An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: an ink jet recording head having a discharging orifice, for discharging ink droplets through the discharging orifice; a carriage for moving the recording head to a recording section and a capping position; a capping member for sealingly capping the recording head; a suction pump for applying a negative pressure to the capping member; a power switch; power source control means for controlling the supply of electric power from a power source circuit in response to the power switch; power-off time detecting means for detecting a time elapsing after an instruction to stop the supply of electric power is issued by the power switch; and control means for operating such that the control means compares a power-off time with a first reference time, and if the power-off time is shorter than the first reference time, the control means performs a flushing operation, and if the power-off time is longer than the first reference time, the control means moves the recording head to a position being confronted with the capping member and operates the suction pump to suck ink from the recording head.