Byrd - That's hysterical!!!! :-)

Tallulah,

And that's just the beginning of that hilarious trip..

Since then, the group has taken lots of trips to Europe together, all of which were great, but more really funny things happened on that trip (to Nice, Avignon, Loire Valley, and Paris) than any since!

Byrd

I'm a procrastinator. I'm lucky to have my bags packed the morning of the trip. The only special thing I do is take out the garbage and make sure that nothing will go bad in the fridge. The pile of laundry and things purged from the suitcase can wait for my return! I'm female.

Thanks to hurricane Katrina and her evil twin Rita I have changed my ways.

After being exiled from the city for 6 weeks with no electricty at the house, I will never, ever leave home again without first cleaning out the refrigerator and the freezer.

There are no words to describe that post-hurricane chore on a family message board.

Me too!! Even if I am up until 3:00am, I sacrifice the sleep to obsessively clean every cranny of my apartment. I think the outter organization calms me down and make me feel internally organized. Glad to here I'm not the only one.

lol - Murphy

Oh yes, for the purposes of you poll - I am a female Murphy!

Absolutly! I MUST come home to organization and cleanliness because unpacking is such a chore and mess!

Moldyhotels, it looks like just me and you in the leave things in a mess and don't worry about it camp! Are you female too?

Gertie, looks like you missed mine. And I too am female. Oh, I'm obsessive about checking everything, turning things off, etc. But, as I said, not organized enough to deal with getting ready for a trip *and* cleaning, straightening everything in the house. I make sure to make the bed but don't take time to change sheets. I try to do all the laundry, if I didn't we wouldn't have anything to pack! But, inevitably, there's a small pile I just can't get to. And there's always clutter. Wish I could say otherwise...

Yes. I can live in disorder, but hate to come back to it. Clean sheets are a must, but a little dust doesn't bother me. I unpack as soon as I return and do the laundry from the trip because if I don't do it immediately the luggage will sit until something motivates me to take care of it -- and no telling when that will be.

Gender: Female
Clean before trips: Absolutely
After a long trip back home, the last thing I want to encounter is dirt, grime, laundry. I just want to sit/lie down and relax. However some of my cleaning routine can be contributed to my "guilt" in leaving my husband/kids at home while I leave on a fun filled vacation (it still guilt even if I'm leaving for a work related absence--however Husband never cleans or frets before any of his trips...hmmmm).

I like to leave the house very clean and in order, a state it usually doesn't see thanks to our four sons. If I'm going on a really long trip, I hire someone to help me. It's part of the trip budget.

Of course, the cleaner isn't there the day of departure. Once I left wet laundry in the washer. Thankfully my neighbor smelled something while feeding the cat... Another time, I started the dishwasher the last thing before leaving, only to realize that my husband had already turned the water off. My neighbor (same one, bless her heart) was summoned to take all my dishes out of the washer, and take them home to wash them.

I brought her Fairy Liquid as a souvenir.

Nope

Female and yes, I must clean before I leave. The basics, pretty much what Tiff said above. I agree it is pretty insane.

Does it drive my DH crazy? YES!! Does he question my actions before we leave every single time? Yes! Does that drive ME crazy? YES!!! He doesn't understand that I am sick and can't control my urge to clean clean clean. Gotta go, I have to go and clean actually.

I tidy up enough so that if my husband and I die on our trip (how morbid is that), my parents won't think we lived like slobs. Seriously, that's my thought process as I make sure the bed is made and all the dirty clothes are in the hamper. I'm not a clean freak, but I do like things tidy.

Can't leave without changing the beds, cleaning the house..

Must have a clean house, whether self or housekeepr does it; ditto clean sheets to come back to, empty/clean fridge, etc.

If I didn't travel I would never tackle the "this can wait a bit" paperwork, because it waits and waits and waits---until I HAVE to do it before we leave town. Mainly because if I die on a trip I don't want my mother to find it on my desk, undone.

Don't tell me, I know, it's pathetic! Female, southern Gothic variety. :D

Female - And Nope. I don't have a cleaning lady and I usually have to work 60 hour weeks before I leave at work to make sure everything is done there. I'm usually too exhausted to think about housework. HOWEVER, my horses all have enough hay and supplements, my dogs and cats have their supply of food, chickens also. AND I leave detailed instructions on feeding and vet phone numbers. After all, I do have my priorities in order. :=)

Female: In no way have I ever been called a neat freak. BUT our neighbours usually look after pets, water plants etc so I would hate for them to think I was a total slob. So yes I wash up, tidy up, clean clothes,sweep and dust. Don't change sheets or anything. One time our power went off and everything in the freezer went bad. Our neighbours found out through the smell. They were nice enough to clean it out for us as it was still several days before we were due to arrive home. Now I let all the food run down in the freezer too.

What a great post. I thought I was the only one!!!!! Perhaps I am 'normal' after all.
I am a clean freak alright. My DH and kids think I'm mad most of the time.
Before a trip I start packing at least two weeks in advance. I always have clean floors, washing all up to date, clean bathrooms, clean sheets on the beds. This christmas we will be going away for 5 weeks - I have 1.5 days after finishing work and before the flight to CLEAN - I told DH I'll only be cleaning and straightening for 1 day, but he laughed and told me 'yeah right'. I'm already organising and it's only October - I have a list already with what jobs I want finished around the house, such as cleaning windows, de spider the outside of the house etc (it's spring where I live). I've even started cleaning out and dusting china cabinets and things. I want to get through my list before December - so then I can concentrate on just packing suitcases. I've already sorted out my kids rooms, chucked out things they no longer require, and gone through their entire wardrobe for the summer season coming up (one less job for me to do later). I absolutely love coming home to a clean and tidy house but like an earlier poster said, with all the souveniers and dirty washing from the trip, it seems a mess again and for some reason I always seem to spend hours just on the unpacking and washing (even though I try to have washing up to date while on holiday). Also, what I am fearing, is the garden - it will be an overgrown jungle after 5 weeks and there is not much I can do about that!

Female: I definitely make sure the fridge is cleaned out and the dishwasher is empty. We're in Brussels for five weeks and when we left Maidenhead, I made sure we had clean sheets, but they're folded and in a drawer with a scented dryer sheet. We're letting the bed "air" while we're away. I had meant to clean the kitchen and bathroom thoroughly before going, but it didn't work out that way, so I have those chores to look forward to on our return :-( And of course, a round of dusting all the shelves and knicknacks.

We brought our king-sized quilt with us and will wash it in a laundromat here the night before we head back so it will be nice and fresh.

We take our dog with us on vacation, so we always make sure to get her to the groomers before we leave. Can't be showing up at hotels and restaurants with a scruffy dog in tow!

Clean sheets and clean rooms ? They'll get dusty when you're away ! But to do the dishes seems a sound advice.

No. I'd like to, but I'm still packing and deciding what to take (and changing my mind) until the last minute. So there's clutter everywhere.
But I usually change the sheets the day before we leave so we'll come home to clean ones.
Also, I usually catch up on my email to friends and relatives during the week before a vacation.

Female. In recent years, traveling for me has meant moving, which means leaving an empty house behind, but when I do short trips, I do go for the thorough sweeping, mopping, make futon bed into sofa, put sheet over, close all windows and make sure things are picked up. Why? Well, because there is just nothing worse than being exhausted from a great or horrible trip and coming home to a messy house in need of attention.

funny that someone topped this last night, the night before my little trip - and yes, I was home cleaning!

Eh ? No time for that ! Usual drill e.g. for 6.30am flight (which is sadly typical) :-

evening before - go out as usual, get home, go to bed
02:00 - get up, do majority of packing
03:30 - usual getting ready drill - shower, etc
05:00 - put last minute things like hairbrush in case, close cases, leave for airport

Female-this is a funny post.. I go spastic trying to get out of the house to the airport.. First, the cages have to be cleaned and the birds fed and food ready for the bird sitter.. I've learned to have the cleaning ladies just before we leave.. I've solved our winter problem by going to a hotel the night before and making sure that day everything is washed and dried. Often I'm wiping things down as we head out the door.. Only when the front door is locked and I'm in the car.. can I relax..I love coming home to a clean house... if only for the next few days when clothes and traveling stuff is all over the place..lol.
Can hardly wait until the next trip in February, the bird sitter has been hired and we have reserved our friends to take the dog..

Yes, female pre-vacation clean freak here. Husband joins in, too. Don't know where this obsession comes from, other than the fact that when you arrive back home, no matter how short a trip, there is always unpacking to do, which makes our place dirty anyway, so I guess the pre-clean just makes it less chaotic when the unpacking happens.

We also always have people watching our cats, so maybe subconsicously we are cleaning for them? The people, that is, not the cats. Well, actually, I guess we clean for them too. We clean the boxes like minutes before we leave so they are as fresh as possible.

The one think we don't do is change the sheets. When we come home, we're so happy to see our bed that it doesn't matter if they're freshly cleaned or not. Plus, they'll be covered in cat hair anyway, so why bother? :-)

I,like most people clean my house everyday, ( much to the annoyance of my teenage kids,) I'm called a neat freak on a daily basis!

When i'm going on holiday, i do an extra blitz! Its nice to walk back into a nice clean house, its takes the edge off the sadness of your holiday being over:(

most people clean their house everyday???????? wow- they do? ;-)

really? you're kidding!
not me (no kidding)

Sure, I get the house clean before I leave. My sister comes to stay with the pets and it wouldn't be right to ask her to stay otherwise. I'm not a neat freak but I do a little daily maintenance. If I do a thorough job before I go, the house will be easy to maintain while I'm gone. I know my sister will change the sheets etc before I come home and often she cooks a little something for us and leaves it in the fridge. She's a sweetie.