Kayla Benda, Author at Oh, Hello Living

10 Things to Do Before Leaving for a Vacation

I’m less than 24 hours away from a trip to Colorado to go white water rafting for my 30th birthday. So these things are definitely on my mind. I’m notorious for NOT doing these things then coming home to a hot mess of a house. So it felt appropriate to write this blog post today to encourage myself to do these things, and encourage you to do them as well.

1. Change your sheets and make your bed

I am not one of those make-your-bed every day kind of people. Quite possibly the exact opposite. But nothing is better than coming home to clean sheets and a clean bed. I often will change the sheets the night before our trip so it’s easy to remake it in the morning of travel. That way it’s flop-in worthy upon return.

2. Empty the fridge

Throw out the leftover pizza and anything that will expire before you return. No one wants to deal with spoiled milk after extensive travel. Tidy up the fridge so you can easy do a grocery shop upon your return.

3. Water your plants

They’ll die in your absence. If you’re gone for an extended amount of time, enlist a friend to come water them once a week. When Alex and I lived a month in Hawaii, we brought all our plants into one room with a good window. It made it easier for my mom to water them for us.

4. Prepare your pets

If you have pets I’m sure you’re already preparing them for travel. This particular trip we’re going on is for six days, so I’ve set up a friend to come feed our cats once a day and to change the litter box a few times. Shorter, weekend trips I’ll leave out extra food and water for them. Longer trips (like the month-long Hawaii one) I arranged housing for them. Give ’em some extra snuggles while you’re at it.

5. Empty the sink of dishes

This is one that I suck at doing and always, ALWAYS regret when I come home. Even if it’s just putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, get them out of your sink. They’ll end up smelling, attracting bugs, and just being a gross welcome home present to yourself.

6. Set your thermostat

Turn your thermostat up or down based on the time of year while you’re away. It’ll save money and you won’t be heating or cooling an empty house.

7. Clean off your counters

Toss out the junk mail pile and put things away. You’ll feel amazing coming home to a nice space.

8. Prepare your mail/lawn maintenance

Depending on the length of your trip you’ll want to hold your mail or have someone collect it for you. If you have a lawn, ask a neighbor or a friend to mow it for you if possible.

9. Get your laundry in a good position

I’m not saying you need to do all of your laundry right before you leave, but get it in a good spot. Meaning don’t leave anything in the wash to rot while you’re gone. I like to make sure everything is in the baskets in the laundry room and nothing in between stages. So if I’ve recently dried something, I’ll make sure it gets folded and put away.

10. Set your out of office alert

The best part of all. Make sure you set an out of office on your email, turn off your computer, and prepare for an awesome work-free vacation.

My Experience with Morning Pages After 6 Months

As I was trying to come up with some catchy title for this post, I realized it had been six months since I first started doing morning pages. SIX MONTHS. Am I at that age now that time flies by remarkably fast? Don’t tell me if I am. I don’t want to know. Let’s step away from the cliffside of an existential crisis and get back to the task at hand. My experience with Morning Pages.

What the heck are morning pages?

Morning pages are from The Artist’s Way and I’m not going to lie to you, I read about the daily pages and was like, “Yep. I’ve read enough.” I haven’t finished the book and I really don’t even know what the ultimate long term goal of morning pages is, but I was all in. Six months ago I was in a place where I didn’t know just how badly I need to write every single day.

So the gist of morning pages is this. Write three pages, longhand, in the morning before you get into the nitty gritty of your day. They can be about anything, they can be about nothing. Just fill those three pages with whatever handwriting the gods have given you.

What I’m doing differently…

So for the first two months I was fanatical about writing these pages first thing. I would wake up an hour earlier than usual every single morning to get them done. Sometimes they would go quickly and other times I would struggle. Now, after six months and four filled notebooks, I’m not so rigid with myself. My goal is to still write three pages each day, but I’m much more flexible on the timeline. I’m giving myself a bit of grace, and I find the results of my writing to be much more fulfilling.

I find that I am not rushing to get them done before a meeting or getting ready for the day. I’m letting my mind have the time to wander and settle on different thoughts I may not have gotten to first thing in the morning. I’m also a very slow to wake type of person. I don’t think I’m fully all there until at least an hour or two after waking up and starting my day. Plus I tend to go on quite regular Starbucks runs and if I’m being a stickler for the rules, I wouldn’t be able to do that before I started writing if I followed the pure morning pages method.

Will I keep doing them?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is I find a huge sense of accomplishment after I finish the third page and close the notebook. I weirdly enjoy looking at the four completely full notebooks on my shelf knowing I scribbled my thoughts in them to their fill. I have days where I feel like I’m making huge breakthroughs and understanding my thoughts and emotions. I communicate said thoughts better with my partner. Since I write every day I don’t feel pressured to always have to write about the big stuff, but can romanticize the small stuff too.

Should you do them, too?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is I find it to be a cheaper form of therapy. One that I can do on my couch in my sleep shirt where I can really just spend time with myself. I’m not a religious person, but I feel like its akin to sitting down with a bible to spend time with God if that’s what you believe. It’s meditative, head-clearing, and a sense of accomplishment at the start of every day.

The Things I Do On a Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Seasonally, and Yearly Basis

If your TiKTok for you page is anything like mine, then you probably see a lot of “that girl” videos. Now I’m not going to tell you to get up super early, drink a smoothie, and go run twelve miles, but these are the things I do to make sure I have my shit together. Just over here trying to be the best “that girl” I can be (plus Alex helps too).

Daily

Clean as I cook: This is huge for me if I want to keep my kitchen in any state of organized. If not, I’m left with a huge mess I don’t want to clean up after dinner so I leave it for future me.
Put clothes in hampers: The urge to leave socks in the living room and my clothes by the side of my bed is real.
Clean up basement of dishes: We often spend our evenings down in our basement watching TV or playing video games. For a while I got into the bad habit of leaving dishes downstairs. Now I try to take up everything I brought down with me.
Put away cans: This goes along with the basement mess. Alex drinks a lot of bubble waters and cans tend to multiply quickly. We’ve put our can bin right next to the door in the garage so we can easily put them away.
Throw away junk mail and counter clutter: Running a business gives you even MORE junk mail than just regular life, so I take the time every day to go through it all and deal with what I need to keep and recycle the rest.

Weekly

Wipe down stove: Now if I’m really on my game I’m doing this while I’m cleaning as I cook, but sometimes the burners are still hot and I dropped some food near the flame. At least once a week I make sure to clean up any bits left over.
Clean surfaces in kitchen: Another thing I’m doing daily, but weekly I do a good clean down with sprays and more elbow grease.
Vacuum floors: Now that we have hardwoods through most of the house I vacuum way more, but at the very least I do this weekly.
Empty litter box drawer: Our cats have an automatic litter box (that only one of them uses but I digress) that I make sure to clean the drawer out and replace with a new compostable bag once a week.
Wash sliding doors: Definitely in the warmer months these bad boys get diiirrrttyyyy.
Wash and fold laundry: If I’m being completely honest, this happens more like every other week. Or I’ll wash everything then wait a week to actually fold it. Laundry is three distinct steps to me and they very rarely get done all at the same time. Wash, fold, put away does not happen in a day in this house.
Mow the lawn: In the dead of summer this is more like twice a week, but I actually really enjoy mowing our grass. It’s a good time to listen to some music and get some fresh air.
Plan meals for the week: Now this definitely doesn’t happen every week, but I try to at least make a game plan of what we want to eat so I can do the next step.
Get groceries based on meal plan: We are a once a week type of grocery shopping family. Any longer and we won’t eat what we bought or will just have fast food.
Clean water dish for cats: The boys have an automatic water fountain that gives them moving water, but we like to wipe it down regularly.
Clean cats’ teeth: They hate this. We do it anyway.
Water plants: I’m very strict with my plant watering schedule and sometimes I’ll go longer than a week depending on what my plants are telling me to do.
Go through Monday bin of bills and paperwork: I keep a bin I’ve labeled “Monday Bin” filled with all of the paperwork and bills I need to take care of. Monday morning I’ll go through the bin, write checks, mail payments, and deal with everything I’ve added to it over the week. This is usually when I’ll write birthday cards or send wedding gifts, etc.

Monthly

Replace kitchen sponge: Depending on how dirty it is I may do it sooner, but I always switch it after a month.
Clean toilets: Spot cleans happen on the regular, but a deep clean once a month is good for us.
Clean showers: Sammeee.
Rotate mattress: I often try to do this every time we change the sheets (so every week and a half or so)
Wash mirrors: If we’ve had guests over they tend to be more smudgy than usual
Rotate houseplants: They gravitate towards the sun so I rotate them every month to keep them looking straight.
Weed whack: In the summer we take care of growing weeds around our edges once a month. I’m sure our neighbors wish we did it more often, but that’s just not going to happen.
Prune houseplants: Once they’re rotated it becomes obvious if things need to be snipped off.
Cut cats’ nails: Or whenever they really start to hurt when we’re playing.
Empty basement trash: We keep a large trash bin in the basement for movie nights and guests, so it takes a bit longer to fill up. If it doesn’t start getting a smell, we do it about once a month.

Seasonally

Dust houseplants: It’s alarming how dusty these guys can get.
Clean out pantry: I try to do this at least twice a year because things can get pushed to the side and won’t get used.
Clean out fridge/freezer: Nobody wants random things growing in a forgotten Tupperware dish in the back behind the milk.
Clean interior of garbage can: A good rinse down always does the trick.
Change HVAC filter: We are religious about changing our air filters. Our Maincoon cat has crazy long hair and really dirties up the works.
Wash bath mats: Honestly I probably only do this once a year if I’m being honest. That’s probably gross.
Weed flower beds: I honestly hate weeding. I love indoor plants but outdoor plants with weeds are the worst.
Take care of plants based on season: Outdoor ones I kind of just let do their thing.
Fertilize houseplants: Indoor plants get special VIP treatment.
Clean out utility drawers in kitchen: We don’t really have a “junk” drawer, but I make sure to clean out our kitchen drawers of any unnecessary things and reorganize them.
Wash cat beds and blankets: More frequently if they start to show piles of Gallifrey’s dark hair.

Yearly

Wash windows: Definitely an Alex task. I hate it.
Mulch: Every year I try to black out the last time we mulched because it is awful.
Repot houseplants: These girlies like their breathing room!
Clean gutters: Alex on a ladder.
Power wash house: Alex never lets me do this…I don’t think he trusts me…
Repair caulking on windows and counters: We don’t do this every year, just touch ups where needed.
Winterize sprinklers: We call a guy.
Organize coat closets and clean: Our coat closets get messy and somehow accumulate random things we immediately forget we had.
Organize front door closet and clean: This closet is the weirdest closet we have that often gets random things put inside of it to store. Like there’s a random bin of kid’s toys in here. We don’t have kids.
Clean out and sweep garage: Usually this happens when spring starts to get rid of all the salt and gross dirt from the winter.
Schedule vet appointments: You know it.
Schedule yearly appointments: Get these on the calendar early so you aren’t waiting ages to get in.

Did any of these tasks stand out to you as weird or unusual? Is there anything I’m missing that is glaringly obvious to you? Let me know in the comments!

What I Bought in November/December

With the holidays keeping me completely swamped, I made only a few purchases in November and December. I’ve worked hard over the years to curb my shopping addiction and would consider myself a pretty minimalist purchaser. I’d love to know what you bought in November/December while the holidays were in full swing.

1. Knix Underwear

I originally bought this brand of underwear to wear during my periods, but now I prefer to wear period underwear all month long. They’re comfortable, I never have to worry about spotting, and have limited edition patterns come out fairly often. For my periods I’ll use a heavier option from Knix, but the light ones are perfect for every day. I wanted to cycle out the remaining random pairs of tired underwear, so I bought a few more to round out my collection.

2. Target Pants

A TikTok about capsule wardrobes lead me to purchase these patterned pants. She said getting different styles of pants helps to add more variety to a simple wardrobe. I only really have a couple of pairs of jeans which make a lot of my outfits look the same. So I wanted to mix things up. They’re super comfortable, easy to dress up and down, and are under $30.

3. Spreader Knives

For decades we’ve used basic butter knives to decorate our favorite cut-out cookies. They constantly fall out of the frosting bowls, make messes everywhere, and are generally hard to use. It dawned on me this year after three different cookie decorating sessions to pick up a set of these spreader knives instead. They stayed in the frosting bowls perfectly and made decorating the cookies so much easier. Just took me 25 years to figure it out.

4. WontonInAMillion Stickers

Now I had some of these Wonton in a Million stickers on my Christmas wishlist, but Alex pointed out to me how unlikely it would be that anyone get these for me. So I treated myself to a few sheets. This is my go-to shop for character stickers and I love supporting Cynthia, the owner, and the amazing company she’s built.

5. Kavu Backpack

Now technically this Kavu backpack was a gift from Alex’s parents, but I picked it out and wanted to share it with you guys. His parents gave us free reign to pick whatever we wanted while we were visiting them in Virginia and I quickly scooped this little cutie up. It’s so handy, surprisingly large, and makes me feel like I could go on a ten mile hike or something.

6. Sign Language Book

Alex and I signed up for a Sign Language class in the new year and this Sign Language Book is the required reading. We’ve talked about wanting to do a class like this for ages and one day I just searched for one near by and signed us up. It’s crazy how easy it sometimes is to do the things you always talk about doing.

7. Sponge Holder

I’ve had one of those suction sponge holders on my kitchen sink for ages and it always came off. I finally got fed up with it and bought this sponge holder that adheres to the side of the sink. Simple, stays put, and doesn’t take up too much sink space. Problem solved.

8. The Artist’s Way Book

Ironically enough I started the practice of morning pages before ever getting my hands on this book. I first rented it from the library, but it’s the type of book that I need to digest over a longer period of time. I usually never buy books, but this one felt like a good exception to make. I plan on talking about my experience more in a later blog post, so stay tuned.

I weirdly love doing posts like these. I collect links and images as I purchase things throughout the month and it really helps to make me stop and think about what I’m buying. So thanks for holding me accountable!

5 Realistic Goals for 2022

I’m not going to kid myself with workout or budget related goals. 2022 is going to be the year to go easy on ourselves and the same goes for goal setting. I picked five realistic goals that you can adapt to fit your lifestyle.

Read 52 Books

Now this may seem like a lot for some people, but this year without much effort I read nearly 70 books. So 52 seems like a doable number of one book a week. Reading is one of my favorite (and only) ways to wind down after a stressful day of work and is something I take great pleasure in.

90% Morning Pages Success Rate

I’m nearly a month into daily morning pages and find myself loving the process. I’ll be writing a post about my experience and what the heck morning pages are for, but basically it’s writing a few pages every single morning. The pages can be about anything, but there has to be three pages longhand every day. I know it’s unrealistic to try and not miss a single day, but my goal is 90% success. Set a goal like this for working out, eating healthier, etc.

8 Concerts or Events

COVID allowing, I’d love to go to eight concerts or events in 2022. I miss live music, basketball games, and just having something to look forward to. I’ll wear a mask and wash my hands religiously.

Travel 3 Times

There was a time I would travel somewhere nearly every month. I crave it despite it seeming to go against everything about my nature. I love packing for the trip, planning everything out, and getting away from the stresses of work. Three times feels completely doable with one already planned for January and a birthday trip in the works for June.

Bake 6 New Things

Baking is something that often falls to the wayside when my life gets hectic. I would love to try a few recipes in 2022 that I haven’t yet, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself by doing one every month. Give yourself a number to strive towards instead of just “bake more.” That way you know when you’re successful.

The key to successful goals is to make them realistic. Maybe you already have plans in the works that a goal just solidifies. Maybe you’ve started a hobby and just want the motivation to stick with it. I much rather make goals I’m excited about rather than ones I dread that will leave me feeling like a failure when I inevitably fail at them. I also strongly recommend keeping your goals to around 4-6. Too many and they start to just feel like work.

What are your goals for 2022?

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