Bringing that vacation mindset home
Images like this remind me of the vacation mindset
We were eating dinner with friends, talking about how we seem to have a different mindset when we are on vacation.
The minute you know you are going on vacation, you let go of everything more readily. Work, commitments, your home needs, and the like.
We seem to hold a certain freedom from expectations, where doing yardwork or cleaning the house doesn't feel like work in this space. We can sit on the couch, watching a movie, without guilt. We are in a place with only the essentials. We don’t feel the pull of family and friends back home… unless they follow you, of course.
We all agreed how much we love that feeling!
I have always wanted to take that feeling home with me.
My friend asked, “How can I take that vacation mindset home?”
After giving it some thought, it hit me. I have been taking baby steps over the past couple of years to keep that vacation feeling alive.
Those baby steps focus on minimalism, simplicity, and dedicated family time.
I’ll start with minimalism.
I love the fact our vacation homes only have the essentials with a few creature comforts, some of which we might bring with us like our stove top coffee maker, milk frother, and pillows. At home, I have engaged in minimalist activities, like performing regular purges at home. New piles are formed, with keepers, giveaways, recycling and the ultimate garbage pile. Those purges are influenced by Marie Kondo, and my mother-in-law who often asks, “Do you really need to keep this?” A shelf here. A drawer there. Sometimes it is a complete overhaul of a space or an item.
For example, I have fond memories of the time we focused on the memory boxes in our storage locker, which took over three days to go through. We became ruthless with the unimportant and protective of only the meaningful and the essential. What did that teach me? The importance of writing personal notes highlighting the strengths, positives, and memories in every note we send. Those are the cards and notes we deemed meaningful.
This minimalism inspires further simplicity.
The vacation mindset allows me to see I am a creature of habit. I think we all are, aren’t we? I try to keep the things I wear or use often nearby – it cuts down on the decisions I have to make every day. I gave myself permission to not put those things away with support from my Kolbe A Index.
For everything else, I assess its usefulness in the future and try to be as realistic as possible. Like the great collection of high heeled shoes and boots I used to wear to work and functions. Even if I wanted to wear those again, my feet would never forgive me. I gave them all away. I’m assuming someone else’s feet are enjoying those beauties.
This approach also makes sense in how we organize our home and my office. We keep the things we use often close by and strive to keep “a place for everything and everything in its place.” When he asks if we have any batteries or tape or envelopes, I know exactly where those labeled boxes are. When we can’t find something, we know there is a system breakdown!
There are other things we do to keep things simple like setting up auto-pay on everything possible. I also started saving emails of importance as PDFs in labeled folders, after Google deleted all of my emails prior to 2022 without memorable notice. The silver lining is these emails are now in a folder with other similar documents (in their place) so they will be easier to find.
Simplicity and minimalism also means we don’t buy trinkets to place on a shelf from every place we visit. We began shifting to investing in experiences and keeping only photographic memories. Does that mean we don’t buy anything? No, but it does mean we spend only on those things which enhance our lives, and don’t require a lot of space or dusting.
Lastly, I believe dedicated family time is a necessity.
I absolutely love the extra time I get to spend with my husband when we are away from home. There seems to be additional space for quality conversations, less TV and more activities we can do together. At home, a different routine kicks in, and we have to work harder to hold that space for one another.
There is one particular change influenced by our vacation mindset, which involves our morning routine together. At home, my husband would always turn the TV on first thing in the morning while he made our coffee and toast. In contrast, when we are away from home, we rarely turn on the TV. Our mornings start off with only the sound of a fireplace and maybe some birds singing while we enjoy our coffee and toast. Can you figure out which one I prefer? We talked about this after one particular trip and now we rarely turn on the TV while enjoying our coffee and our time together before he heads to his office.
Whether it is keeping things simple and minimalist or just dedicating time to being with my husband, there is something about setting up my environment to enhance the quality of my life and my relationships. That is even better than being on vacation, don’t you think?
Photo by Tammy Brimner
