My favorite vacation planning tip is this: Leave the house clean! I love coming home to my house being clean and ready for another week. Here is the list of things I have done before leaving: Empty all of the garbage cans. Clean out the refrigerator. Clean the floors. Clean the bathroom and wash all the towels. Wash all the bedsheets. Catch up all of the laundry. These things get done a day or two before we leave. The night before we leave I like to get the van/car all packed up and ready to go. Then in the morning before we leave everyone has to make their bed and have their room inspected.
The last thing I do is vacuum. Usually everyone else is buckled up and
ready to go and I am running the vacuum around one last time. I love
the look of freshly vacuumed rugs.
P.S. I do not have OCD. My kids are really good at making messes and some days I feel like I am never going to catch up with the laundry. I love to read and play with my kids and have fun and sometimes I ignore the vacuuming for a few hours. I just really like things neat and orderly and am happier when my home is clean, so I work to keep it that way. Please don't hate me because of it! :)
These cereal containers have small garbage can liners in them and we will use them as garbage cans in our vehicles while we are traveling. I hate driving in a messy car!
One last tip. Everyone has packed enough clothes for the week, but you never know if you might want something washed while you are away. Most hotels have a laundry room available to guests so I like to take a laundry kit with me when I travel. I don't like putting dirty clothes into my bag with my clean clothes so I usually use big garbage bags to hold everybody's dirty clothes. I found these mesh laundry bags at the dollar store, so we'll give them a try this time. Even though everyone has packed enough for the 8 days we'll be gone, I still like to do a few loads of laundry about halfway through the trip or even the night before coming home. It makes it easier for me when we get home if some of the clothes are clean and can be put away instead of everything needing to be washed. I typically wash and dry about 2-3 loads every day at home so multiply that by 8 days and that is a lot of laundry to catch up on. I don't wash everything because the machines are usually small loads and it can be expensive, but even 3-4 loads helps me feel like I have gotten a head start. It also reminds me of how much I should appreciate my large capacity, front loading machines and helps me grumble a little less when I get home and have so much vacation laundry to do.
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