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 do this every time I go away, it would be a couple of times a year for us when we lived in Indiana, now back in Eastern Pa. I made sure everything was made, like the beds, the house was clean, dishes were done and laundry I did, as I put together my childrens backpacks ( not suitcases) backpacks, because they could carry them on their backs. I love to come home and all I have to do is load up the dirty laundry and unpack, nothing else. Ahhh, it’s a great feeling.
My mother used to say the same and she was right :) I could only understand the point of the whole thing when I started living on my own… Great reminder and a warm post, thank you :)
One year we forgot to take out the trash – will NEVER forget that again! I like coming home to a clean house every day, but yes, especially after being away.
Myself, I get easily overwhelmed, and sometimes a long packing list for the family doesn’t leave much time for a cleaning list – but every little bit of cleaning before leaving helps! I love your list because, to me, it is not overwhelmingly long. Even if I were to do half of that list before leaving, I would feel better upon coming home. :)
I soooooo have to clean the house before we go away, even for a quick weekend trip. I try to pack early so that I can finish up with the cleaning right before we leave. Having a clean house to come home really lessens the feeling of “I need a vacation from vacation.”
Yes! Yes! The Virgo in me has to tidy before going on vacay. If it’s a shorter trip, I change the sheets on the beds, too. If it’s longer, I strip the bed and leave it to air with some lavender. Oh, yeah. I love your simple centerpiece idea. That’s very welcoming.
I totally agree with you! Thankfully, my husband is as type-a about this as I am. Our house is sparkling before we leave for a vacation. And when we come home, luggage is taken directly into the laundry room to start washing any dirty clothing. Everything is put away before we go to sleep, no matter what time we arrive home. I know this sounds obsessive, but it makes for a very relaxing ‘day-after-vacation’.
great list! i hate leaving a messy house and coming home to it. i always try to pick up and do what i can before we leave.
Oh, I wish I were that disciplined! Between getting all six of us packed and homeschooling until the day before we leave my to-do list is typically much longer than my list of tasks accomplished.
What I do: wash all the laundry so we can wash everything when we get home, take out the trash, start the dishes. Since we usually visit family I usually take the food that will go bad while we’re gone (milk, bread, fruit) because we always have to buy those things when we visit anyway. I try to tidy up a bit, but when we leave really early I don’t even get to that. Packing the road trip food takes priority, especially when travelling with a toddler! So we come home to a clean-enough home, but not what I’d like it to be. Maybe when the kids are older and can do more helping than messing! :)
Totally agree! I love coming home to a clean house. One other thing to add to the list is taking all the garbage out! We made the mistake of not doing this once and there is nothing worse than opening the door and smelling nasty garbage.