The Best Staycation Ever

This week one of my friends took an entire week off from work and didn’t go anywhere, just stayed home and did everything as usual except for work. She is an employee of a major airline company, working the phones and decided to take a little time off due to feeling burned out.

Now if it was me, I would be sure to use one of my free passes and fly somewhere and take a load off, but she just wanted some time off work. I can understand that not everyone wants to fly out or take a road trip every time they get some free time. So I came up with some ideas on getting the best out of your staycation.

Why take a staycation? Well a staycation allows you to have “me time” and helps you save lots of money, and it can also be a time of reassessing your goals. A staycation is not a time to take vacation leave from work to do house repairs or go take care of other matters.

When planning a staycation there are a few things you may want to think about;

First, think about how you want to spend your staycation. Is it going to be indoors for the entire time or do I want to mix it up; indoors and outdoors.

Next, if you have children do you want to do this with them or alone. So decide and make arrangements with babysitters if need be.

And lastly, what will I need during my staycation; grocery, special soaps for bubble baths, candles, you get the idea. Because during this time you should be alone relaxing, and not worrying about going out to buy grocery or yelling at the kids every minute.

Now that you have thought about those things here is what you do,

Take care of the chores – At the end of the work week just before the staycation, take care of everything that you need to take care of such as; laundry, buying the groceries, picking up or dropping off the dry cleaning or anything that you have to pick up or drop off.

Baby Sitting – If you are a parent and you want to spend this time alone. Drop your child(ren) off at the grandparent’s house or at Aunty or Uncle’s. Whomever you got to babysit for you while you staycay.

Let the staycay begin!

Inside Staycay

So my top things to do on a staycay are;

Eat, binge watch my favorite shows on Netflix, sleep, eat, binge watch some more, sleep 🤣. Seriously, all jokes aside. This is your time to take a break from work, school, or whatever it is you do, I just want to help you to make the best of it.

• Binge watch TV all day long
• Read a good book
• Order some food to be delivered to your home
• Or cook yourself something you have been wanting to eat for a while now
• Make a cocktail
• Take a nice bubble bath and sip on your cocktail while doing so or just take your bubble bath in peace and quiet
• Do your own mani-pedi. Here is how I do my own pedicure; I use a small pan to catch some warm water, then I soak my feet in the pan of water and use a small brush with soap to brush the toes. You can also use the brush to scrub the bottom of your feet or if you have a foot scrubber use it. Now that the toes are wet, I use a nail file to get in the corners of my toes to move away any thing that maybe there. Next I use a small towel to dry my feet, wait a few minutes and then apply nail polish or massage on some body oil.
• Sleep, now nothing is wrong with getting some much needed sleep, especially on the first day of your staycay.
• Play some music and dance like nobody is watching- Cause really who is watching, unless you are staycaying with the kids or with your partner.

• Walk around the house naked if you are by yourself – no one cares. Just make sure the windows and blinds are closed.
• Meditate
• Get a hammock and set it up in your back yard and hang out in your bathing suit with your sunglasses on.
• If you are doing it with your partner, snuggle up together this is a perfect time to get some we time in.
• Turn your living room into your favorite place
• If it’s a family staycay with your partner and the kids, put up a tent and camp inside the living room or in the backyard.
• Set up an inflatable pool in the back yard if you don’t have a pool.
• Spending time doing what you love doing the most. Whatever your hobby is.
• Star gaze in the backyard. Set up a campfire, get a lawn chair and a throw and just gaze up at the stars. You never know, you may see a shooting star.

Mix (Outside and Inside Staycay)

For those that may not want to be in the house all day long you can do some of the above and mix it with some of what is listed below. You can choose which days you want to stay in and which days you want to go out.

• Go hiking in a park or along a trail.
• Go to the beach spread your towel or put up your chair and sunbathe, read a good book, listen to some music, or just lay back and relax while the ocean breeze swoops over you taking all your cares away. Going to the beach is one of my favorite things to do. As I sit there while the breeze blows I feel like it can carry all my cares away and of course I enjoy a good swim.

• Take a swim
• Go strolling on a boardwalk
• Find a nice spot to watch the Sunset
• Go shopping (just because of course) – I am not talking about the groceries. I find shopping to be therapeutic, especially if I am going through something at the moment.
• Go cycling – I am thinking of getting myself a bicycle so I can go cycling occasionally. (if you could see me now, just gazing into space, reminiscing on the people I have seen ride pass me on the boardwalk and  thinking it would be fun with the wind in my hair and the feeling of excitement riding a bike. Something I haven’t done since I was about 9. Wow! )
• Plan a trip for the day to go to a park or museum or the aquarium whatever you fancy.
• See a play
• Get pampered. Go to a spa or make some else do your mani-pedi
• Go to a nice restaurant to eat.

To get the best out of your staycation you have to be committed. It can be so tempting to want to get up and do some housework or look at the bills. Just think about it, if you were away on vacation, you would just be having a good time, not worrying about the bills until after you return. So try to use that same mentality on your staycation.