11 Things You Must Do Before Vacation To Come Home To A Clean House

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Last September, my husband and I took our first trip to Italy. We were away for 2 weeks, and I knew we would be absolutely exhausted when we got home. There were quite a few things I knew I must do before vacation to come home to a clean house.

A lot of work was done to secure our home before going on our trip (unplugging appliances, getting mail picked up, etc). But this post will focus on cleaning, tidying, and management …since that’s what we discuss most on this blog.

(If you need a post like that, lots of insurance companies have them, like this one.)

The last thing I want after returning from a fun vacation is tons of chores. Granted, there will be chores like laundry and mail sorting, so I try to do as much work as I can before a trip.

Here are 11 things you must do before vacation to come home to a clean house.

Remove odor-causing items

If you don’t have time to do everything on this list, at least do these 4 things before walking out the door:

Empty trashes
Remove food that will spoil
Run the garbage disposal
Wipe down/wash leftover dishes

The worst homecoming greeting is bad odors, and it’s completely avoidable! It can take a long time to remove bad odors, and that’s a chore I like to skip when I come home.

(The house is already stuffy from being closed up —I don’t want to make it worse!)

What to clean

Since I’m forewarned, I plan to run my weekly batch cleaning rhythm before going away. (You can see that rhythm here.)

If I don’t have time to do everything, here’s what I prioritize:

Vacuum dirty floors
Wipe bathroom & kitchen surfaces
Scrub toilets
Put items away (tidy up)

Which laundry to wash

Laundry is guaranteed after a vacation. To cut down on how much I’ll have to do, I tackle some before the trip.

I wash and change sheets, bedding, and towels a day or two before a trip to give us a little extra time before needing to wash them again.

Typically, I’ll do 2-3 loads of:

Clothing
Towels
Sheets

If you need a laundry routine for every day, here’s how I make laundry manageable.

Home management tasks

Paper is a huge problem for many households. Since I’ll have a stack of mail to sort through when I get home, I sort, take action, file, and shred all the paper I can prior to a trip. I don’t want to come home to find the electricity out because I forgot to pay the bill!

Pay bills or schedule payments online
File & shred papers

You can see my weekly paper management process here.

These are the 11 things you must do before vacation to come home to a clean house:

Empty trashes
Remove food that will spoil
Run the garbage disposal
Wipe down/wash leftover dishes
Vacuum dirty floors
Wipe bathroom & kitchen surfaces
Scrub toilets
Put items away (tidy up)
Wash clothes, towels, sheets & bedding
Pay bills or schedule payments online
File & shred papers

11 Things You Must Do Before Vacation To Come Home To A Clean House