or do you just take off and don't give it a second thought? if your name here doesn't make your gender obvious, please post if you are male or female (I am curious if this is definitely a female trait or not).

I spend the night before a trip cleaning or otherwise putting EVERYTHING in order - and this despite the fact that I have a cleaning lady. This is even for short trips - I am leaving in the morning for Hilton Head and you guessed it - laundry, dishes, folding clothes, putting everything away, etc etc.

I'm curious if this is a completely normal, shared trait or if I'm just a neat freak.

Sorry you can't be a neat freak if you have a cleaning lady. REAL neat freaks do it themselves. They'd never, ever trust anyone else to do it right. I know. I am one.

I don't have to clean before I go. It's already clean. I think it's called OCD and they have drugs for it now. I don't want to take them. I like the way I am.

By the way for purposes of the poll I'm a man.

your not a neat freak (cause I'm typically a slob) and I do the same thing...the thought of all the dirty laundry I'll be coming home with always gets me moving-LOL! plus leave dirty dishes until I get back-EWWW!
anyway-have a good trip!

Yes I do, and like to come home to clean sheets.

No, I don't ,but I make sure my maid comes the next day and the day I'm to arrive back home. I wonder if she just waits and cleans it the day I'm to return. Joan

Gender: Female

Just because I have my spices in alphabetical order, does not mean I have OCD, and chaos does not bother me as long as things are clean under the projects in progress.

I not only clean EVERYTHING prior to any trip, I also update a handwritten will. I just don't want anyone to have to figue out what to do with all my stuff. I outline which non-profit gets what and their phone numbers.

And yes, I do have a life away from home! I just like to tidy up with the details! What a great feeling to arrive home to a clean house to allow time to reflect on the trip/excursion/play time with grandkids, etc.

No. I do absolutely nothing. Some of the time my husband is home and he keeps the place free of vermin and feeds the cat. Otherwise it's fend for yourself (the neighbours feed the cat then). Normally when I get back (usually 6-8 weeks) there isn't too much havoc. I once threw a wobbly when the place was knee deep in s**t but that was long ago.

I am female. I don't go crazy, but I really do like things to be clean and well-organized before I go away.

All the laundry is usually done days before, but mostly because we like to take favorite things with us, and just keep washing all week before we leave.

Paper and paperwork are the biggest messes and organizational problems in our house, but I make sure that all that sort of thing is controlled and put away before we leave.

I really like coming home to a clean and well-organized house.

I like to make sure dishes/laundry
are clean. I put important legal
documents where they are easy to find.
When I was in high school (a looong
time ago) my best friends father would
not allow the family to leave on vacation until EVERYTHING was spotless,
that included windows, washing the car, etc. OCD in a clinical, textbook
sort of way. They always drove on vacation, which was a good thing, because he always found a way to delay
their departure by several hours, and
they would have never stood a prayer of
catching a plane on time...the plane
would have probably reached its destination by the time they were leaving their home!

Here is from yet another OCD afflicted female. I absolutely clean the whole house, change the sheets and towels, and assemble my sons to instruct them--once again--on what to do if... . Upon return, I go through the whole process again, including the sons, but this time just to divy out the gifts and enjoy their company.

Anna Roz

Sounds to me that the majority of us are like you, flygirl!

Although we often live with a small amount of "comfortable normal clutter"....this changes before a trip.
Everything is picked up and put in it's place,. counter, dresser tops,desks etc. are neat and orderly....I love coming home to my neat, clean,wonderful home.(and I always have great thoughts of it STAYING that way. But alas, it never quite does.

I'm similar to tuscanlifeedit....

I really like things cleaned up and organized and all paperwork done, but I don't clean windows or anything.

I also make sure the cleaning people clean before our return so the house is organized, neat, and clean with fresh sheets upon our return.

It makes it easier for me to relax once I've begun my trip if I know everything is taken care of.

Oh, female.

I'm in the minority it seems. But what does bother me is coming home to tons of paperwork. He piles it all up for me. I manage to ignore it for about 2 weeks, then go through it and throw away 90%. The rest is still sitting on my 'to be looked at' desk months later. No-one seems to have noticed. Always assume other people/orgainsations are as inefficient as you are yourself. Leave it long enough and it will probably go away.

Yes and well, yes.

~House is clean.

~Fridge emptied of anything that will perish.

~Garbage out.

~Fresh sheets on the bed.

It's a disease, I know, but admitting it is indeed the first step, no?

&quot;Cleaning house before your children are out of college is like shoveling the driveway while it's still snowing.&quot; - Erma Bombeck (<i>r.i.p.</i

Female here: I always try to arrange trips so that my cleaning ladies will have my house looking impeccable upon my return. That said, my cleaning ladies do very weird stuff like deciding to &quot;clean&quot; my oven knobs and then replace them in the wrong places, so when I turn on my oven to 325 it goes to 500. And they put stuff away in places I'll never find it.

But generally speaking, I NEED to come home to a clean, organized house, or else I'm a mess. I can't deal with the jet lag and the general stuff involved with coming home from a trip - (unpacking and doing laundry, e.g) without help.

Yes, I do make sure the house is clean and neat to come home to, but I don't do nearly as much as my father used to do. He would turn off the water and maybe even the electricity. At his request my mother would always put away the silver.

Last year when I was visiting my first cousin who is in her sixties, she had just gotten back from a trip herself. She apologized for using the &quot;kitchen&quot; stainless steel tableware instead of her usual silverware. She said she had put it away before her trip and had not gotten it out again. She laughed at herself, and said,&quot; Why do I put away the silver every time I go out of town?&quot; I said,&quot; Well, your mother and my father did, and so did our grandmother and her mother. You know, I think we do this so the Yankees won't steal the silver!&quot;

Our ancestors lived in a little West Tennessee town not far from the Battle of Shiloh, and when their town was captured, acording to family lore, they did go bury the family silver!

I cannot leave until the house is organized (not necessarily clean). Laundry done, dishes at least in the dishwasher, bills paid, etc. When I get home, no matter how late, I cannot go to bed until I'm unpacked, even if I have to get to work the next day. Sigh.

Female.

Yes, my husband and I clean and organize before we leave. In my opinion, there is nothing nicer than coming home to a clean house, clean sheets and no laundry!

No.