How To Take the Stress Out of Unpacking

I’m back from a fantastic week of beach and lake time. Thank you to all our friends and family that made our vacation so much fun and so relaxing. We got back Sunday evening and our boys’ school started Monday morning. As you can imagine coming back on a Sunday night leaves little time to get things organized for the week.

And the car jammed with stuff is a pretty overwhelming sight. To ease the pain, (and the stress), break down unpacking into priorities over the week. Here’s an example of what your first few days should look like.

High Priority: (Sunday night)

• Open Mail: Just the important stuff like bills. Keep the other mail that you need to save, but is not time sensitive, until later in the week
• Get the basic groceries: Milk, cereal, bananas… just so you can get out the door with a good breakfast
• Unpack the necessities: Just the essentials like your toothbrush and other toiletries.

Medium Priority: (Monday-Wednesday)

• Unpack your bags: If you’ve been away for a week you’re not going to need everything the first couple days you get home. It’s okay to ease into it
• Write your thank notes/emails/texts or make a thank you phone call: If you’ve stayed with friends or family or just want to let a hotel/resort know what a great time you had, do it within the first day or two that you return from your trip. If you don’t do it then, it will likely never happen

Low Priority: (Thursday-Friday)

• Put your luggage away
• Get through the rest of that mail
• \Wash your car (if you’ve gone on a road trip). As much as the crunchy seats may bother you, another few days isn’t going to hurt anyone. Buy get it done by the end of the week! You don’t want anything growing in there 😉

Other Helpful Suggestions:

• Multi-task: Some unpacking chores you can get done while doing other things around the house, like laundry
• Delegate: If you’ve been on a family vacation, then the whole family should take some responsibility. Give your kids and/or spouse their clean clothes, toys, books…stuff to put away themselves
• Relax: If everything isn’t put away until the next weekend, it’s okay. It will get done and after all…you’re home 🙂