What to Do When You Get Home From Vacation
Well hey there!
I can’t believe it’s the end of July already! I hope you’re having a wonderful summer so far and have possibly even gone on a trip or a few trips and got away for a bit!
I don’t know about you but I LOVE vacation time but I absolutely DREAD coming home and catching up on everything around the house! From unpacking, doing laundry, mail, and emails.
So this week I’d like to talk about some ways that may help you ease your way back home after vacation or even help you organize yourself when you get back home.
1. Don’t Forget About Self Care
If you are coming home from a long flight, jet lagged, or even coming home from a long road trip, all of these things take a toll on your body. It is important to remember to take care of yourself by staying hydrated and catching up on your sleep! In a previous post and FB Live I did with health and wellness coach, Amy Shaw of Stop Sugarcoating it, she talked about how self care has to come first in order to be your best self to take care of your family. You can see the whole video and read the notes by CLICKING HERE. You can even get your own healthy living checklist!
Giving yourself an extra day off before going back to work is also another great way to be able to catch up on all of this. If you can, come back on Saturday instead of Sunday so then you have a whole day to catch up before going back to work (or whichever day it may be before going back to work).
2. Unpack Right Away
Unpacking your suitcases as soon as you get back is a sure way to get ahead of the game. I have found that if I do not unpack my suitcase right away, then everything ends up staying there for a week before I even get to it. Has this happened to you?
One way to make unpacking easier for you, is to make the PACKING part simple. If you pack less, it will be easier to unpack. CLICK HERE for some tips on how to pack your suitcase!
3. Air Your Laundry
I don’t know why, but I always find a way to make a play on words 😂. But seriously, while unpacking, start washing your dirty laundry RIGHT AWAY! By doing laundry right away, it will keep it from piling up during the week as you wear other clothes when you get home.
4. Go Through Your Mail
If you’ve been away for at least a few days, your mail has piled up. In between the laundry and after the unpacking, take some time to go through all of your mail. Decide what can get shredded, recycled, what needs immediate action, and what can wait. If you have not set up an organized system for your mail, CLICK HERE for a full guide on how to organize your incoming papers!
5. Check Your Emails
While we are talking about going through your paper, now would be a good time to go through your emails too. Dedicate some time to take a look through the emails you have missed while you were away. I’m just talking about your personal emails right now. But, when you get back to work, going through your work emails is going to be very important as well. When going through your email, start with the oldest emails received first and then work your way to the most recent. You will probably be able to filter through a lot of the older emails quickly and then work on the most recent ones.
If you feel totally overwhelmed with your email inbox, CLICK HERE to check out one of my blog posts about how to manage your email inbox. Included in that post is a free download on what to do with every email you get in order to keep your inbox clear.
6. Go Through Your Photos
Now for the fun part. Go through all of your photos that you took on your phone! A few months ago I randomly decided to go through all of the photos that were on my phone. HOURS later, I ended up deleting over 1,000 photos that were blurry, or just random screen shots I took by mistake! You can see how I went through all of my photos and organized them all by CLICKING HERE. Don’t be like me and let your photos pile up on you. Go through your photos from vacation when you get home and either delete the not-so-good ones and organize the good ones into a folder.
Worried about dinner on top of all of this? Don’t worry about that! You should have some frozen dinners that you prepped BEFORE GOING ON VACATION so that is just one less thing that you have to worry about while going through all of these other tasks!
If you need some guidance on what to do before you go on vacation to make sure that everything is taken care of while your away (and easier for you when you get home) click the link below!