The holiday season isn’t just a time for festivities or celebrations, but also memorable and fun vacations. It’s the perfect season for you and your family to go on a trip and create new memories together. You get to have quality time with your loved ones and strengthen your bond. When people go on vacation, they usually take time to secure their house before leaving, from unplugging appliances to checking the locks.
But what most people don’t think about is what they’ll do when they get home. Many of us love to lie down and rest for a few days. The fact is, there are lots of things you need to take care of when going home from a holiday vacation — that is, if you want to start your new year with an organized, clean, and amazing environment. Below are a few suggestions on what you should do at home after your holiday family trip.
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Let the fresh air in
If you don’t have a house sitter during your entire trip, all your windows and doors are surely locked. While this is good news for securing your belongings, you can breathe in stale indoor air. To introduce fresh air and get the ventilation back to your house, open the windows once you arrive from the trip.
Proper ventilation will depend on the quality of air indoors and outdoors. Ideally, the windows must be open for at least five to 15 minutes. Opening the windows isn’t just to let the fresh air in, but it can also positively impact your family’s health and well-being. You can rest and sleep at night after a tiring trip, reduce indoor air pollutants, and your home will smell better.
Inspect heating and cooling system
The next thing you should do is check your heating and cooling system, which you’d need for the winter and upcoming spring. If you’re one of those homeowners who only checks their systems when it stops working, you’re likely to have more costly repairs on your hands. In general, it’s advisable to schedule a regular heater and AC maintenance service to ensure they work efficiently without consuming too much energy or polluting the air inside. A well-maintained heating and cooling system can improve the comfort of your space, which you need after an exhausting holiday trip.
Check the fridge and pantry
Let’s admit it, we don’t clean our fridge or pantry daily or weekly, or sometimes, even when we’re going to travel for several days. If this sounds like you, you better check that food storage when you get back from the trip. Even if you didn’t leave too much stuff inside, have a look at your fridge and pantry for anything that got expired or spoiled. If you’re feeling up to it, you can do a deep clean. From cleaning the crumbs and stuff hidden in your fridge to rearranging your pantry, deep cleaning can be an amazing way to start healthier food options and eating habits.
Tidy up the rest of the house
Now, before you complain, you don’t necessarily need to clean your living space the day you arrive. This is totally up to you. You can do it the day after or on the upcoming weekend. After-holiday cleaning already sounds tiring and not exciting. But if you want to have a relaxing and comfortable home to rest and get your energy back, you need to do it.
Your vacuum cleaner would be your best friend for this job. Start by taking the cushions off the furniture, sweeping the floors and carpets, and taking down any holiday decorations you have. Don’t forget to take out any trash left, empty the dishwasher, clear off and wipe the kitchen counters, and check your laundry.
Revisit your home safety measures
Before leaving for the trip, you’ve surely done some prep tricks to prevent robbery or burglary in your house. Now’s the time to revisit them. Start by resuming your newspaper and mail services that you’ve paused to fool robbers. That’s unless you have your friend or neighbor to pick them up for you. If you’ve set your lights on timers before you left, you can now reset them. Make sure to also check your security cameras if there’s any suspicious activity recorded while you’re gone.
Now, we’re not saying you should take care of all this right on the day you get home. Just make sure you do them as soon as possible. That way, you can go on with the new year with a well-ordered home. If you don’t have the energy to do things yourself, you can choose to hire professional house cleaners and local repair experts to check on your systems.
