What do you do before a trip... to make it easier when you get back..

[Grumpy's Gal]

Have frozen OJ, bag of frozen fruit and frozen waffles in the freezer. Have a can of pilsbury cinnamon rolls and a new carton of eggs in the frig. We arrive home late at night and I know first thing in the morning, we can have something for breakfast without going to the store.

 

[Gigi22]

I make sure I have coffee, frozen English muffins, Coffee Mate and PB on hand as well as UHT milk. Also stock up on cat supplies. I leave a letter with contact info. and travel plans with the house sitter. And, since I unexpectedly got “trapped” in Florida for a few extra days by weather, I keep my daily schedule on my phone so I can shuffle any appointments as needed.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

We had a 1bedroom villa last trip so I was able to do 95% of our vacation laundry before we came home. I also hire a pet sitter that stays at our home so it forces me to clean the house before we leave. I also try not to return the night before school/work so we have a little downtime to grocery shop and relax before the real world starts back up.

 

[KayW]

We shut off our toilets. One trip we came home and one had leaked and stained the ceiling of the pantry below it. Now we don't have that worry.

I do the laundry the night before we leave. Less clothes in the hamper. Towels will get done if needed too.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I do pretty much the same thing. Clean house really good. Then two nights before our trip we order the Pizza Hut big dinner box which gives us plenty of food for that night and leftovers for the next. We eat on paper plates both nights that way there is no kitchen clean up for two nights.
To combat the laundry saga, since we are DVC members and have access to the free laundry rooms, the night we leave I wash all of our clothes. We always end our vacation by relaxing in the hot tub the night before we leave. Since the laundry room is right by the pool I put in a load of whites and a load or two of dark's. Since Disney has more than one washer and dryer I can do multiple loads all at once where as at home they would have to done one load at a time. In less than one hour and 30 minutes I can wash all of our clothes. Which is not an issue since we are just relaxing by the pool so its not like it is a big issue to do laundry while on vacation. We have to fold clothes that night and put them back in our suitcase to fly home why not fold clean ones. Then when we get home they come out of the suitcase and back in the closest. So nice not coming home with mounds of dirty laundry to do. When we get back we stop at Subway and grab dinner. Subway is next to a mini mart so I can run in and get milk. When we get home everyone has been fed and all that is left to do is put away the clean clothes and we are all done with our trip.

 

[Tikitoi]

We shut off our toilets. One trip we came home and one had leaked and stained the ceiling of the pantry below it. Now we don't have that worry.

Have heard of people doing that.

I also heard of people unplugging automatic garage doors I guess in case of a power outage occurring then when it comes back on. Not sure if I would do that....The garage.

 

[kymom99]

Have heard of people doing that.

I also heard of people unplugging automatic garage doors I guess in case of a power outage occurring then when it comes back on. Not sure if I would do that....The garage.

Husband usually shuts off water to the washer. We have never shut off the toilets. I guess he has never thought about that.

I always wash towels and most other stuff too before we leave. I don't have a dish washer and the used dish rags would be smelly if I left them for a week. I also try to have things sort of tidy since we have people stopping in to take care of the cat. My husband always cuts the grass at the last minute. We have a lot of grass and he hates for it to get high. Then he goes right out when we return to cut it again.

We also pretty much empty the fridge. There is usually something in the freezer we can eat until I run to the store.

 

[clh2]

One of the things we while on vacation to make arriving home easier-we sort he laundry. There were 3 of us, and each of our loads (darks, lights and whites) came home in a bag in each suitcase. First load of lAundry would be in the washer within minutes of arriving home.

 

[Sadie22]

Let more than one neighbor know your plans. We were away during a big windstorm last week. Two neighbors cleared the road of our fallen tree and let us know that the truck parked outside was okay. They walked around the house checking for damage and let us know all was okay.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Like everyone else, I clean, change the sheets, clean out the fridge.

Now, I don't worry about the house while we are gone because for the last 3 trips and the next two, our son will be home. It is nice because I don't have to worry about the mail, lights, water or pets. He can take care of all of that. He also goes to the grocery store the day we come back, so we are covered for that as well.

 

[cheap traveler]

We have young people pet-sitting (19-21 or so) so I generally clean up our messes so they can make their own. We have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 7 (now 13) chickens, and some fish, so we get a few people to help out, and they’re friends so a lot of time they hang out here. I make sure there is at least double the amount of pet food they’ll need, in case they overfeed or spill.

My older kids each do their own laundry. I never focus on doing any before we leave, except what we need to pack!

I do always clean out the fridge and make room for a week’s worth of fresh eggs! No matter how many times I tell them all that they can eat them, I always come home to 3 dozen new eggs lol.

Nobody ever remembers to get the mail, so I’m going to put a hold on it this year.

I see a lot of people make the beds before they leave. I’ve made my bed maybe....4 times in the last 2 years
Even when I change the sheets, I usually don’t finish until we’re about ready to climb in it for the night.

We generally leave very early in the morning, if we’re going somewhere far. This year’s Disney trip means leaving around 3:15am. Coming home is more relaxed, we often arrive between noon and 4. Dinner can be simple, spaghetti with frozen meatballs. Maybe it’ll be breakfast for dinner.
My laundry gets started soon after walking through the door, the girls will take 2 days to even unpack.

 

[tcufrog]

I live in a small town so I let the police know we’re leaving. I also put a hold on my mail, pay bills, throw out old food, and notify the credit card so it’s not frozen. I make sure my kids will have clean underwear and uniforms when they return and splurge on a house cleaning while I’m gone. My bff locks up the house after they leave.

 

[bcwife76]

Haha I love that we all have similar answers. Good, I thought I was weird ;-)

-Do all the laundry
-Empty all garbages and recycling
-Clean the fridge shelves, freeze any leftovers that are freezeable, otherwise eat/drink what we can or give the neighbours any perishables
-Pay all the bills that will be due while away or prepay ones that are due a few days after coming home so they aren't forgotten
-Clean all the dishes, run the dishwasher, eat off paper plates or get take out the night before we leave as I hate to leave dirty dishes in the dishwasher while we are away.
-vacuum/mop/sweep
-change bed linens so we come home to fresh sheets

 

[arminnie]

Not just for Disney. My DH and I have 2 homes about 450 miles apart. We bounce back and forth with no set schedule. So when we leave one home we are never quite sure when we are returning.

But I like to leave each home clean and picked up when we leave. When that hasn’t happened because of some emergency it is SO depressing to walk back into a dirty, messy home.

We transport perishable foods back and forth unless it is something we just want to toss.

We make multiple trips to WDW and stay mostly in 1BR DVC units so the process is similar except that I don’t have to leave the dvc unit clean. Not that we leave it trashed, but I don’t vacuum and mop before leaving.

 

[Pembo]

Vacuum...

 

[tvguy]

We don't do anything before. What we do is come home a couple of days before we have to return to work to allow time to clean house and restock groceries.
Actually we just came back last night from vacation and return to work Monday and my wife DID sweep all the laminate floors in the house the night before we left. THAT was a TOTAL waste of time, because we returned to dust bunnies just as if we had been here all week.

 

[here757]

Panic and stress! Worried about things I’m possibly forgetting

 

[momof2gr8kids]

We shut off our toilets. One trip we came home and one had leaked and stained the ceiling of the pantry below it. Now we don't have that worry.

I do the laundry the night before we leave. Less clothes in the hamper. Towels will get done if needed too.

Yep, we do too. Although I'm really wishing for a basement redo paid for by the insurance company....LOL. Kidding, that would be devastating to come home to. Had it happen to friends.
Since we travel south during the extreme cold up in Canada, we also turn our main water off. Because if the furnace cuts out and you have a frozen pipe and break, that's even worse.

 

[Belle1962]

While on vacation I bring different trash bags and mark them "colors, whites", etc. we put our dirty clothes into the appropriate bag. At the end of the vacation I just put the bags into the suitcases. When I get home the laundry is already sorted. I just dump the bag into the washing machine.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We try to have one of us off for an extra day on our return so they can do laundry and grocery shop.
I do try and make sure there are lunch fixings in the freezer to take that day.