If you're like me, you hate when your vacation comes to an end. In addition to post-vacation sadness, there is all of the unpacking and dirty laundry to deal with and when you have kids, the amount of unpacking and dirty laundry increases exponentially. In order to make re-entry as easy as possible, I've made a list of things I do pre-vacation in order to ease the transition.
- Make your bed. After a long flight or drive, nothing feels better than seeing your own comfortable bed waiting for you. Before leaving on your journey, take the few minutes to make your bed and the kids' beds and if you have the time, change the sheets. That way you come home to a fresh and inviting place to fall into.
- Run the dishwasher. You'll feel much less exhausted when coming home if you don't have a pile of dishes waiting for you in the kitchen sink. If I don't have time for a deep cleaning in the kitchen, I do a quick wipe down and load and run the dishwasher before leaving on my trip. This way you come home to a load of clean dishes.
- Have the makings of a snack ready. Before we leave, I always make sure we have a couple of apples and a bottle of lemonade in the refrigerator waiting for the kids when we get back from our trip. Fresh fruit and a delicious drink will help refresh weary little travelers.
- Clean the bathtub. I like to give the kids an extra-long soak in the bathtub the night we come back from a long trip. Instead of trying to scrub the tub when I'm fatigued from travel, I give it a good scrub before we head out. That way I can just turn on the water and let the kids soak.
Do you have any tips to share to make your post-vacation homecoming an easy one?
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my boyfriend always makes fun of me for deep cleaning the apartment before we go out of town, but it's so important to come home to a non-overwhelming environment! Having clean sheets and towels and an empty laundry basket waiting makes it easier to just throw the vacation laundry into the machine without a big pile-up
Help! Does anyone know where the chandelier comes from in this picture????
I'd add take out the trash (at least the kitchen and diapers) and dump (or pass to a neighbor) anything from the fridge that may go bad. My husband - who cares much more about the yard than I do - always mows the lawn.
I learned to leave a clean house from my mother, and my husband has become a convert. Any extra work it causes in the trip preperation are more than recovered by the relief of coming to a clean house!
Your tips are great. My Auntie Mary taught me that making sure all of the trash is taken out is a definite essential. Bathroom, office, kitchen, you name it!
I appreciate how you're recommending to make re-entry into regular life as easy as possible by planning ahead. This post has some tips you might like to learn how to make re-entry into the school year as easy as possible by planning ahead.
http://tandemteaching.com/the-secret-to-homework-success-without-stress/
Hope it's helpful!
Whenever my family went on vacation, my mother always had the house spotless. She said that if we were in an accident, she didn't want people to think that we were messy. I still have severe pre-travel anxiety because of this!
This is a great list and very important for peace of mind. Having a clean house makes coming home less sad.
I'd like to add that I make something like baked Ziti or lasagna - I portion it and freeze it. To eat I defrost it in the microwave or pop it in the oven. Having smaller portions make re-heating easy and having food and not worrying about what to cook is great. I hate to order take out after a week or so of eating out in a foreign place. Plus I'm usually broke by the time I come home!
Love the chandelier as well!
The dishes and bed I already knew and do, but the snack in the fridge is new to me and I like it. We often come home from being away, and end up having to go to the store 'cause there's nothing to eat. This would definitely solve that!
Also, make sure all toilets have been flushed. Coming home to week old #1 or #2 is much less then pleasant. Even if you clean the bathroom right before leaving it seems like someone always needs to go "one last time" and not everyone remembers to flush when they're in a hurry.
We have a cleaner come every other week and I tweek her appointment times to be right before we come home! (But she's kinda flaky about locking the front door so I have to time it just right or I worry too much :)
I'd add trying to make sure I've completely kept up on laundry---nothing in hampers, and clean sheets and towels out. Then I can dump the vacation laundry in the regular hamper and catch up over a few days. (We have a tiny combo washer-dryer and this helps a lot.)