Winterizing your home before leaving on your trip is really something more than just to consider, but it is not as painful as a root canal either, it is just time-consuming at best. For some of the things like draining your water heater you might want to consider calling for the services of a plumber, other than that is is fairly, simple. A plumber could also use an air-compressor on the water lines and now, would also be a good time to have a few things checked to make sure everything is in good working order. It is called, Peace of Mind.
Drain all the pipes by opening up all the faucets and removing all the water from all the fixtures and traps. Once the toilets & traps are emptied of all water, using a sponge if you have to; RV Antifreeze then should be used. It is basically just pouring some of it in, instead of the water. It will keep them from freezing, cracking or breaking.
Doing these simple things can save you lots of money, time, sleepless nights and worry. Nothing worse than coming home from a nice vacation to find frozen pipes and a mess.
