What do you do before vacation..to make it easier when returning home..

[LovesTimone]

I was talking to a friend last night, she and her family had returned home last Sunday from seeing Mickey and the gang. She called to thank me for helping her plan their trip and that it was so wonderful. Then the conversation turned to what a nightmare trying to get home was they got laid over for more than 3 additional hours, so instead of landing at 2:00ish they did not land until 5:00ish a 2+ hour ride home. So they did not even get home till 8:00ish, and then thing really went downhill from there, nothing to eat or make for dinner with, NO Coffee for the morning, or breakfast or lunch food the next day. Some issue with things the kids needed for the next day, and then she got a reminder that she had a pot-luck luncheon the next day and needed a dish, plus a mountain of laundry, She said that it was like all the magic just blew out the window.

So this got me thinking. I know that this has happened to me a few times, so I got a list together and I live by it.. What are some of the things you do ahead before you leave for vacation that make coming home easier.

So here are some of thing that I do.

1) all the laundry is done, only the PJ's from the night before and towels from morning shower, and I try to get them washed and dried, before we head out, if time does not allow, the towels are hung over the shower to dry so they don't mildew.

2) Thorough house cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, sweeping and mopping. I break this up during the week so not all at once. It's nice to come back to a clean house.

3) Being on top of everyone's schedule for the following week. Double and triple checking.. then rechecking.. I have been a walmart at midnight before so this is a lesson that I had to learn the hard way.

4) Clean out frig, and use up what we already have.

5) Getting a plan together for if dinner is going to be needed, and/or having some kind of snack if we are getting in late. I have freezer meals, that can be thaw out quickly, but if it going to be really late, then we plan and budget for meals when traveling.

6) frozen bagels, cream cheese for a quick breakfast, coffee and a unopened creamer.

7) pick up dry cleaning - This is a must for DH as several times his schedules changed at the last minute and he had to travel the following week.

8) Take out the trash, also ask a neighbor to put your bins at the road, and offer to do theirs when they are on vacation.

9) With Pets, double check reservations at Vet's or with dog sitter, make sure all medication, food and vet info is left out.

 

[21stamps]

I do the same with housework before I leave.
I want to come home to a sparkling clean home, no laundry, and nothing to iron!

First we pick up the dog from the pet hotel.

I don't cook on that day, we usually pick up Chinese take out.

I buy a coffee creamer before we go on vacation and leave it unopened in the refrigerator. - I usually need a few cups after arriving home!

I don't want to deal with a grocery store quite yet, so we'll stop somewhere and pick up a gallon of milk.

Then the day after it's grocery shopping and laundry from the trip- back to reality.

 

[sweet-n-lowe]

We are staying in a 1BR this trip which has washer/dryer in room. I am hoping to get some laundry done while there so there is less to do once home. Also, throughout our trip, I try to keep only clean clothes in each kids' suitcase and 1 suitcase (the one we carry costumes in to DW) becomes the dirty laundry suitcase for the way home. That way everyone can take their suitcase to their room and unpack and only 1 ends up downstairs. I'd love to hire someone to clean my house while gone as it won't happen before hand.

 

[kwdw]

I typically clean house and do all laundry before vacation. If it's a longer trip - clean out the frig with things that will go bad. If its not too late - we stop and buy milk on the way home - so I can have my iced mocha the next morning.

As for food for us for the first day - not a problem. I keep a stocked pantry and usually have frozen items in the freezer.

 

[dizzy daisy]

I'll chime in!

After returning home a few times to a very cold or very hot house I ask a friend to duck in and turn on the heat or a/c for me a couple hours before we are due to get home.

I clean the house and do the laundry. I find this so much easier now that my youngest is 8. It didn't always happen when I had a house full of littles!

I like coming home to fresh sheets so I try to change the beds the morning we leave. Doesn't always happen, lol, but when it does I am so happy I took the time.

The groceries I make sure to have: Coffee, tea, sugar, bread (in the freezer), frozen pizza or some other frozen convenience food, cans of peaches (the only time we really eat them is after a trip), butter and an unopened box of cereal.

We pick up milk at the 24 hour quick market on the way home or we ask the friend to bring some when he turns on the heat/ac.

I also leave myself a note on the fridge of things that are happening the week we are home because my brain is still on vacation and I'll forget something if I don't do that.

 

[chewysmom]

We do all of the above, but we also make sure to do laundry while on vacation as well. That way, we come home, open suitcases, and just put it all back in closets/drawers. I used to fight the whole laundry-while-on-vacation thing, but it's really not hard to throw a load in, go swim; put in dryer, go back to swim; and then by the time it's dry, everyone is through swimming.

That little tip made my life so much easier once we got back home! (And it helps that I have a dh who does the laundry just as much as I do!)

 

[noahdove]

I make sure the dishwasher is empty, laundry done, bread in freezer, flowers watered, I ask my SIL to water
hanging baskets, and fresh towels in bathroom ready for a long hot bath

 

[smiths02]

We have had MIL stay at our house the last few trips. Makes everything easy!

We haven't been when someone has to work the next day. We always have a buffer day.
(Our first trip, this was a good idea because our car broke down on the way home around 11pm...had to spend the night at a sketchy Super 8 (luckily this was before we had kids)

I do try to clean the house a little.

Clean out anything from the fridge that MIL won't eat.

 

[VillainFavs]

Definitely in the laundry-on-vacation camp. Easy enough to do while on a pool break and cuts the chore in half once we get home.

Everybody's dirty stuff gets packed in one suitcase before heading home--that one goes directly to the laundry area when we get home.

We usually come home late (get in that last full day at the parks before a late flight home) so breakfast the following morning is DH's job--a run to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and muffins. Grocery shopping waits until later in the day.

We used to have the Post Office hold the mail all week and we'd go pick it up. Now we have it delivered on the last day so it's waiting for us on our arrival back home. One less errand to worry about the next day.

 

[Ravens girl]

Usually my son and daughter-in-love stay at our place. They feed the cats and generally keep up the house.

 

[xlsm]

I do a thorough house cleaning beforehand, but my MIL comes to stay here with our dogs while we're gone. I usually come home and the house is still clean, but she NEVER puts the dishes back in the correct cabinets. And it's not confusing, if you open it and see plates, put the plates there. But no, LOL!

We don't even mess with eating at home upon arrival, it's drive-thru city. That is just not something I even want to think about when getting back home.

 

[tami82]

That sucks, that really worries me too that things may or may not go smoothly in the beginning and or end regarding flying (this will be our first time flying in (August and to be honest gives me so much anxiety.

Anyway to answer your question if we had a condo with washer of course clothes would be washed before returning home but this time we won't have that option. I also give my house a thorough cleaning, I go on a throwing out binge because I don't want any added clutter when i return. I actually do this the few weeks leading up to my trip. I ALWAYS make sure I have enough drinks, pet foods, coffee and creamer, and other small food items so I don't have to go food shopping right away (we will usually just order food out to make it easier the first few nights of returning home as I'm not exactly in the mood to cook and am busy). I also like to empty all things out of luggage right away when returning home and within a few hours it's done. I do also plan on bringing some hearty snacks with me for our flights God forbid I don't get to eat for whatever reason I will be ok. Coffee too I must bring that with me too

 

[verleniahall]

House is cleaned prior too - like OP stated (and others) it is NOT fun to come home to a messy house

We always keep a container of coffee in the freezer just in case - our neighborhood walmart went out of business and we got 10 bags of starbucks coffee for 75% off - we are set for awhile

We keep a couple frozen pizzas or like chicken strips and tator tots in the freezer as well for those late night meals. Everything here closes at 9

 

[loves to dive]

I just feel like a lazy unorganized slob after reading everyone's responses. I'm sort of lucky in that my honey rarely travels with me since he hates to travel. When he does it's usually on a long dive trip out of the country. We do run the dishwasher before we leave so no dirty dishes to come to and I do get all the laundry done but that's it. I don't do laundry on vacation, I just don't. Coming home from a dive trip means a whole suitcase full of wet, smelling dive gear so normally we drop it off in the basement where our dive tub is and don't even unzip the bag. The next day, we clean the dive gear, which means first soaking it in the tub with wetsuit cleaner (I had a special one built when we did our basement) then draining that, soaking it in fresh water, draining that and hanging it outside to dry (we bought a special rolling rack to hang it on so we just roll it outside). Then we are lazy and keep all the wetsuits hanging on the rack when done but do put the regulators, fins, masks, BC, etc. in special tubs we have for them. The laundry usually just gets put in the basket for next laundry day (I do laundry every Sunday). In my defense, I have someone who comes every other week to give my house a good clean then in between times, I just do a light cleaning so I don't have to do the whole clean the house thing. We almost always have something to eat in the freezer and we normally stop on the way home from the airport to grab something to eat for that night. I always schedule our coming home day to give me an extra day before I go back to work, just for rest. Note, in all the running the dishwasher and cleaning dive gear there was a "we" there and not an "I".

 

[smiths02]

I forgot to add that we also drive. We generally have a late breakfast/early lunch buffet and then head out. The drive home is 7 hours (without stops), so along the way we then take a break and sit in a restaurant (or fast food) for dinner.

For breakfast the next day, I always have cereal, and I generally have a carton of shelf stable milk in the pantry (hasn't been a problem with MIL there, but on other vacations it has helped for the next morning).

Again, a buffer day is helpful. I haven't traveled yet without a buffer day.

 

[china mom]

I don't do laundry on vacation so one thing I do to make things easier on myself while on vacation is to sort my dirty laundy by load and put is separate trash bags on my suitcase. That way, when I get home, I just dump whites in the washer, then darks etc.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Also clean the house, take the garbage to the bins in the garage. The very last thing I do is run the dishwasher and leave the house. It has never occurred to me until I typed those words that there could be a water problem while we're gone that we can't address ... so I might start running the dishwasher while everyone is getting ready in the morning to avoid that worry from now on.

 

[LovesTimone]

Also clean the house, take the garbage to the bins in the garage. The very last thing I do is run the dishwasher and leave the house. It has never occurred to me until I typed those words that there could be a water problem while we're gone that we can't address ... so I might start running the dishwasher while everyone is getting ready in the morning to avoid that worry from now on.

YEP ...running the dishwasher and then leaving not a good idea... I was helping a friend out when they went to Germany for 3 weeks to see their Son and DIL and brand new grandson. So she asked me to come by and water her plants every couple of days, get her mail, trash out to the road and turn on/off different lights.. when I say plants its really a garden, and inside there are a ton of plants. She leave me instructions by the plants as some are exotics and need special care. We took turns helping each other out.

The day they leave its raining off and on and it was expected to rain like that for a few day... she called and let me know they hit the road, and if I needed to I could wait till Monday to water the inside plants if it kept raining like it was. This was on a Friday. I had stopped raining Late Friday night/ early Sat morning. So DH and I were out running some errands on Sunday, and we drove by their street, so I mentioned to DH that I wanted to check on the house, So I would go back later on after we finished our errands, my DH is I'll help you and get it out of the way. So we pull up and go through the gate to backyard, DH heads for the hose to water outside and I go up the stairs onto the deck and its wet and I thought that's weird, so I open the door hurry to turn off the alarm..... that's when it hits me....Ahhh... my feet are wet.... why are my feet wet, I looked down and I am standing in water. So I yell for DH and he comes running in and was like what's wrong... All I said was WATER.... So we head into the kitchen there is water pouring out from under the kitchen sink and dishwasher simultaneously. So DH opens the cabinet and shuts the water off, but it still keeps pouring out and we can hear it running.. so he runs outside and turns the water off to the house, Which took a few minutes as you have to have a wrench thing to turn it off.

So he comes back in, by this time I have got the kitchen back door open and I'm crying as we have been through this before when we lived in the panhandle, except it was in our master bathroom, the water line at the value ruptured inside the wall....... Service master, Insurance adjuster, people from Mohawk, workmen, 6 months, and over 50,000 dollars...The water only ran form 7:00am till 11:00 am when our DD who was home form college found it. We had hard wood floors that had to be ground up, then the new floor would not season and kept warping, and carpet that of course could not be matched, they tired to use baseboard that did not match the ones in the rest of the house and then the workmen damaged the fireplace, it just went on and on.....what a nightmare

So you can imagine the water damage as it ran for over 48 hours, when we found it..... So my DH tried to call my friends DH... he did not answer right away, he said that when he saw the text to call right away there was a problem. He knew it wasn't good. By the time he called, we found their wet dry vac and I had called our DD and DSiL and told them to go get ours and bring it over while DH ran to his office and got 2 of the commercial wet dry vac's. and we were trying to mop up as much water as possible. It was a so bad the walls, just kept pouring water out of them.. We had all the towels they owned on the floor trying to soak up water. The whole main floor as wet.... not to mention the basement.

When their Insurance guy came, and yes he came on Sunday in his church clothes, he had a cleaning crew there in a matter of hours. Once it was said and over with... it was 8 months and they were almost done then they found mold.... So 10 months and 200,000 dollars later..

 

[Stacy's a freak]

YEP ...running the dishwasher and then leaving not a good idea... I was helping a friend out when they went to Germany for 3 weeks to see their Son and DIL and brand new grandson. So she asked me to come by and water her plants every couple of days, get her mail, trash out to the road and turn on/off different lights.. when I say plants its really a garden, and inside there are a ton of plants. She leave me instructions by the plants as some are exotics and need special care. We took turns helping each other out.

The day they leave its raining off and on and it was expected to rain like that for a few day... she called and let me know they hit the road, and if I needed to I could wait till Monday to water the inside plants if it kept raining like it was. This was on a Friday. I had stopped raining Late Friday night/ early Sat morning. So DH and I were out running some errands on Sunday, and we drove by their street, so I mentioned to DH that I wanted to check on the house, So I would go back later on after we finished our errands, my DH is I'll help you and get it out of the way. So we pull up and go through the gate to backyard, DH heads for the hose to water outside and I go up the stairs onto the deck and its wet and I thought that's weird, so I open the door hurry to turn off the alarm..... that's when it hits me....Ahhh... my feet are wet.... why are my feet wet, I looked down and I am standing in water. So I yell for DH and he comes running in and was like what's wrong... All I said was WATER.... So we head into the kitchen there is water pouring out from under the kitchen sink and dishwasher simultaneously. So DH opens the cabinet and shuts the water off, but it still keeps pouring out and we can hear it running.. so he runs outside and turns the water off to the house, Which took a few minutes as you have to have a wrench thing to turn it off.

So he comes back in, by this time I have got the kitchen back door open and I'm crying as we have been through this before when we lived in the panhandle, except it was in our master bathroom, the water line at the value ruptured inside the wall....... Service master, Insurance adjuster, people from Mohawk, workmen, 6 months, and over 50,000 dollars...The water only ran form 7:00am till 11:00 am when our DD who was home form college found it. We had hard wood floors that had to be ground up, then the new floor would not season and kept warping, and carpet that of course could not be matched, they tired to use baseboard that did not match the ones in the rest of the house and then the workmen damaged the fireplace, it just went on and on.....what a nightmare

So you can imagine the water damage as it ran for over 48 hours, when we found it..... So my DH tried to call my friends DH... he did not answer right away, he said that when he saw the text to call right away there was a problem. He knew it wasn't good. By the time he called, we found their wet dry vac and I had called our DD and DSiL and told them to go get ours and bring it over while DH ran to his office and got 2 of the commercial wet dry vac's. and we were trying to mop up as much water as possible. It was a so bad the walls, just kept pouring water out of them.. We had all the towels they owned on the floor trying to soak up water. The whole main floor as wet.... not to mention the basement.

When their Insurance guy came, and yes he came on Sunday in his church clothes, he had a cleaning crew there in a matter of hours. Once it was said and over with... it was 8 months and they were almost done then they found mold.... So 10 months and 200,000 dollars later..

Holy mother ... yeah. No more running the dishwasher as we walk out the door. Yay - a new paranoia.

 

[msk]

Holy mother ... yeah. No more running the dishwasher as we walk out the door. Yay - a new paranoia.

I have the same paranoia about the clothes dryer. My friend's house burnt to the ground when she started the dryer and left for vacation. I make sure all clothes are dry and all dishes are clean before I leave.

Since I teach and will be missing school for Disney, I make sure everything is ready to go in my classroom when I return.