The plane is waiting but I have to hoover, dust and clean ! WHY ???

It’s so nice to come back to a clean, tidy house after a wonderful holiday. It feels like a welcome home. ♥️

I like to leave the house clean and tidy.

DS and DIL have no such qualms. They are happy to go off on a fortnight’s holiday, leaving their home looking as though they have just popped out for a loaf of bread.

Like so many others I really love walking in as if I'm seeing the house for the first time and thinking what a nice place it is. And, if we've been off in the campervan, how much wonderful space there is.

But, because I also like to have all my affairs in order before we go, there is that concern that the kids will have sort everything if the camper explodes or, if its a Big Holiday, the plane crashes.

Yep, always have a really good cleaning session before we go away, 'just in case'. But also because it is nice to come home and just have the holiday washing to deal with.

Well I empty the bins, sort out the fridge and anything absolutely necessary, but my inner slut doesn’t allow anything more. Just getting away with the right clothes etc is enough for me.

I’m reminded of the time - years ago now - when dh was away for some time, dds had left home, and I went to bed one night leaving a seriously messy kitchen and the rest of the house not much better. Can’t remember why, just tired and couldn’t BB I suppose.

After an hour or two I woke up, thinking, ‘Sh*t, what if I died in the night and the police eventually had to break in and find a total tip as well as a very dead body??’ ?

So I got up at 2 am or whatever it was, and tidied up! ?

We usually stay in self-catering accommodation with a washing machine. I do the bulk of my washing on holiday and bring it home clean.
(I've told my husband he can do the same next time rather than dumping it all when we get home and assuming I'll be happy to do it!)

Five years ago we had a bad house fire.
Talking about it afterwards I said I was glad I'd made the beds that morning, as I would have hated it if the firemen had seen our bedrooms untidy.
My husband and son thought I'd finally lost the plot:
We've got no roof on the house, no ceilings, no internal walls and you're worried about whether the beds were made? ?
The whole lot had to go in a skip anyway ?

We do a good tidy up, including fridge. We are leaving for 3 weeks next Friday, and I'm already starting to menu plan for the week with what's left in the fridge, and will buy minimum food this week.

Potato salad to use up the potatoes and eggs, etc. Make a carrot cake to use up carrots, then freeze or deliver the cake. Plus pack, get a pedicure, look for treats for grandchildren who we will visit. It's going to be a busy week!

And yes, fresh sheets and towels to come home to.

My mind works like Jalyn and CatCrone.... so glad I'm not alone. ?

HECK !!!!!

I dont know whether to act shocked or elated at these replies....

I think BOTH are much needed..

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ........

I can remember us setting off on a holiday when I was a child (with a long car journey ahead of us from Yorkshire to Cornwall) at about 4 a.m., and my mum still insisted on running the vac over the already spotless carpets just before we left, and re-cleaning the already clean toilets.

I think she was (and still is, at nearly 90) worried that if anything untoward were to happen, such as an accident, whoever next entered the house would judge her by the state of it. Not that it has ever been anything other than show house standard! The day it looks less than perfect, I will know that she genuinely can't manage on her own any more.

I only leave my house looking ‘lived in’ just in case a would be burglar happened to look through the window! Always leave some dishes on the draining board.

Yes, it’s true, isn’t it? Most of us probably do clean the house thoroughly before we go. I think it’s so we don’t return to an untidy home. Toilets get thoroughly bleached, bins emptied, cobwebs whipped into submission, beds changed, fridge cleared, etc, etc. I know we do these things anyway, but just before a holiday it seems even more important to do it ??

I like to leave it reasonably clean and tidy, but I don’t go mad. Partial exception was when a Singaporean SiL and 2 nieces wanted to use the house for a few days while we were away. She has a maid to do everything, so I don’t suppose it occurred to her that I’d be thinking, ‘Oh, bugger - now I’ll have to go mad cleaning and making spare beds before we go…’.

Yes, I’m the same, house must be clean, and most important, sheets must be changed so that we come home to a lovely clean bed.
All bins, recycling must be emptied and washed out, and no dirty laundry can be left, apart from the previous nights sleep wear.

I have a mega-ton of paperwork, bills to pay, admin stuff, etc, etc...

... but suddenly decide I can't do it until I've cleaned the kitchen, shower room, upstairs bathroom, and dusted the office.

Same syndrome.

Have a wonderful time - you've earned it!

Is it the same as wearing clean underwear in case you get run over by a bus?

I tidy make sure everything is off about 6 times but spring clean no never I don’t even do that in Spring I just do things when they need doing
When I go away everything is put away and nice and tidy but ……….

Well, I belong to the generation that is quite, quite sure, that if the planes, trains, cars etc I intend to travel on should crash killing me and / or the rest of the passengers, I should waken up in the afterlife black-affronted at the thought that those who have to dispose of my home and its contents would be going into a messy, dirty house!

I suspect this is the main reason for cleaning before leaving - simple superstition.

BUT it is nice to come home to a clean and tidy house, unpack my suitcase and fling my dirty washing straight into the washing-machine or the dirty clothes basket.

Sago

Me too, if I die non holiday my children will be so delighted the beds have fresh linen on and the house is immaculate.

Mine’d be amazed, Sago!

Pre-holiday, or pre friends coming to stay is the only time my house gets a good 'bottoming'. The rest of the time, it is a lick and a promise, all surface clean. The only time I clean behind the fridge is when we move house or buy a new fridge. I would certainly fail the Four in a Bed test, plenty of fluff under my beds, streaks on the shower screen.

Me too, if I die non holiday my children will be so delighted the beds have fresh linen on and the house is immaculate.

Not here I’m afraid, although we’ve only been away for a few days at a time since covid. Prior to that we used to go abroad for 8 months, total clean down as our house was rented out, so from one extreme to another!

Unless your property is occupied, while you are away, console yourself with the fact it will be as you left it.After all whats wrong with a few spiders having moved in? weaving a few webs here and there.

Wash behind the fridge?