Ideas that make re-entry back home easier

Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia in the refrigerator freezer.

Long hot shower.

Clean sheets on the bed.

Clean lightweight sweats to change into.

Listening to the Jazz Groove.

After a 4 week trip don’t look at mail until day 2…

Try to arrange schedule for maximum days off before return to work.

We always try to schedule the trip so we can come home and have a "day off" to decompress and get ourselves together before returning to work. We also often take a mini-trip of a night or two away a couple weeks after our major trip as a sort of getaway to ease back into being at home. We tend to eat light too for about a week after we get home.

I freeze a few meals for when I get back.... things that reheat easily, like soup or chili. Nothing like having me-before-my-trip cook for me after!

And I make sure that the house is relatively tidy before we leave
because who wants to come home to a dirty house?

This is very important. Come home to a clean house and just relax. Like others say, having a day to recover from vacation is also nice. Just do a simple pizza or Chipotle or other takeout too. Don't read piled up emails or real mail until back to normal a day or two later.

We sometimes tell people we are going to be home a day or two later than we actually are (but we do tell the person watching our house the actual date.)

Personally, for myself it's always about returning to the normal rhythm of life at home. No matter the time I get home the night before, I'll get up the next morning and walk up to my regular café for breakfast, coffee and catch up on local news. After breakfast, head a block over and take a walk through Colonial Williamsburg, then the library, the grocery store and other errands. Finally, thaw a few mice and feed Maizey the corn snake.

Don't pack your car or house keys in your checked luggage.

For my most recent trip I used the Timeshifter app which was a big help with the jet lag. There was a discussion a while back which can give you an idea of how it works. Once you get home there are still a few days where it gives you advice on when to wake up and when to go to bed and when to drink coffee. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/jet-lag-i-tried-the-timeshifter-app

we try and have family pickup the dog from kennel and have him waiting at home.

stan----we try and have family pickup the dog from kennel and have him waiting at home.
VAP--Finally, thaw a few mice and feed Maizey the corn snake.

That is so cool--do you have a snake sitter or is it OK while you are gone? I get it--Maizey=maize (corn). For the first time in a long time we currently (or sadly) do not have an animal at home so it really changes our travel--no boarding/sitting/caretaker to set up, no care sheet/schedule to write up, no considerations (except for work) for how long we are gone, no furry family member to come home to,

Assuming you are traveling as a couple, BOTH of you should be sure you each bring along a house key, AND know where you have it. For a variety of reasons, having a backup way to enter your locked home (other than breaking in) is a good thing. And having a spare key or two waiting at home (where you know you can find it) isn't a bad idea, either. Having a key buddy with a spare is a good idea, too, but isn't ideal if your return is in the wee small hours.

(Spouse says she brought her house key with her on our last trip, but now that we're home, could not find it upon arrival/still can not find it...so 2 weeks after returning, she's still using my extra key. Not a crisis, but it could have been if I had not noticed the house key I dropped in the dark, back seat of a taxi when we arrived in Bogotá at 2 am...I had been fumbling in my pockets/pack for cash to pay the taxi driver, and my house key slipped out...I only found it because I took a "last look" around the taxi seat - with a flashlight - before I slammed the door and entered our hotel...).

Bottom line: Make sure you can get back in your house when you return.

Start planning the next trip asap!
And- write your Trip Report!
😉

Like CWSocial, I have some home-cooked soups in the freezer. I always keep a robust pantry, too

We have house sitters (highly recommend www.TrustedHousesitters.com) and I usually arrange a starter grocery order to be delivered the day we are coming home (bread, eggs, yogurt, fruit, deli turkey, salad ingredients) so if we don't want to go out Day 1, we can survive and eat healthy. We also suspend wine drinking for 5 to 7 days. It helps with recovery from jet leg.

That is so cool--do you have a snake sitter or is it OK while you are gone?

I'll connect her daylight/nightlight to a timer to cycle automatically while I am gone, and I'll feed her in the early morning before I leave. She'll be fine to be fed again when I return. While I am gone a dear friend checks on the house and will check Maizey's water bowl to make sure she has clean fresh water. Snakes are such solitary creatures, and she's been the perfect pet that fits in with my work day & travel. Plus she's not messy and doesn't leave a stinky tank. She's pretty chill, docile, has such a fascinating personality and we're both introverts that get each other.

Our house is usually very tidy, but I do a thorough cleaning before we leave, and we leave a very empty refrigerator. One of our neighbors has a house key and walks through our home once a week to make sure all is fine.

It takes three flights for us to reach home from most locations in Europe. When we are waiting at the last connection airport, I create an Instacart grocery delivery. I don’t push the “Order & Deliver in 2 hours” button until we are on the plane. We have to stop at the dogsitter’s home and pick up our dog, so we really don’t want to make another stop on the way home for groceries.

We have our calendar cleared for a few days after our return (we’re retired) to ease back into a routine. Especially because I tend to be wide awake at 4am for a few days and groggy late afternoon.

When we were working, I tried to schedule our return on a Wednesday. Then we just had two days of work to get through before a weekend to completely recover from the trip.

”And- write your Trip Report! “ 😉

Pat, that’s what I was doing between cups of coffee at 4am my first morning when I couldn’t sleep! LOL!
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/feb-2024-3-week-southern-spain-trip-report

Suspend wine drinking for 5-7 days
Yikes!

Jean, I do the same! If I can't sleep, I might as well start the Trip Report while the info is fresh in my mind!

Come back at least a day before work. Having a day or two to decompress is wonderful.

Clean your house before you leave. I find that having everything clean and in order before I leave home makes coming back home delightful. A clean house is always worth coming home to?

Bringing back a food item to eat back home. Chocolate, coffee or a mix from overseas can induce memories of your trip.

Making an online journal or blog. Creating a blog/journal really solidifies the memories of a trip

Thanks, these are all great ideas!

Suspend wine drinking for 5-7 days
Yikes!

I know, Janet. Drastic measure. My chocolate consumption goes up, for certain!

Trip report..... maybe organize the trip images but trip report. No. Not happening.
I'm travelling on my own dime. I have all of my records from the planning I did. I'm not turning a report in to my boss so that I can get my travel expenses approved. Nope. Not happening. I'm also not going to be dragging my friends and family through a blow by blow, plate by plate regurgitation of what I did, where I went...
Once my images are edited and sequenced on my hard drive, that's it. Done. I'm ready to plan the next trip. If anyone is interested, I can take them through the trip literally minute by minute, ad nauseum... 10 or 20 years from now, I can still resurrect about 90% of a trip...without a report to refer to. I do not understand "trip report".

Mack,
Have you read any of the trip reports on this forum? They are much more interesting and NOT boring than you may think. They are also very helpful to other travelers and full of hints to help us plan our own trips.

Mack, Trip Reports here are not over-the- top boasting of what a fantastic time someone had, but full of very functional and practical info. They usually include what went right, what didn't work so well, mistakes made, on-the ground updates of closures, construction, newly opened delights. The reports are invaluable for tips on using public transportation, buying advance tickets, etc.
How else would we have discovered Swiss paprika potato chips, right, Carrie?😉
Or the open air Cabrio cable car outside Lucerne that the RS guides completely ignore?
Or which is the best train app to use in each country?
Or that the regional trains run on the exact same tracks as the Bernina Express panoramic trains?
Anyhow, I have learned so much from reviewing Trip Reports, and I treasure the ones I've written because it's so easy to forget pertinent details that can improve my next trip.
Safe travels to all!

I'm cycling back to David's caution about house keys going for a walk about while traveling:

For any trip the house/car keys I must carry get transferred to the built in key clip inside the front back pack pocket. Of my personal item
(House keys usually get left hidden inside my locked car, however....

My neice once went on a girl's weekend to Las Vegas. She tells the story of going down the hall to buy a soda and chips. Either her wallet was in her hand OR this was so long ago we didn't need ID to board planes.... anyway, someone used a pass key to get into her room and stole her purse, including her car keys. Her car was parked at the airport in iowa. Her parents had to meet her at the airport.... she was 30 and married. In retrospect, This should have been the clue to all of us that her husband had checked out of the marriage, that he didn't bring spare car keys to airport for her.

My favorite cat sitter left a casserole in the fridge for me and a note on the counter when i returned from 3 weeks in Europe
.

I usually go to the grocery store for a few items late that night of our return, into a mostly empty (of people) store after we get home. I have no idea why, because I don't otherwise like going to the grocery store! Hug my front loading washer and dryer. Take a hot bath, marvel at how large my living accommodations seem compared to where we've been in Europe, and crawl into bed with clean sheets. Email my elderly neighbor that we are back home safely. (She worries!) Give thanks for the opportunity to have traveled. Start figuring out our next adventure.

Cleaning before I leave so it's one less thing.

Grocery delivery for arrival day, or have a friend drop off groceries.

Mail being delivered to the house.

Coffee beans ready to be ground.

This is a great thread, I really laughed at the idea of keys in checked luggage...
I have a pretty detailed pre-departure list, so keys are in carryon. Have you considered adding a keypad to the garage so you can always get back into the abode?

You might be surprised by some of the things that freeze (relatively) well. Cheese, milk, EGGS, bread, leftovers, Indian curry & naan.... We tend to leave a few leftovers (be careful not to buy too much the week before departure) for the return. I would be a bit worried about a grocery delivery in case flight gets diverted, unless you have good neighbors to stop by & pick them up?

The morning after arrival I schedule health appointments (seasonal shots, basic stuff) & hair salon. Flying from Europe to the West Coast means an early evening arrival, so we're usually zonked by 8PM and up with the dawn. Get out for an early walk, maybe glance at mail but don't go crazy, run a load of wash, and get to the hair salon! (in my case I've been away 6-10 weeks) priorities, priorities... We don't make any evening plans for a week. Oh, and the first morning I order a groceries to be picked up outside the grocery store, easiest and quickest.

(House keys usually get left hidden inside my locked car, however....

I have a funny story about house keys locked in the car. I was supposed to fly home to St Louis from Pittsburgh after a conference. I had an early morning flight via Chicago to get home in time for my 50th high school reunion. Of course, the flight from Pittsburgh was delayed because of thunderstorms, causing me to miss my connection in Chicago. Since the alternate connection was too late for me to make the reunion, I decided to rent a car in Chicago for the 4 1/2 hour drive home. My car was parked at the airport with, you guessed it, my apartment keys. The drive took almost six and 1/2 hours because of storms and construction. When I arrived at my apartment, I had to get the concierge to let me my apartment so I could change, and my brother took me to my car. I did make to the reunion finally.

To add, I could only get a round trip rental, so I drove back to Chicago on Monday and used the unused second flight to fly home.