Better Homecomings

Going away?

First, clean up before you leave. Get all the laundry done, vacuum, dust, clean the bathrooms and set out fresh towels. Do the dishes (I mean really, is this the time to further science?)

Second, when you get home, unpack before you sit down. Yeah, it's hard. I just did this. The pile of bags gave the impression that we had been on a major bus trip and everyone on the bus had left their baggage at our house. The kids were bouncing from sleepless nights, too much restaurant food and overwhelming joy at returning home. The cats were loopy from the sudden reintegration with domesticity. I was tired as an 80-year old woman's chest, and there were no fewer than ten new calls, all from one BIL. No messages. A neglected inbox. Who am I kidding? Neglected inboxes up the wazoo.

Still, I raced around the house, tripping over cats, and bags, and cats again. Tipped laundry into hampers. Emptied the cooler. Fielded food requests. Tripped over cats. Cleaned out the cooler (trust me: clean out the cooler before you put it away again). Heard about BIL's reason for thousand and one phone calls (it was good).

Then I looked around. Because I had cleaned before leaving, once Baggage Mountain was conquered, there was Nothing on the floor. Nothing! Imagine it. I went in to the bathroom. It was clean, and there was a clean towel hanging there like housekeeping had been there. It was like a hotel. But it was better: it was home.