At my house, packing for a long trip practically means turning your house upside down with washing laundry, doing last minute errands, packing suitcases, and endless worrying that you did not forget anything. These things can consume your brain so much that you find yourself on the road, thinking about all that is left undone.
I used to clean my house before I went, making sure everything was fresh and picked-up including new sheets and vacuuming. Then after one weekend, I came home to find the cat had pulled down our books off the bottom book shelf and started tearing out pieces of pages since we forgot to put enough food out. Luckily, he had enough water! That is when I decided why add the stress of cleaning beforehand when you come home and probably will find the house messy anyways. If it is not dusty or dirty again when you get home, it will be by the time you unload and dump everything as soon as you walk into the door.
I did put together a list of things that still need to be done though before we left home for an extended amount of time. Notice that this list contains things that pertain to smell, our pet, and taking care of the house in general.
- Clean out old food of fridge; finish eating leftovers.
- Take out trash and recycling.
- Empty your sinks of dirty dishes and wash last load in dishwasher on way out.
- Provide access with key to person checking on pet.
- Leave extra food and water for pet.
- Turn off water to clothes washer.
- Turn down heat or air conditioning.
- Cover couches with tarp.
- Water plants.
- Clothes doors to rooms.
- Cancel newspaper for duration of trip.
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