5 Simple Ways to Make Coming Home from Vacation Less Overwhelming

Getting ready to head out on a much needed trip? Here are 5 simple things you can do to make coming home way less stressful.

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You’ve just come back from having the most amazing week of your life- sipping margaritas poolside, checking items off of your bucket-list, taking in the most dramatic scenery, falling in love with the leisure life. Now reality sets in and it’s as if you just experienced a super harsh landing. We get it. Traveling every month leads us to experience this, well, every month. If there is one thing I hate more than returning to work on a Monday after being away, it’s returning to a long to-do list. So, Ive created a list of 5 things I do before going away to ensure a smooth transition to being back home.

1. Stock Your Fridge With Essentials

I know, I know this sounds like a cardinal sin. Aren’t you supposed to clear the fridge before you leave? Well, yes. We do purge the refrigerator of all the perishable items (fresh veggies, meats, ect.) prior to leaving, but we also stock the fridge with non-perishable must haves. Unless you are going on an exuberantly long trip, chances are you will be able to help your future self out and buy some essentials.

Here are the essentials we always make sure to have on hand:

Almond milk
Eggs
Our favorite snacks (chips & salsa for Zach)
Meat (beef, pork, fish, or chicken) in the freezer
Frozen veggies

These items aren’t going to expire in a week or two and can be made into a meal. I could live off breakfast foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or I can pull the chicken breast and frozen broccoli from the freezer. While I will still need to go to the grocery store in the future, I don’t feel the pressure as soon as the plane touches down.

2. Wash Your Sheets Before You Leave

Returning home and facing reality sucks, there’s no way to sugar coat that. After a long (and always uncomfortable) journey flying or driving home, I just want to go to bed.

There is absolutely nothing better than your own bed. But you know what makes it even better? Fresh, clean sheets. Even when I am stressed getting everything ready for a trip, adding this one simple task to my to-do list is worth it.

3. Refill Everyday Household Items

You know what I absolutely despise? Going to use something, only to find it empty. There is nothing that grinds my gears like this. Imagine it happening 4x over? This used to be us.

Returning home from a trip, trying to get our lives in order, only to find everything is empty. Now, I make it a priority to start looking during the week prior to our trip, at things that are running low.

Here are a few items that I check regularly before we go away: hand soap, coffee pods, batteries, shampoos, toilet paper. I cannot tell you how much less stress and anger my jet-lagged self feels knowing that my coffee stash will be waiting for me completely full.

4. Do a thorough basic home cleaning

I know, another item added to your busy before-vaca to-do list, but hear me out. It’s actually a fact that a cluttered and messy environment creates feelings of stress. Jet-lag is stressful, returning to work is stressful, facing the scale post-vaca is stressful, don’t add any unnecessary stress to your life. You don’t need that. Now, I’m not talking about a sterile environment type of clean either, just the basics.

Clean kitchen surfaces
Tidy bathrooms
Take our trash
Sweep or vacuum floors
Run the dishwasher

5. Do laundry on your trip

If we are going somewhere for more than a week, I plan a laundry afternoon into our travel itinerary. Coming home with heaps of dirty laundry makes re-packing a nightmare and creates a seemingly endless to-do list for returning home. Plus, planning to do laundry while away is a major space saver for those of us who are #TeamCarryOn.

While laundry isn’t the most fun or relaxing vacation activity, you might find that it’s not that big of an inconvenience either. We got sun on the beach while doing laundry in Australia, paid $8 for someone to do our laundry in Bali, and took a nap away from the summer heat of Japan while our clothes were in the washer.

Foreign hotels sometimes make it incredible accommodating to do laundry, so I make note to always check the laundry facilities when booking a stay.

Final Thoughts

Coming home is hard, especially after an incredibly trip. With some planning and a little extra effort, coming home can be calm, stress-free, and maybe even a little relaxing. Plus, with all the stress you save rushing around, you might even have some time to start planning your next adventure!