You’ve spent countless hours planning out every detail of your trip and have waited months for this very moment to arrive – today’s the day you leave for vacation. As you touch down in beautiful Aruba, you look forward to spending a week in absolute bliss. The only worry you’ll have is making sure you get that perfect spot at the beach each day. The week flies by in what seems like minutes and before you know it, you’re on a plane back home.
It can be hard to come home after an amazing trip. You’re suddenly thrown back into your everyday routine filled with a long list of to-do’s, and no longer have all the free time in the world. Luckily, there are some things you can do to avoid falling into the trap of post-vacation blues. If you’re someone who’s having a hard time adjusting, here are five tips to help you settle back in at home after leaving paradise.
Prepare Your House Ahead of Leaving for Your Trip
Let’s face it, the excitement you feel in the days before leaving on a trip can make for some serious procrastination. Instead of slacking off, prepare your house so that you have less to worry about once you return from paradise.
Some things you can do are clean out of any food that’s going to spoil while you’re away, do a deep clean in the areas of your home where you spend most of your time (bedroom, kitchen, etc), wash any laundry that’s sitting in the hamper, and freeze a meal that you can throw in the oven the day you get back. Doing these simple tasks before going on a trip will make it a whole lot more pleasant to return home.
Relive Your Vacation Memories
Vacations are all about making memories, and the technology available to us today makes it really easy to relive those memories. Get together with friends and family that joined you on vacation and have a “remembering paradise party”.
Take this time to do things that remind you of your trip. Make the food and drinks that you enjoyed, watch a slideshow of all the moments you captured through film or pictures, and discuss some of your favorite activities. After all, memories are the most important thing you can bring home with you.
Give Yourself an Extra Day to Recoup
It’s hard enough to adjust back into normal life without being thrown directly into work the next day. When planning out your trip, try and schedule it so that you’ll return home on a day that allows you some time to settle back into your routine. For example, if you work Monday through Friday, come back on a Friday or Saturday.
If you can’t take an extra day, set yourself up for success. Go to bed earlier than you normally would, lay out all of your clothes and supplies, and write a list of everything that needs to be addressed. Doing this will make jumping back into work a little bit easier.
Recreate Your Favorite Dish
One of the best things about traveling is getting to try all the amazing foods a location has to offer. Though there any usually many delicious meals to enjoy while on vacation, there always seems to be one that stands out from the rest – one that you’d love to eat over and over again.
Research your favorite dish you had while traveling and try to recreate it at home. You can make a couple of different variations of the dish until you find the one that most reminds you of the original recipe. If you went on vacation with other people, you could each cook your own personal favorite dish and have a dinner party.
Start Planning Your Next Trip
What can make coming home from paradise way easier? Having another vacation to look forward to. If you’re like us, the travel bug landed its bite long ago, and its effect isn’t wearing off anytime soon (something we’re very happy about). The anticipation of an upcoming trip is a feeling like nothing else.
We know what you’re thinking, “not everyone has unlimited money and time off of work” (we sure don’t). The great thing is that vacations don’t have to be expensive and time-consuming. Trips that are close to home and over the course of a weekend are just as enjoyable as a two-week trip to an exotic country. Besides, at the end of the day, going on a trip is all about the people you’re with and the experiences you have together.
