For no particular reason, I was doing a search on cruises, and I came across one that was round trip from San Diego to Australia with many stops in between - 93 days total. Money aside (because there’s no way I could afford this, even in the cheapest cabin) I’m not sure I could be away from home that long. Not that I’d miss it (tho I’d miss the grandkids something awful) but the logistics of being away would be overwhelming. If I lived in an apartment, it’d be less of an issue, but I have a house with a big yard and even in the dead of winter, leaving it empty would not be a good idea.
Right now, my husband and I are about to take a 30-day vacation and even that is posing some challenges. Our daughter and son-in-law will come by a couple-three times a week and they say they’ll mow the lawn and water my plants, but still, that’s a lot to hang on them. So, I’m thinking a month is pretty much my limit. If there was someone who’d live in the house, it’d be different.
So that prompted this thread. Job and money concerns aside, what would you call your travel limit? And what sorts of arrangements would you have to make for someone to look in on your home in your absence?
About 3 weeks is my limit at the moment until I figure out how to get my maintenance prescriptions refilled for 90 days since our local Rite Aid closed.
I turn off my water and cancel mail which is doable for 30 days.
I have a cousin stop in every week just to look at the house in case there is something catastrophic. He also cuts my lawn every week seasonally.
Get all the bills paid up as much as possible.
Make sure all my medical and other appointments are scheduled accordingly.
It’s always a bit of a challenge even for 2 - 3 weeks.
It would be easier if I lived in an apartment for which I am currently exploring options.
There is no way I could do more than a month. I would not feel comfortable for a variety of reasons.
That’s the time you hire a house sitter. Someone in my wife’s book group was going on a long cruise, and she arranged for someone in our writing group who was desperately looking for a short term place to live to house sit. Worked out great.
We got a lawn service when we drove around the country for a month. Keeps the dandelions from growing six feet tall. It helps to have a trusted neighbor to check every so often. Our relatively small amount of mail goes through a slot to a box in our garage, but it still needs to be emptied every so often.
It’s much easier now that you can pay your bills online. Make sure you have enough meds.
I like cruising, but two weeks is probably my limit.
Forward the mail to a service. Put the car in storage. Notify the building I’ll be gone until [whenever]. Take in the patio furniture, turn off the water, set the thermostat, & lock the door. Uber to the airport & gone.
Probably arrange for the housekeepers to stop by every 2 months to run the water in sinks & tubs, and flush the toilets to refill the traps.
At the end of the year away if I’m not interested in coming back, just hire an estate sale outfit to sell everything inside, tell the building I’m vacating the lease, and “move out” without ever returning.
As mentioned, sorting out how to handle my meds is probably the largest obstacle, but I get them all via mail order anyhow, so as long as I’m a slow-moving target they can find me once every 90 days.
Yeah, that’s the trick, isn’t it? I have one that I need to take twice daily, but they won’t give me more than 30 days at a time. I suppose there’s a way to make it happen.
And you’re right about paying bills on line. Ours are paid automatically, except for VISA, but I suppose that could be set up too. Direct deposit, also, makes bill-paying almost invisible.
When I was in my twenties, I took off and drove around the country for a year, leaving good friends living in the house and taking care of the cat. (The cat was very pissed off at me, and made that clear when I finally got back home; but she had indeed been well taken care of.)
These days? Probably 8 or 10 hours, unless I could get somebody to stay here and let the dog in and out. He’s got very good bladder control, but he hates to piss or shit on a leash, and if he can’t run loose will make you hike around with him for maybe an hour and then drag you into tall brush before he’ll shit (yes, I live on a farm), so I hesitate even to ask the neighbors.
Setting cost aside, the only practical limit would be how long could we convince a housesitter/pet sitter to stay. No medical/medication considerations, and no worries about using up vacation time since we’re retired. The garden would be a mess without tending, however.
Psychologically though - bah. I’ve traveled the world and then some, and have no desire to go anywhere at this point. More than a week and I would be exceedingly grumpy and ready to get home.
I think it’s dependent on how long I’m expecting to stay gone.
I mean, if I’m going for a weekend, and I end up staying a week (have had that happen, unfortunately), it’s a surprising trial. But if I’m going for two weeks, and it ends up becoming three for some reason? Probably not much of a big deal, provided I can secure laundry.
I would think the limiting factor in most of the developed world would really be prescription availability. Stuff like laundry, toiletries, etc… can be had without much trouble. And if it’s just me, I’d figure my family can take care of my stuff at home if need be.
Now if it’s my entire family, then the calculus changes, as we’ve got kids and a dog- when school starts is a major consideration, as is who’s going to keep the dog? We can arrange that for a couple of weeks, but much more than that and it shifts into “Living with someone else” rather than “someone keeping the dog”.
We have stayed away from home for 182 days and had someone taking care of our yard during that time. A real estate agent was checking in on our house every two weeks as well (service financed by my employer). This was long before people were concerned about squatters or scammers breaking into and renting your house.
But I know two people who have condos in Boston and are sometimes gone for more than a year at a time. Nowadays they might have some smart home monitoring, but these arrangements have gone on for decades, long preceding this technology.
I can do two weeks. At three weeks I start to get antsy about maybe missing important mail or not paying certain bills. (I’m only comfortable paying bills from my home computer, where everything is set up the way I like.)
We lived overseas for several years. We had someone living in our house, the first time was a friend and his wife, the second time was my brother and his wife. Basically, they paid utilities and took care of the house and we could crash there when in the states.
I also worked overseas for a few years while my wife stayed in the US, I’d get home every couple of months.
My wife and I have done a month before. My BIL and SIL absolutely insisted that their son, my nephew, would stay in our house as he attended college nearby. They were actually a bit upset with me that I slipped him some significant money when we got back. “You don’t pay family for helping out!”
But my parents would spend 6-8 moths at a time in places like India, Romania, and Colombia as part of some agency’s “retired professional” program. My father would consult with local manufacturers and entrepreneurs. The first time they took an assignment, I was completely unaware of it. I asked my sister why I didn’t get an answer at my parents’ house. “Oh, they’re in Romania until next year. They didn’t tell you?”
Anyway, my parents got along fine being away for that amount of time, with no house sitters at all.
Assuming that money is no issue, I could stay away from home for years at a time on a cruise ship or whatnot with just 2 suitcases’ worth of clothes and a few pairs of shoes, my laptop, smartphone, etc. along with my bottles of medicines. I don’t need much.
I know I can do two weeks because I’ve done it. I booked a 19 day cruise for next year which will probably have me away for 21 days - and I’m a little nervous about it. My neighbors will keep an eye on my house and I’ll probably ask my son to stop by a couple of times. I can have the mail held, not that much of anything important comes in the mail. It’s in October , which is the perfect time- the grass can go for three weeks without mowing and it won’t be cold enough for the pipes to freeze.
Once it turns into a month or more, things get more complex. I’ll have to figure out how to pay my garage rent- do I trust the landlord ( a neighbor) not to cash post-dated checks? The other bills I can pay online except some medical bills - for reasons I don’t understand , a few of my doctors don’t collect copays in person and also don’t have a website with an account to pay electronically. Instead, they give you a code on the statement which means you need to have the statement to pay the bill. I can get all of my prescriptions for 90 days ( if I have a 30 day prescription with 2 refills, they won’t refill early but a 90 day prescription is no problem.) The problem with leaving for a month or more would be rearranging medical appointments - I don’t have a huge amount of medical problems , but because of scheduling ( this doctor twice a year, that one every three months , another every four months and so on ) I usually have at least one appointment per month.
I have the same issue with a couple of my doctors - it seems so wrong these days!
Ah, yes, dr appointments. Eye doctor annually, dentist twice a year, cardiologist, neurologist, GP twice a year - that could potentially throw a monkey wrench into things. Things were simpler before I started falling apart. Of course, in those days, I had a toddler, which is another monkey wrench.
I think with planning, I could manage 2 months, but beyond that, I’m doubtful.
I too have a bunch of routine doctor visits. But truth be told, most of those are checkups and are, strictly speaking, optional. GP, dentist, and eye doc can all be skipped or delayed significantly without a real consequence. Specialist appointments are a bigger deal, and doubly so if you’ve got a serious problem.
I’ve definitely altered my attitude to travel and the picket fence of long-ago set up but otherwise routine medical visits. I reschedule the medical stuff and take the trip when I want,not when it can be contorted in between obstacles scattered at random. Whether I see my GP every 3 months or every 5 isn’t going to change change my health. etc.
That really depends on specifics - I can put off a visit to the optometrist for a year or even two but I can’t delay seeing the ophthalmologist for very long. My PCP prescribed my statin and the prescription for my high triglycerides and sends me for the lab tests to see if they are damaging my liver so I can only put that visit off for so long.
Of course I can rearrange them - but it’s an additional hassle that I would have for a trip of more than a month that would be less of an issue for a three week trip , for which I would only have to change one appointment at most.
You’re right that sometimes it gets too complicated.
It’s a darn nuisance that by the time we all have enough free time and money to travel, and have jettisoned the kids and most other obligations, something new and definitely un-fun, namely medical care, crops up to stymie us anew.
If the Universe doesn’t hate us, it’s doing a darn good imitation of it. Pardon me; I’m going outside to shake my fist at some clouds.
I’ve done two and three-month road trips in the US and several month-long overseas trips. After being away that long I’m ready to get back to sit on my own couch and sleep in my own bed. (And eat food from my own kitchen) Meds are a only a semi-limiting issue in that I get 100 day refills.
