Do you ever dread vacation because you know coming home will be so much work? Bags everywhere, piles of dirty clothing, and an empty fridge to boot. Well, girl, I see you. Been there. And sometimes I am still there. BUT I have found some secrets on how to stop dreading vacation.
I love to travel. Seeing new places and trying new experiences is really one of my favorite things. But I also hate coming home to a hectic house. For this reason, I scoped out ways to create a peaceful home to return to. I do not want to dread vacation. And my husband tells me often that we are solution creators. So I put my solution creating powers to work to create these tips to stop dreading vacation.
Pre-Clean Your House
Start several days before you leave and pre-clean your house. Do not wait until the night before or the day you leave. If you do, you’ll feel more like a chicken with your head cut off than a babe heading out the door for some refresh and relax time. Trust me. Or don’t. But I have tried this and it was not pretty.
Instead of trying to a whole house deep clean, I would recommend focusing on the 1-3 things that bother you the most if they’re are icky. For me, that is my floors and my bathrooms. I have found that cleaning about 2 days before you leave is the sweet spot.
Cleaning the day before impacts my ability to get packing and other things done, which I’ll touch on in a bit. If I clean 3 or more days before we leave on vacay, I find that the house gets gross again. Usually, it isn’t as bad as not cleaning at all, but I do savor that fresh, peaceful feeling that a recent cleaning lends to the home environment.
My usual practice for cleaning before we travel is to vacuum my floors, steam mop them, and clean my toilets and vanities. If I have the time and need to do it, I will do my tubs, showers, use my standard mop, and wash my linens. A shortcut clean is better than no clean, in my opinion. Work with what time you have to make the most of your vacation.
Clean Out Your Fridge
Having a fridge full of expired leftovers is no fun. Who wants to come home to clean that up?! In my quest to stop dreading vacation, I purposefully make our last couple of meals at home before traveling a hodge podge of leftovers.
The leftover noodles I’ll cover with the cheese crumbs from 3 separate bags of shredded cheese. Pair it with a vegetable salad concocted from all the week-old veggies with an olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. Boom. Two fridge drawers empty!
Continue with the rest of the leftovers and run all of your food storage containers through the dishwasher. Your fridge has a clean slate and your Pyrex dishes are ready for the next go ’round.
Meal Plan & Make Your Grocery List
The next step in ending your vacation dread is to make a meal plan for when you get home. I craft mine to get me through to my next grocery day. I usually get groceries on Tuesdays, so if I come home on Saturday, I’ll plan meals for Saturday through Monday. Then, when we get home, I’ll make a quick grocery run. On Tuesday, I’ll make our meal plan for the next week and get the groceries for it.
Taking the guess work out of your food plans for when you get home is relieving. You get rid of the decision fatigue and reduce the stress of returning home. It’s a great idea to help you stop dreading vacation.
Wash, Dry, & Put Away Laundry
Okay, this is big! There are few things that make me stop dreading vacation more than having no laundry to do. Anybody else?? Leading up to your departure, try not to let the laundry get out of hand. I have found that washing one load every day and using the Shout ColorCatcher sheets is a huge help with this.
On the day before or day you leave (depending on how hectic your life is and what time you leave) do one final load of laundry. Start early and try to include everything possible. The idea is to have that load folded and put away before you leave.
Getting all of your laundry washed and put away before you leave also ensures that all of your favorite apparel items are available for the trip, even if you just wore them yesterday! And when you get home, all of the laundry you have to do is what got dirty on your trip. It makes it so much more manageable.
Use a Packing List
Knowing that you will not forget a bunch of necessities is a surefire way to stop dreading vacation. I am 100% the person who has forgotten her pajamas, underwear, toothbrush, swimsuit, shorts, belt, you name it. I have been taking round the world trips since I was a baby and yet I still forget things. Unless I use a packing list.
Having a comprehensive packing list makes packing a breeeeze. You offload your brain and give it space to think about the other things that need your attention. Like how you’re going to get sleep with 4 kids and a redeye flight. Or how coffee must be at the very base of the food pyramid since you need so much of it to function. Important things.
While you can search around the internet to find all sorts of different packing lists, I have already done the work for you and you can get it for FREE here. You can use the one that I have made or use the customizable PDF to craft your own. Kiss your packing headaches goodbye!
Prep Your Mindset
The final step to stop dreading vacation is to prepare your mindset. Your thoughts drive your emotions and mood. Getting a handle on them before you ever set foot outside will bring you peace and calm your nerves.
As a person of faith, I make a practice of praying over my trips. I pray for safety for all of those in my party. Whether we are flying or driving, I cover our method of transportation in prayers. I then pray for health and good attitudes. Finally, I pray for peace. That God would allow me to trust Him fully and completely with however our trip goes.
Another aspect of mental preparation is stating affirmations. If you particularly struggle with travel anxiety, use God’s word to write affirmations. Make statements about His plans for you and the fact that He is all-powerful. Jeremiah 29:11 is a great example, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Stop Dreading Vacation
Now you are equipped to stop dreading vacation! So go buy those tickets and start dreaming about the best. Trip. Ever. Seriously, sis, it’s within reach.
Does the thought of no longer dreading vacation appeal to you? How do you plan to use these tips? Comment below; I cannot wait to hear from you!!!
Leave a Reply