staying frozen sideways), you’ll know that your home lost power for a period of time while you were gone. This means that the food in your freezer thawed out, potentially spoiled, and was refrozen when the power came back on. Gross.
    1. Make sure your car is parked in the shade. If you’re flying somewhere instead of taking a road trip, make sure your car is garaged or parked somewhere shady before you leave. Leaving your car out of the direct sun for days on end will help prevent the interior from fading and your dashboard from drying out and cracking. Bonus points if you use one of those giant silver windshield sun protectors!
    1. Clean out the fridge and take the trash out. I toyed with the idea of making this tip number one, because it’s probably one of the most important tips and I didn’t want you to skip over it whilst skimming. 1000% make sure to do this before you leave. If you forget to do it, your home will literally smell like hot garbage when you return.
    1. Passports. It seems obvious, but always double-check that you packed them. This also seems obvious – but this tip only applies if you’re traveling internationally.
    1. Pay bills or schedule automatic payments. Paying bills is the last thing you want to be thinking about while you’re frolicking on your summer adventure, so pay them before you leave or set up automatic payments. If you’re a Metromile customer, your bill is already set up as an automatic payment – so that’s one bill already checked off your list!
    1. Make digital copies of important items like passports, etc. and email them to yourself and someone who isn’t traveling with you. If you lose your passport while traveling, the first thing that the US Embassy will ask is if you have a digital copy. Emailing them to yourself and someone who isn’t traveling with you also covers you in the event that your phone or laptop (with the digital copies saved) is stolen.
    1. Put your mail on hold. Thieves love to scope out houses or apartments with piled up mail and packages because it signals that no one has been home in a while. Contact USPS to have your mail put on hold while you’re traveling, or have a friend stop by to bring the mail inside daily.
    1. Call your bank. Imagine this – after a long day of traveling, you go to check into your hotel and your credit card is declined. Ugh. Many banks and credit card companies will flag charges in dissimilar locations as fraud and decline them. Be sure to take this proactive step and contact your bank and credit card companies to let them know the location you’re traveling to and the dates you’ll be there.
  1. Set your Out of Office response. Even though you might be out-of-pocket checking emails while you’re traveling, don’t forget to set your OOO responder on your work and personal email accounts. This will let your colleagues know that you’ll be slower to respond and will maybe get you off-the-hook for answering some of them until you return.

So, how are you feeling? Did you check everything off the list? Great! Go have fun on your summer adventure, and don’t worry – we’ll be here when you get back. If you haven’t made the switch to Metromile yet, the summer is a great time to check out a quote to find out how much you could be saving, so grab yours today! Have a fab time on your summer travels and be safe out there on the roads.

Julianne Cronin is a Bay Area freelance writer, content creator, and founder/editor of the women’s lifestyle site, The Wink. You can find her working on her capsule wardrobe, collecting cacti, and trying out the latest beauty products on Instagram