Need a vacation from your vacation?

Hey friend! Are you like me and love to travel?

But do you find yourself having a hard time recovering from your trips once you get home?

I’m sharing with you 5 tips that I’m going to start incorporating into my travel pre-planning.

This are actions I’m going to discipline myself to do ahead of time so that my trip is more enjoyable and so that I can bounce back from my trip faster.

I have struggled getting back into the grove this week after my recent trip to Utah, which has a two hour time difference than where I live in Florida.

I wish I would have thought of these pre-planning tips before my trip because I’m finding it difficult to catch up on things.

I have learned my lesson and I’m definitely going to put this routine into practice for my next trip.

I hope these tips help you too.

Listen here

Here’s my 5 best pre-travel tips!

Tip #1: Stock Groceries

I learned my lesson the hard way on this one.

I thought it would be better to use up all our groceries before traveling so food didn’t go bad in the refrigerator but I quickly realized upon returning home that I didn’t feel like going shopping for a couple of days.

Now I try to meal plan before we leave for a trip or vacation and stock the freezer and pantry with items that are easy and won’t perish while we’re gone.

Tip #2: Clean and Tidy the House

I know it probably annoys my family to have them help me clean before we leave but Jered has even gotten on board with this one.

He too enjoys coming home to a clean house.

Last summer I had the brilliant idea of hiring a housekeeper to clean our home while we were on vacation.

Everyone, including the children, loved walking into a clean house.

Now it’s something we budget into our trips.

But if you don’t have the funds to hire a housekeeper once a year for your vacation, you can spend the extra time cleaning and tidying up before you leave.

And if you’ve already established good tidy and cleaning habits it won’t be too hard to quickly reset and refresh.

Utilize your dry-erase communication board to get everyone on board as well.

Tip #3: Complete your first day duties

There’s nothing worse than coming home from vacation and being bombarded with a hefty to do list.

So why not treat yourself to having those first day duties and tasks completed by spending the extra time working on them before you leave.

I know it’s a bit challenging to think ahead especially when you just want to take a break from your life and all the responsibilities, but you will be doing your future self a favor.

Don’t know what your first duties are?

You need to figure them out through a time blocking coaching session HERE.

Time blocking has helped me to weed out the non-essentials to live more minimal and within my personal capabilities.

Tip #4: hire a babysitter

For those of you with little ones, hiring a babysitter will be the greatest gift you can give yourself.

You know what it feels like to get back and be smacked in the face with responsibilities.

You’re trying to catch up on all the vacation laundry, unpack all the suitcases, figure out what to cook for dinner for the nest couple of days, grocery shop if you didn’t do that ahead of time AND…. get back into your workflow as a work-from-home mom.

Overwhelmed just thinking about it?

Yep, you’ve got a lot waiting for you when you return.

So get rid of the mom guilt and take some time to set up a babysitter or arrange for your kids to go to grandmas house on the first day after a trip.

Even if they’re old enough to stay home by themselves or entertain themselves, you will benefit from the peace and quiet and be able to focus so much better in an empty house.

You’ll be a happy less stressed mom and they will definitely be thankful for that!

Tip #5: Take a day of Rest

I know it probably feels extremely lazy to take a day of rest after just taking a vacation where the entire goal was to rest.

But let’s be honest, how many of us actually rest on vacations?

So upon returning home, if you’ve applied the above tips, you’re going to be able to easily take a day of rest without guilt or feeling behind.

This might mean having to take off a day of work if you return on Sunday and not Saturday.

For this reason, Jered and I always try to plan our trips so that we return home on Saturdays so we get that extra day of rest without him having to take off work.

By the time Monday comes, we’re both ready to jump back into our weekly routines and schedule.

What about you? What’s something you do when prepping to travel that you’ve found to help you when returning home?