WANTED: 2 GOOD HOSTS & GUESTS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

REWARD: LESS STRESS & A MORE ENJOYABLE HOLIDAY SEASON

With the holidays coming up there are a lot of stresses. This should be a time to showcase all of the amazing home design projects we have been working on since the last holiday season. Hosting guests or being a guest doesn’t have to be stressful. Being a guest or having guests can make the holidays a less than enjoyable experience. I think it can run pretty seamlessly if you plan ahead. Here are my tips and tricks for having guests while still making your house look good to show off your DIY projects!

Preparing your house for guests

Clean your house

You don’t have to deep clean your house but vacuuming, making sure there are no dishes in the sink, wiping down the bathrooms, and generally dusting will make a huge difference. One good design tip is to hide all of your misc mail, receipts, and anything else that doesn’t have a home and looks out of place. This keeps the clutter down. Added bonus: It keeps any nosey relatives from getting into any bank statements or bills left out on the counter. Another note: You can cheat and close any messy offices or rooms you don’t want to show to guests. Most guests won’t open a closed door so if you hide everything behind doors you are in the clear!

Make your house smell good

You don’t have to make your house smell like chocolate chip cookies but making sure it doesn’t smell like your dogs, cat litter, baby poop, or anything else unsavory will make guests feel uncomfortable. I like to use an air freshener with a mild fresh scent that neutralizes any odors. During the holidays I go with a pine/spruce smell. I love my dogs but not after they have been racing around and are all sweaty and stinking up my house.

Provide guests with a comfy place to sleep

It’s great if you have a spare bedroom with an actual bed. This is the ultimate guest situation. If you have a spare bedroom make sure there are clean sheets on the bed, extra pillows and blankets in case anyone needs more head support or gets cold. If you have a small extra fan it’s nice to include that in the room as well. The fan can help regulate the temperature in the room and provide some white noise if needed.

If you have guests sleeping on your couch or on an air mattress the same rules apply for new sheets and blankets. You can downsize all of the accessories to save space and keep things tidy.

Provide good bathroom amenities.

Set aside high quality towels, products, and make sure you have a good shower head. If you can provide guests with their own restroom that is awesome. I am lucky enough to have a downstairs bathroom that has a shower and is close to the guest room. I stock it with good towels. Don’t give guests the towels you had in college or that are so thin you can see through them. Guests will appreciate the soft, hotel like towels of all sizes.

Keep extra SWAF stuff (Stuff we all forget). Provide hotel extras like mini shampoo/conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste, face wipes, kleenex, pepto, advil, comb, lotion, contact solution and case, deodorant, and anything else you can think of.

If guests are going to share a bathroom with you make sure it’s clean, tidy, and everything works. Clean all of the scum off of the shower head, fix the leaky toilet, clean all of the toothpaste spit off of the mirror. CLEAN THE TOILET. The grossest thing is to use a dirty toilet. Eww. You can still provide all of the amenities but if you are short on room you could let your guests know where the amenities are if you don’t store them in the bathroom.

Water cups & water bottles

Let guests know where the glasses and water are located and to help themselves. If you have a guest room and you want to provide a hotel like experience put some water bottles in the room. It’s a nice touch that most guests will appreciate.

Wifi password

This one is easy. Tell them you wifi password. No one wants to spend all of their data while they are out of town. Even better: Type up any relevant passwords and phone numbers and print it out and leave it in the room hotel style. You can keep reusing the card for future guests.

Eating & Drinking

Find out what your guests like to drink and eat for a quick continental breakfast and make sure you have something similar on hand (bagels & cream cheese, yogurt, bananas, croissants, toast, pastries, orange juice, coffee, tea, cereal, milk). Write directions for the coffeemaker/tea pot and tape it to the inside of the coffee cabinet. This ensures that I don’t need to be present for the coffee making and it can be made throughout the day.

Pets!

Provide a spot for pets. We have 2 dogs and we always appreciate it when we are traveling and someone thinks about Penny & Molly. Is there an easy way to take our dogs out, do visitors need a dog bed or a crate? If you have time, provide some doggy extras like poop bags, treats, access to a water and food bowls and a few toys.

These small things will make sure that your guests have a great time at your house and hopefully relieve some stress for the holiday season. I don’t always get to all of these tips but I try to add one each time so that they will be all set up for the next guest.

How to be a good house guest

Here are some tips on how to be a good house guest. This year we are packing up ourselves and our dogs and going to my Grandma’s house in Chicago. I will be the guest and I am trying to remember these tips when I go out of town. It’s hard to listen to my own advice but I am going to give it a good try this year.

• Don’t get up too early or too late. Get up too early and you will wake up the kids or the dog. Get up too late and everyone will be waiting around for you. Use the first morning as a gauge for how the house rhythm works. At my Grandma’s house everyone should be up between 8:00-9:00 or you are sleeping in.
• When the host asks you what you eat for breakfast answer them! They want to make you feel comfortable by getting food and drinks that you like.
• Don’t use all of the hot water and don’t take too long to get ready. If my Grandma has plans or needs help making Thanksgiving food then I need to be up and running pretty quickly. Also she only has one bathroom so showers are 5-10 minutes and half of us take them at night and half take them in the morning.
• If you don’t have your own room make sure to keep your bags/suitcase cleaned up so it doesn’t mess up the common area where you are staying. We have our own room at my Grandma’s house but if we didn’t and had to sleep on the couch it’s nice to pick up after yourself. It’s inconvenient to be stepping over bags and messy stuff all of the time.
• Do the dishes… or don’t do them. Offer to do the dishes and do them if they let you. If they don’t let you…get out of the way. Some people love to have help, some hate it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanks for reading! Be a good host or a good guest!

For some more inspiration check out some past posts
Fancy Bar Cart
House Tour
Find Your Home Style in 5 Words
5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You DIY