Last week you gave us your fabulous ideas for preparing your home for your weekend getaway, and today it's time to talk about how to regain order once you return. No matter how organized we are when packing, our post-vacation suitcase inevitably looks like a pint-size version of a frat house closet—chaos! And if we're not in the right state of mind to deal with unpacking, full inboxes—real life—the rest of our house starts to feel like the scary, not-so-pint-size version. Here are some tips for an easy transition home...
Make Your Bed This is especially important if you've returned late the night before, and have yet to face an unruly jumble of dirty laundry and vacation accoutrements bulging from your suitcase, which can be overwhelming. Making your bed right off the bat has an important psychological effect because it's easy to accomplish, and it gives you an instant sense of order. Think of it as a mental jump start that prepares you for the more grueling tasks ahead.
Designate an unpacking spot Instead of spreading laundry and odds and ends throughout your home, concentrate the chaos in one area. That way, if you don't have an uninterrupted stretch of time to get through a whole suitcase in one go, at least you have it contained.
Dump out your suitcase Sometimes, I'm too good at compartmentalizing. If I don't see a mess, I'm likely to forget that I have a suitcase full of dirty clothes and toiletries that need to be put away. Placing it all out in plain sight forces me to deal with it right away rather than continuing to live out of a suitcase even after returning home.
Make a list of post-vacation priorities This includes phone calls that you need to return and emails that need answering as well as home tasks that need to be attended to&mdash i.e. laundry and organizing. Mentally, it always helps to have a physical list to cross off from.
Take 5 minutes to relax and reconnect with your home This may sound kooky, but it's the perfect way to end a vacation before real life starts to rob you of your peace. Wake up five minutes early, sit down with a cup of coffee, tea, water—whatever—and relax. Don't think about how many things you have to get done, but instead try to concentrate on the thing you like best about your home. This doesn't necessarily mean a material object; for me, it's the way the late afternoon/early evening light streams into our living room. Taking a few minutes to appreciate my home is often the biggest motivator to unpack, restore order, and get back in the swing of things.
What are your tricks for getting back in the saddle?
(Images: 1: Oak Management via Plastolux, 2: Homes and Gardens, 3: Birgitta Wolfgang Drejer of Vanessa Bruno's apartment)
I do all that--to music. It helps get my energy up and soften the transition from happy indulgent vacation sounds to that abrupt, often jarring silence when you come home. There's no reason to be so glum just because the vacation is over and it's a great motivator to get things done.
view MissMarked's profile
Dumping out your bag is a very good idea. My husband will be unpacked within 24 hours, whereas I can extend the task to an equal amount of time as I was gone!
view home body's profile
The pictures you chose to illustrate this post are very inspiring. Thanks
view fabulissime's profile
another reason I travel with as little as possible--unpacking is that much easier.
view ec05's profile
The first stop once I get home with my suitcase is the laundry room. I immediately sort all dirty clothes right then and there. Then the suitcase goes to the bathroom where I dump/put away the toiletries, and then it reaches the bedroom where I put away shoes or any clean clothes. If I get home late and just want to sleep and deal with it in the morning, the suitcase goes on top of the washing machine.
view adater's profile
When the CatMan and I pack to come home from a trip, I'm specific about segregating items for different parts of our home. For instance, all our trash and leftover snack stuff is in a box in the back of the car to go directly into the kitchen when we unload; all our laundry is in a mesh bag to be unloaded into the hamper; and our toiletries are travel sizes kept in their kits until the next time we travel (we throw out the soaps and disinfect and dry the toothbrushes before we store the kits.) Unpacking is relatively painfree. And since I clean before we go, planned a freezer meal, and queued up a fun Netflix movie, we can relax and ease back into home life!
view Dusa's profile
Good tips here. I would add that planning an extra day off from work after you return from wherever you've been can be nice in case you didn't leave your home in great shape - or even if you did. It's not always possible due to time constraints of course, but I increasingly dislike getting back from a great, invigorating trip in the evening only to wake up the following morning to race back into the office.
By the way, can someone please identify the cabinet along the wall behind the white loveseat in the top photo of this post? I seem to remember seeing before, but I can't place it.
Thanks
view nesh's profile
Whao, I had no idea people planed unpacking after a trip. Maybe I should try and do that, I'm currently looking at my two bags split open full of clothes, a few damp ones hanging on chairs to dry... and I do not have the slightest desire to clean that up. My ex-boyfriend used to unpack the minute he came home and he worked outside 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off. I couldn't even hug him 2 mins, he HAD to unpack as soon as possible, it was like an urge or something. I guess I'm just more laid-back...
view Cyb's profile
nesh -
the cabinet behind the swan settee is named satellite by Barber Osgerby.
view guerilla's profile
That's the one. Excellent.
Cheers, guerilla!
view nesh's profile
My one tip is to just wash everything in the suitcase. If I tell myself I'm going to sort the clean clothes out first, I'll never get it unpacked until a week later when I can't find that one shirt I really want to wear. And because I don't want to be wasteful, it motivates me to only pack clothes I know I'll wear. There are a few things that can't go in the washer, but I try to cut all but the essentials out here as well. If it has to be hand-washed, it's really not ideal for travel.
view lurker2209's profile
I agree with nesh. An extra "re-entry" day at home before going back to the daily grind makes a huge difference. I did it for the first time this year by shaving that day off of my away time but I'm so glad I did. It gave me time to unpack and declutter AND savor the memories from vacay.
view vinylcollectors's profile
I often go to my Mom's place to visit her at least once a month and will take laundry and my duffel bag w/ clean clothes and sometimes bring home extra stuff with me and when I get home, usually the duffel gets dumped in the bedroom, it's contents emptied, what few dirties that didn't get washed get put in the laundry hamper, or if the hamper bag is not back on it's frame, I just dump the dirties on the floor until I get the bag mounted, if not that night, the next morning and the duffel put away in the closet. The clean clothes however usually wait until the next evening to put away but I've been known to rumage through it for clean stuff or have it sit for a day or two before finally emptying it and putting the clean stuff away.
And it's then sit and check out anything email wise/read blogs until time for bed, if not bedtime already and it's brush teeth and slip into the often unmade bed, but not before getting the coffee ready to turn on in the morning when I often have to go back to work.
view ciddyguy's profile