If you’re like me, vacations are awesome–but your getaway plan leaves something to be desired.
You want to get going, but there are too many things that need to be taken care of first! See if you can identify with this column that first ran in a bunch of newspapers in 2009:
By the time you read this, I’ll be back, but right now my family is preparing to go camping. The girls are collecting the towels, bathing suits, and bug repellent, my husband is filling the coolers, and me? I’m dusting my bedroom.
If that doesn’t make sense to you, it’s because you are missing the crucial nesting gene. I have one, which may surprise most who know me, because it only manifests itself when we are preparing to leave. On a normal day I may be perfectly content living in a home with stacks of unopened mail scattered around the dining room, dust bunnies plotting a takeover of my house under my bed, and unidentifiable contents in Tupperware containers lurking near the back of my fridge.
But when we are leaving these things are absolutely out of bounds, as anyone with any self-respect would agree. Unfortunately, my husband and my children do not share the gene, and so they have the gall to become frustrated with me, and to express this frustration in unpleasant ways, when they think that I am letting them “do all the work” of packing and “holding us up” and “wasting time” instead of actually contributing to the camping cause.
Mysteriously, they fail to see how my actions contribute to a holiday.
After all, what’s a holiday if you have to come home to a messy house?
So as I’m collecting our clothes, I notice the dust more than I do on normal days. Or when I’m piling suitcases in the hallway I notice the floors could really use a mopping. Don’t even get me started on what happens when I go through the fridge to figure out what we need in the coolers.
By the time we actually exit our premises, then, our house is in tip top shape. And yet instead of lauding me for this spurt of high energy cleaning action, my family feels resentment because they want to “get going”. Honestly.
My husband even had the gall to inform me that one day he is going to announce a magnificent, surprise holiday, just so that I would clean the house. Then, with all the suitcases packed and all the floors sparkly, he would tell me that we’re going to stay home, because it’s so nice to live in now. I was not impressed.
Cleaning, though, is not all I do when we’re preparing to depart. I also have that compulsion to attend to all the errands I’ve been nonchalantly ignoring. I may have decided they’re not urgent for three or four weeks running, but when we’re about to leave the house for five days, they become a priority. And since I’m running to the bank, why not check out the sales at some of my favourite stores, too?
Then, of course, there’s the email I must answer, and the thank you notes I must write leftover from business engagements a few months ago. In short, whenever we go on vacation, my to-do list magically gets to-done.
Naturally this makes vacation preparedness a very stressful activity, and one might wonder if getaways were even worth it.
But I know the answer to that one. It’s found in sitting around a fire, eating smores and not caring if you get marshmallow on your sweatshirt. It’s found in playing cards inside the camper when it rains. It’s found in getting up one morning and reading an entire novel just because you can. It’s found in having time to walk, hand in hand, with my husband for hours because there’s nothing else to do. Vacations are bliss. And I’m just glad that, thanks to me, coming home isn’t so bad, either.
[adrotate group=”22″]
No lie, I have the SAME gene!!! What is it about taking a trip that makes you get stuff done!!!?? I have three small girls and TONS of clothes, so in prepping to pack for them I finally went through their clothes (closet bins and all) to get rid of a lot. My husband could not understand why I chose to do it then. LOL Needless to say, it resulted in an argument on the way there. Thankfully we worked through it before arriving to our destination.
I’m currently developing this gene. It came along with pregnancy. I’m learning to embrace it.
I think my husband has this gene. He seriously has the worst timing when it comes to cleaning things out when either I need his help or we need to get going. Piling the kids in the van? Perfect time to wash or vacuum it! Waiting for me to change a diaper so we can get on the road? Well, the garage needs organizing now! It makes me laugh that other people do this, and possibly give him a little more grace next time. 🙂
I have this exact same gene! Glad to know I’m not alone! Last week when we left for camping our house was spic’n’span! Unfortunately after camping for 4 days in the rain then unloading all our wet, muddy gear, the house was a disaster as soon as we got home 🙁
I do the exact same thing and by the time we leave my family is so stressed out but I feel great knowing I’m coming home to a spotless house! I honestly don’t even notice the mess until about a day before we leave!
Ha! Pretend vacation to get the house clean. That sounds like something my husband would say!
I am the same way. I always want to leave a clean-clean home… so that we come home to a clean home! (Notice the change from 2 cleans to 1 clean). Last two times we were out of town, the house was so dirty when we got home. Not messy — Dirty! Hubby noticed when I pointed it out and, at least at the time, he endorsed the need to clean before leaving town. I’m learning how to pace myself and start getting ready for leaving town at least a week before we leave. Yes, flylady, I’m learning!
I am with you all! It used to drive Dave nuts as well, however he finally appreciates the supa-clean house that only comes with vacations or the last month of pregnancy. In fact, now we work together to get it done! It’s just so relaxing to come home to a clean house after traveling all day. Well, it’s clean for 10 minutes anyhow 😉
Oh my goodness! I have that gene too! There is something so wonderful about coming home to a sparkly clean house? AND that errand issue? It’s all about deadlines for me. I just work better with a little pressure. Plus, the bonus of getting everything done that has been weighing me down is just awesome! Funny, funny post! Thanks for letting me know that I am not alone in my madness!
Part of going on a physical vacation is having a mental one, too! We women can’t seem to relax when in the back of our minds we know that we left diapers in the bathroom, dishes in the sink, and a load of laundry in the washer! Who wants to come back to stench, ants, and mildewy clothes! No thanks! There is enough “cleaning” to do when we get back anyway, let alone having to be distracted on our oh-so-infrequent vacations by the additional stress of coming home to a messy house! I honestly get this rush to clean whenever we’re having company! My husband last week shouted (as he, I and our 2 daughters are RUNNING through the house to prepare for guests), “That’s IT!!! We are having company over EVERY WEEK!” 🙂 At least that way the house would get cleaned weekly :-).
Yes, this is me! So, so glad to know I’m not the only one????!
This is also a gene that I seem to have and never realized that others share the same one. Now I feel better!
Yep, that’s me. and I thought it was just another weird thing I picked up from my “honest to goodness not quite all there” mother. Somehow this makes my mom seems a little less strange. Woot! I’m all about a little normal.
Seriously though, I’d have to make a list of things that I can leave undone just so that we can get out the door and not be stuck in horrendous traffic (or be late) because I’d get so stressed I’d almost feel sick. Now I focus more on getting a couple of things done – making sure the bedroom looks nice or that there’s not a pile of laundry in the way or that there’s nothing left out on the kitchen counters. That way I have a restful spot and don’t drive myself crazy trying to get everything done at once.
Sheila, I felt like I was reading about myself. And this summer, the one time I gave in and did not clean the house as thoroughly as I usually do before leaving for vacation, my parents pop in and arrive at our house before we get back. Yikes to the Yikes!! What can you do? Helped me to appreciate being loved and accepted for just being me, and not the daughter who cleans her house well. My mom did not freak out at the laundry on the couch or the layers of who knows what on my fridge shelves! *HUGE RELIEF* Instead we all had a good laugh about it all! Thanks for the fun post Sheila! 🙂 -Raj
Loved it. You had me laughing out loud on this one. For me, it’s when we have guests over. I need to entertain at least once a month to have a half-way tidy house. 🙂
My 30 yo daughter has a friend, that when she leaves.. Her house is Dead Clean. I’m sure y’all understand…