Imagine staying at home in your clothes, day and night, without bothering to do your hair or add that touch of makeup.
Imagine plonking on the sofa and watching back-to-back movies or all the seasons of your favourite television series.
Imagine holidaying without airport rushes and hotel transfers and the mandatory checklist of places to visit that are more about ticking the places than visiting them.
Imagine…
If you like the idea of lazing at home in your pyjamas on weekends, you will love all things about staycations, which are about extending those lazy weekends to a week or even more of doing nothing but chilling in your very own home.
Now, if that convinced you to plan a staycation this holiday season, read on to find out how you could convert your living space to make your holiday truly worth all the hype.
Plan Ahead
Planning is the key to the success of your staycation. It calls for shopping for essentials and holiday requirements to last you for the week or more. Stock your fridge with food items that you think you need and make sure household chores are taken care of before the onset of your staycation. You wouldn’t want to spend your holiday doing the laundry, arranging your wardrobe or setting the house in order, would you? Plan ahead and get things sorted a day or two before the start of your holiday.
Create The Vibes
The stereotypical idea of relaxing on a mountain resort, by a flowing lake, is all very well, but a staycation could also match up to it in the relaxation quarters with few simple tweaks to your living space. This is the time to go all out and pamper yourself with the best that you have in your home. Pull out the finest bed linen you own and give your bedroom the touch and feel of a hotel room. You could add some flowers, get a fancy table lamp with dimmer for effect, clear the dressing table, place a platter of chocolates on the side table and have miniature toiletries in the bathroom with a neat bathrobe to boot.
The idea should be to create a hotel room ambience. You could take this mood-setting to other rooms too, including your balcony. Of course, the weather is too hot to consider shifting your plans to the garden or the yard, but if you are brave and are willing to give it a try in the evenings, find ways to sit outdoors with a glass of refreshment or simply to watch the sunset. You could even make a tent in your living room with bedsheets to imbue the mood you seek in your holidays
Alter Routines
Staycation is, basically, a holiday, and no holiday could be just another day, only because you are in your home. Forget the everyday stuff and indulge yourself in activities that you would, otherwise, enjoy on your holiday. And, if your holiday does not include entertaining friends, inform friends that you wouldn’t be available for drop-ins or get-togethers until the end of your holidays. You could, of course, take up some project to fill your days and make the staycation worth your while. And, since you are saving up on flights, hotels and dine outs, splurge some money on ordering food from the delivery service, or eating out at a fine dining restaurant.
Indulge Your Fancy
It’s a holiday and what better time than now to indulge your fancy for all things taboo on the rest of the year? Taboo might come across as too strong a word for indulging in sensorial pursuits like reading a book from start to finish or cooking up a new cuisine or even going online for a virtual tour of a museum, but these seemingly everyday things are difficult to schedule into a regular home-office-home routine that takes up all your waking hours. Use your staycation to cook an exotic dish or learn a new language.
Seek Entertainment
Mark a spot in your living room as an entertainment zone for the holidays or turn a room in the house into a play area. If you are fine about investing in a foosball, go for it; it is a fun family game that will keep you occupied long after your staycation is over. There are, of course, other cheaper alternatives like carom board or even playing cards to gear you up during the staycation.
Go on, have the best holiday ever.