Vacations are a lot of fun! However, the hardest part can be the transition back to home, work and school! Here are 8 tips for getting organized after a trip!
Post Vacation Organization Tips
You know the feeling. One minute you are on a vacation high and the next minute, you are coming home back to reality. There is work, school and general household duties to do. There can also be a feeling of comfort about coming home. It is not completely a bad thing for a vacation to end.
However, there can be feelings of overwhelm about the responsibilities that await you upon your return.
To ease those feelings of overwhelm and stress, there are things you can do when you get home to feel organized and less stressed. Once you make these things a part of your post vacation routine, you will feel better about ending a vacation!
Today I am sharing 8 Things to do to get organized after a vacation!
1.Take Everything Out of the Car
Whether you are traveling by car or plane, most likely your journey includes your own car. So you might have suitcases, drink bottles, food wrappers, sporting equipment and more in your car. The best thing to do is to take it out right away.
The last thing you want to do is to have to get into your car the day after a vacation and see all of the things you need to get out of your car. It is nice to have a cleaned out car the day after a vacation.
2.Start a Load of Laundry
One of the most overwhelming things about getting back from a vacation can be the daunting task of laundry! If you can get one load of laundry started right when you get home, you are one step closer to getting it finished.
If everything in your suitcase is dirty laundry, take all of your items directly from your suitcase to the laundry. One way to make it easier to know to separate dirty and clean clothes is to contain the dirty clothes in these packing cubes. Use the packing cubes to sort out clothes by day during your vacation and then separate clean and dirty clothes at the end of the trip.
3. Bring Life Back Into the House
It can feel good to come home! Bring life back into your home by lighting a candle, turning on some accent lights and music. Also, if it’s not too cold, you can open a few windows and let in some fresh air!
4. Put away all luggage and travel items.
Now that you have gotten everything out of the car, it is time to put it away. If you have been on a beach trip, put all all toys, chairs and equipment. The sooner that you can do this, the more likely you will not let it sit for days and weeks.
5. Meal Plan and Order Groceries
One of the best things about coming home from a trip is getting to eat your own favorite foods. Sure, it is nice to eat out on vacation, but it is also nice to come home and eat our favorite foods. Now that grocery pick up or delivery is available, it is so easy to meal plan and order groceries on the trip home. You might even be able to pick up your groceries as soon as you get home.
6. Clean the Car
If you traveled by car on vacation, most likely your car is very dirty. Especially if you have kids and everyone was eating in the car. Or possibly you were on a beach trip and sand has left its mark everywhere in the car.
As soon as you have the time, it is nice to vacuum and even wash the car.
7. Organize Mail and Newspapers
If you’ve been gone a few days most likely the mail and papers have piled up! Take this opportunity to sit down on the couch and leisurely go through all of your paperwork. The longer you let it pile up, the more overwhelming it will be to tackle this chore.
8. Document your vacation memories and organize photos.
Are you bummed about returning home? One of the best ways to beat the post vacation blues is to recap your trip. Take the time to write down your vacation memories. If you have taken of photos on your phone, organize them into a travel folder. You might want to create a photo book or to print out some of your favorite pictures.
Getting Organized After a Trip
Vacations are definitely worth the inevitable process of coming home! But you can really ease your feelings about coming home by getting organized after a trip!
What do you always do when get home from a trip?
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Love these tips and getting that first load of laundry in is key- I feel like it keeps me going- it’s a chain reaction and we don’t sit down and relax until everything is organized and cleaned up!
I always struggle with getting organized after a vacation. I will definitely use these tips next time!
YES! These are such fabulous tips! I have started traveling with a canvas laundry bag and all the dirty clothes from the trip go straight into there. That bag goes straight from the car to the washer! It’s helped me feel so much more organized because everything left in the suitcase is clean and needs to be put away!
This is such a good idea of a blog post. I hate unpacking and settling in after a trip
Great tips – especially taking everything out of the car. Whenever we fail to do this, it all stays in there for at least a week. lol
These are good tips!! We always manage to bring everything in right away, but would you believe we still have a basket of things sitting in the house from our summer family trip…. LOL
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who had been conducting a little
homework on this. And he in fact ordered me breakfast
because I discovered it for him… lol. So allow me to
reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for
spending time to discuss this topic here on your website.