Back to Reality

After our lovely stay in Camber, we packed up,  cleaned up after ourselves, and returned to London and reality.  It was, however, genuinely lovely to get home to all things familiar.  I had left the house in a clean and tidy state, fortunately, as there is nothing more depressing than returning home to caked on food on dirty dishes in the sink, or having to unravel your home before unpacking from your holiday.  I always make a point of leaving the house how I want to find it when I get back, even if it means flying around for the last few hours before setting off.  It drives my other half mad, as he always has to practically tear me away from cleaning the house, to get going on our journey and it does sometimes cause me to forget the odd essential thing. 

I think it stems from a particular occasion we went out on a daytrip to the beach one Sunday, and were happily sat on the beach enjoying ourselves, when we were telephoned by a neighbour to say our house had been burgled, and the police were waiting for us.  We dashed back home terrified at what we'd find.   Because we'd gone out in a rush, we'd left the house a bit untidy and when the police asked what had been taken, it was hard to tell because of the mess we'd left.  Ever since I've always tidied around before leaving, although we have had better security features fitted since.

Using this strategy also means that all I have to do when I get home is to get some bread and milk, put the kettle on, unpack the dirty washing, put it in the machine to wash, have a cup of tea whilst opening any post and I'm almost back on top of things, which is especially good if you've had a long and tiring journey.  If I'm really organised, I even do my washing whilst away and come back with a suitcase full of clean clothes that only need ironing.  This time, however, I didn't manage to figure out where the washing machine actually was until we were leaving.  Don't ask! 

Do you have any particular routines that you follow when you go away, that make your return much easier?