This week: Making ready to go away.
This weekend my husband and me are going away for a family weekend with my family down south. We're going to be gone for 5 days, and this requires some planning on our part. We have 2 cats so I need to find someone to take care of them. And I also need to make the house ready for us leaving and staying away for that time. I have a sort of routine for making us and the house ready for vacations and here it is.
If we are going away for a long time I reserve a whole day for making ready, or I divide the work over a couple of days if my days a particularly busy. Today I have the whole day though, and we are leaving first thing tomorrow.
I start out by eating a good breakfast, since cleaning the whole house often takes a lot out of you. :)
After breakfast I gather up any dirty dishes and clean them. I don't have a dish washer yet, so this is done by hand. I always rinse them in near-to-boiling water and set them to dry when they've been cleaned.
While the dishes are drying I take any kitchen towels that are dirty and toss them into the sink in the bathroom to wash. This is an easy way to do a small amount of laundry in a short amount of time.
After popping the towels in wash I attack the oven, the benches and the tables: Tidy, clean, whipe.
And remember - Put everything in it's propper place, less it ends up as more mess. I also make sure there are no unpayed bills lying around somewhere. This is a thing I've learned the hard way. For the longest time i never knew where the bills were or even if they were payed. Most of the time they were not. Now I always know where my bills are and I pay them as soon as I can. And as soon as they are payed I note date and time on the papers and put them in a designated ring binder.
Then I take an hour break. Mabe use the time to study a bit, or to eat lunch while watching an episode of True Blood that I've recorded earlier.
After the break there's folding to do, and more tidying. Everything that's lying around have to be put in its right place. Even if I am to use it later. As I go I bring a wet cloth with me and whipes of every shelf, nook and crannie that I can find. Sockets, picture frames, ledges and window sills also get a once-over.
Then it's hanging the laundry, taking out the trash, shaking out the carpets, dusting of the telly and vacuuming and cleaning the floors.
After that it's mostly decorating. Like finding and laying out new table cloths, airing the linens and then making the bed and airing out all the rooms for an hour or so.
Last, but not least, before we leave in the morning I unplug ALL electrical items/appliances that does not need to be in. That includes the oven, the TV and the computer. This makes sure that if there is a electrical charge there is no way my electrical appliances will get ruined... or worse... catch on fire.
Having problem finding a place for everything? Here's a cheap but good tip. Get some of these from IKEA. They are relatively cheap, they can be packed flat when you don't need them anymore, and they can hold a lot of different things. I use them for receipts, magazine articles, all my hobby stuffs and my sewing accessoiries.
No comments:
Post a Comment