I am going on holiday my own house. Help me make the experience feel authentic!

[Apolloanddaphne]

My DD and her DP arrive today for a two week break and DH is now off too. We are staying at home and I want it to feel like we are away on holiday. We live in a tourist area and in the summer I avoid everything as it is too busy. I am going to embrace the busy and visit all the tourist spots. But then after a day out I will be coming back home. Help me make it feel like I am coming to a holiday home and not staying in my own house. All suggestions welcome!

What a great idea. I think the best thing about holiday homes is that you don’t have to do your normal chores in the same way. Is it possible to hire a cleaner for the duration? Or just to come in and blitz it one of the days you’re out?
Otherwise, spend half an hour each morning before you leave with everyone getting it nice to come back to (I never do this and would love to! My mum never leaves the house a mess and it’s stressful when leaving but lovely to come home to!).
Enjoy your holiday.

Nice take outs, have picnic food in do you don’t have to cook. Go out for the whole day so you come back late. Set up a bar in the back garden, or have afternoon tea, or get it delivered.

Do soetning new everyday. I swam in the sea where I live today for the first time this summer. I’m going to try kayaking next week.

• get a cleaner for a one off clean at the beginning of the week so your house is lovely and clean
• by extra nice toiletries for the bathroom so when you have a shower/bath you smell lovely and different
• plan your meals with extra treats like cooked breakfasts or pain au chocolate. Include meals out/takeaways and then maybe some of those freezer meals so you don’t have to cook (or choose a new fancy meal to cook)
• turn your phone off for the week and avoid the internet
• make some kind of scrap book/ video montage of your week

Sorry most of those involve spending money but cheaper than an actual holiday away!

Ironed bedding, mini bottles of shampoo and lotions etc. Baskets of teabags!

A little book with walks and visits suggested. Afternoon tea on a tray. Patisserie for breakfast.

Or you could always simply spend twenty minutes wandering around the outside of the house and peering under rocks/into birdboxes looking for the key. Authentic!

In the evenings sit around chatting or play cards rather than do housework.

Get some nice pizzas from the supermarket and relax in the garden if the weather is ok in the evening.

Try to go to at least one place you have either never been before or not been to for ages

Little bottles of Orangina!

A welcome pack with wine!

Some great ideas. We cleaned the house yesterday and changed all towels and bedding so we have got that bit sorted.l We have had bacon rolls and coffee for breakfast which use normal on holiday but not usually. Tonight we are having takeaway fish and chips. DD and her DP love to cook and will do a lot of it while they are here so I don't have to. We plan to book kayaking one day and we have a trip to a local whisky distillery already booked.

@orangejuicer

A welcome pack with wine!

Actually we ordered wine from a local supplier and haven't even looked in the boxes. There are 24 bottles so that should make a great welcome pack!!!

A BBQ one evening.
Cocktails at 5pm.
Contental breakfasts.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude

In the evenings sit around chatting or play cards rather than do housework.

Get some nice pizzas from the supermarket and relax in the garden if the weather is ok in the evening.

Try to go to at least one place you have either never been before or not been to for ages

We will definitely be sitting around in the evening, probably playing board games.

We also plan to do some BBQs if the weather is good.

Good idea about going somewhere new. There is a gallery in place near us that I keep meaning to visit. Maybe this is the time!

Pack your clothes into cases and live out of those for two weeks. (Joke)

Get some holiday reading on your kindle or buy books.

Eat what you would normally have on holidays.

Fairy lights in the garden

I recently had a week off at home and we discussed it was really great, the kids enjoyed it too. It was not as exciting as our usual holiday but was very restful and we had fun.

-Buy loads of good food at the start so you have no shopping to do
-Switch off WiFi as if in a remote location
-Put any post in a box until holiday is over
-'pack' books DVDs games etc. you want to take 'away', we pre-downloaded some films

• prep clothes as well so no washing to do for the week

-Spend as much time in garden as possible - we got through a lot of tealights

Hope you have a good time

Kitchen:
Hide the cling film, kitchen foil, can opener and any decent saucepans.
Remove 1 cooker knob and leave yourself 3 dishwasher tablets to last for the rest of your stay. Hide all tea towels except one, and remove all hand towels.
Put wine in fridge.

Bathrooms:
Remove at least 1 useful towel per household member, only use eco friendly products, and have one and a half toilet rolls between the lot of you to last until you can find the most expensive local shop 45 mins drive away, which closes all day the day you want to stock up on essentials.
Bedrooms:
Replace all pillows with cardboard.
Lock one door on the landing and spend the rest of your stay wondering whats behind it.
Turn off the WiFi.
Leave yourself 8 pegs ( including 2 broken ones), in case you want to hang any washing out.
Put away all clothes suitable for that fortnights weather, and keep out all the clothes that you will freeze to death in when the weather inevitably does the opposite of the weather forecast predictions.
Sitting room:
Leave some musty smelling random books on the coffee table.
Remove a couple of pieces from each of your board games.
Get out some dvds that weren't even popular when they were released in 1984.
Unplug the dvd player and wipe all the TV channels apart from a documentary channel in a foreign language you don't understand.
Forget how to work the hot water tank.
Have a great time!

@user1494055864

Kitchen: Hide the cling film, kitchen foil, can opener and any decent saucepans. Remove 1 cooker knob and leave yourself 3 dishwasher tablets to last for the rest of your stay. Hide all tea towels except one, and remove all hand towels. Put wine in fridge.

Bathrooms:
Remove at least 1 useful towel per household member, only use eco friendly products, and have one and a half toilet rolls between the lot of you to last until you can find the most expensive local shop 45 mins drive away, which closes all day the day you want to stock up on essentials.
Bedrooms:
Replace all pillows with cardboard.
Lock one door on the landing and spend the rest of your stay wondering whats behind it.
Turn off the WiFi.
Leave yourself 8 pegs ( including 2 broken ones), in case you want to hang any washing out.
Put away all clothes suitable for that fortnights weather, and keep out all the clothes that you will freeze to death in when the weather inevitably does the opposite of the weather forecast predictions.
Sitting room:
Leave some musty smelling random books on the coffee table.
Remove a couple of pieces from each of your board games.
Get out some dvds that weren't even popular when they were released in 1984.
Unplug the dvd player and wipe all the TV channels apart from a documentary channel in a foreign language you don't understand.
Forget how to work the hot water tank.
Have a great time!

Excellent!

We did this and it was lovely! Were meant to go to France so got loads of nice French cheese, bread, pastries, orangina, wine, ordered delivery from Cote. Got cocktails delivered from a local bar. Basically drank a lot. Made sure we played games or downloaded a film for evenings. Went and explored little local villages for our daily walk as this was when most stuff was still locked down. Enjoy!

At least I know the house I have 'booked' has all mod cons and all in working order!

Arrange for a friend to knock on the door every day at 8am asking if you're ok and if you need anything. To replicate the owner next door experience.

Clear a drawer and fill it with a collection of out of date takeaway menus, plastic bags and attraction leaflets from 2014.

(My own experience) find a dog with fleas and get it to have a really good roll on the beds. Get the friend to act surprised when you mention this.

Finally on leaving day, even though checkout is 10am your friend should stand in the property from 9.15am tutting loudly and looking at her watch.

Enjoy!

@maggienolia

Arrange for a friend to knock on the door every day at 8am asking if you're ok and if you need anything. To replicate the owner next door experience.

Clear a drawer and fill it with a collection of out of date takeaway menus, plastic bags and attraction leaflets from 2014.

(My own experience) find a dog with fleas and get it to have a really good roll on the beds. Get the friend to act surprised when you mention this.

Finally on leaving day, even though checkout is 10am your friend should stand in the property from 9.15am tutting loudly and looking at her watch.

Enjoy!

That drawer already exists in the property! And I believe the house comes with a dog as standard. Although I don't think she has fleas!

Rearrange all the items in your kitchen cupboards so you can’t find them easily.

Get everybody to buy one random item eg a fluorescent spork and leave it in a random place for others to find.

Empty one clothing drawer apart from a single faded child’s sock.

Take the dog out for bracing walks if the weather turns because nobody wants to stay in when they are on holiday.
(On a serious note do make an effort to get out and about like you would on holiday and lots of walking, fresh air and daylight).

I am trying to persuade DH to do this! We are also lucky enough to live in a beautiful area (and close to a whisky distillery, I wonder if it’s the same one?!)

We usually go to France, so in my mind we will:

• Buy bake-at-home baguettes and croissants so we can have fresh bread and pastries every morning
• Do all our shopping at gorgeous but hideously expensive little artisan shops
• Eat outside for at least one meal every day
• Light loads of citronella candles and go in the hot tub every evening pretending it’s a proper one rather than the inflatable glorified paddling pool that we actually have

user1494055864 is absolutely spot on with everything else, plus the poster who said to spend half an hour looking under random stones before finding the door key . May I also add:

• Remove 20% of your artwork from the walls. You can either leave random gaps or replace with cheap printed canvases of completely different size to the original. If you chose the latter, it is important that the substitution is very obvious.
• The number of fans provided must always be one less than the number of bedrooms

You can start by sitting in the car for 5 hours and pretend that you are stuck in traffic, for the really authentic experience.

Leave a couple of fussy little notes about the hugely complicated recycling system and using coasters for hot drinks.
Remove all your sharp knives and good sized mugs.
Make sure your bed has a mass of decorative cushions on it.
Make sure your tv only works on certain channels.

Have a lovely time!

Go to the bakery at 8am to buy baguettes and bring them home for breakfast in the garden. (we should have been in France).

For those of you in possession of an under-used French GCSE and who are planning to holidaying at home in lieu of France, I can recommend limiting all day-to-day communication to Franglais for the duration of your vacation.

C’est facile et fun