What's the First Thing You Do When You Get Home After a Trip?

Arriving home after a long trip, we're often tired from the plane or car ride. While it's tempting to continue living out of our suitcase and ordering in food, we know from experience it's just one step from there to complete chaos. So, pour ourselves a glass of something to drink and start...

We unpack our suitcase, shake out our clothes and toss the dirty ones into the laundry. After we're unpacked, we start up a load of laundry. We listen to the messages on our landline while sorting through our mail and answering the email we ignored while we were away. We catch up with friends while we run a bath and then we get into bed early with all our new magazines, sad to be home, glad to be home. Hey, come to think of it, it's not dissimilar from our Sunday night ritual, a transition from one state (traveling, weekending) to another (real life, work life). What do you do when you get home?

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Comments (14)

Feed the cat or clean out the litter box, whichever one is louder/smellier. THEN, and only then, empty suitcase, dirty clothes directly into washer. Ahhhhh, then comes glass of wine and hit the sofa to unwind with either TV or phone call.

Go to somebody else's house for dinner. A parent is particularly good for filling this role.

Nevermind unpacking, I need that pink chair!

Pet the cats.
Take a shower.
Go to sleep.

Always in that order.

Sift through mail.
Watch TV.
Shower.
Sleep.

I take care of e-mail and voicemail while I travel since I carry my laptop with me.

Pay the driver.
Dump the luggage in the hall.
Take a shower.
Crawl in bed (thankful I put new sheets on the bed the night before I left)

The trip isn't over until the suitcases are unpacked and put back in the attic, the dirty clothes are in the laundry baskets and the clean ones put back where they go. Then I sort through the mail. It usually takes no more than an hour to 90 minutes to do all that; I work fast. I just don't want to wake up to that mess in the morning. I'd rather wake up remembering a good trip.

Your description of returning home sounds so cozy that it makes me want to go away and come home again.

--Dump my trip stuff on the bed
--Take a shower
--Grab something to eat
--Sort mail/email
--Check my online financial accounts
--Unpack, throw clothes into laundry
--Nap between laundry loads

Pet the dog
Listen to my phone messages
Eat a bowl of cereal
Sort and open the mail
Unpack
Watch TV
Bed

Cats/cat box here too. Then email. The rest, I'm not so great at. I've been known to have a suitcase full of dirty clothes for weeks after a trip has ended. *sigh*

Right now I don't travel so much as I go visit my Mom the occasional weekend and don't often get home until at least 8PM.

So here is my routine. Find a spot to park the truck on the street (not always easy, nor close to my building at that time of the night).

Take stuff out of the truck, hang whatever I can on my shoulder(s), carry the rest and walk to my apartment

Unlock door, get in, and begin climbing the stairs, 4 floors up.

Unlock door to my unit, get inside, and drop everything right there in the dining room.

Any food that needs to be put away, I do that first, call Mom to let her know I'm home and in safely.

I then take the clean laundry and my bag into the bedroom where they get deposited in front of the closet, occasionally I'll find the energy to empty the bag itself.

Fire up the computer, check for emails and such, read up on journals and before I know it, it's nearly 10pm and time for bed.

Make the coffee, brush teeth, undress and crawl into bed.

The next day or whenever I get around to it, I'll unpack all the clean clothes and put away and finish whatever didn't get done upon arrival back home.

1)Empty suitcase, spray interior & exterior with Lysol,set on deck to air out overnight.
2)Order pizza
3)Shower/slip into fresh jammies & slippers.
4)Enjoy pizza on patio in the fresh night air.
5)Climb into my own bed.Aah..Sort Mail/Dream sweetly!