How to Get Your House Ready When Leaving on Vacation
We have friends who have blessed our family by loaning us their beautiful home a few hours away, in the mountains. It’s been wonderful for our family to get away for quality “face-time,” and our friends may never comprehend the impact that it’s had on our family. Face time is so important, and getting away to a new and different place is inspirational.
Unfortunately, there were a few times when we’d leave to head out of town where I left our house a mess. Dishes in the sink, clutter everywhere. Talk about depressing to come home to! I’m sure many of you can relate. It’s funny because my kids will say, Mom, why do we have to clean before we go? I just remind them, one day when they are an adult with a family – they will know! :)
Today I want to share a few tips that I’ve learned when leaving town.
How to get your house ready when leaving on vacation
1. No matter how many dishes are loaded, start the dishwasher. Don’t let food sit in the sink.
2. Wipe down the counters (and if you have time the cupboards) with Mrs. Meyers Clean.
3. Do a quick SWEEP and SWIFFER of the kitchen floor.
4. Start in the living room and pick up and organize.
5. Clean off the dining room table and leave a simple centerpiece.
Vacuuming is a luxury, and most times don’t get it done as I’m rushing out the door.
I love walking into the house when I get home and having everything spotless.
It may depend on your personality, if you’re really uptight about coming home to a clean house, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.
How do you get your house ready for vacation?
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I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
Agreed!…dishwasher run, beds made etc…going away is always nice but usually we are “ready” to come home—and a clean house is what I
like to come home to:)
Absolutely agree with you and some of my friends think I’m crazy! Why would I clean the house if we’re not there?! Returning to a clean house just makes it that much easier to get back in to the regular routine, nothing is overwhelming or demanding my immediate attention except for laundry of course :-) I also change the sheets the day before we go so they’ve only been slept in once and are good for the next week. I’ve also started to make my menu plan for the week after we return, that way my grocery list is easy to put together if not already done. Of course, this has all been learned thru trial and error!
Have a wonderful trip, Sandy!
I learned this lesson the hard way too. But I must say your post is rather timely. My husband and I returned from a week-long vacation to the Dominican Republica about a week ago and it was such a pleasure to walk into a nice, clean, bright apartment with not a thing to do! (except to unpack and shower, of course!)
We also had a few hardy grocery items to tide us over as another commenter mentioned. It really makes it that much more of a pleasure to get away.
I’m with you, Sandy. When I was younger, I would leave the house dishes in the sink, bed unmade. Not now – I can’t stand coming home to a messy house and make sure it’s spic and span before I leave. Inevitably I find something to clean up as soon as I walk in the door after a trip – it’s part of my whole reconnecting with the house routine.
Have a great trip!!!!
Please remember to run the garbage disposal and empty the compost container! :)
It is WONDERFUL to come home to a clean kitchen and dining area(our entry just pops us directly into that area when we walk thru the door)…it is even MORE wonderful to get to go away and have fun for a few days!
I agree with your post. My family doesn’t understand why I care about cleaning before we go away, but it makes complete sense to me:-) One more thing to add to your list of to-do’s…..empty the garbages:-)
I start packing what I can days in advance so I’m not doing a ton of laundry ahead of time; most of us have plenty of “extras”. I plan out menus so there isn’t a lot of wasted food and if I can, I put things in freezer bags and stick them in the freezer so I don’t waste them. I also like to have a loaf of bread, a casserole, and muffins in the freezer that I can pull out when we return to tide us over until we can hit the store. I am super blessed to have a wonderful go-to person who cleans while I’m gone and then picks up fresh fruit/veggies for me to have when we return.
i have been learning this…slowly :) we took a quick weekend trip a couple of weeks ago and it was a delight to come back to a clean kitchen and a clean dishwasher :)
I usually try to schedule enough time that the house gets a thorough scrub down. Cleaning bathrooms, dusting, kitchen cleaned and vacuuming. It’s really important to me to come home to a clean house. Also because we have older dogs we usually have a house sitter stay. This gives even more incentive to cleaning up beforehand!
I try to put clean sheets on the beds. I also like to scrub the toilets and wipe down the bathroom sinks before leaving. This