Preparing for Houseguests
Being a good host means making your guests comfortable, and we are sometimes more willing to go the extra mile to help other people than we are to indulge in what we consider luxuries for ourselves. For instance, even if you have been hanging your bathrobe on a bare nail for months, the idea that other people will be using your bathroom is quite likely to make you suddenly feel the urge to put up a nice new towel rack. Many of us have experienced the phenomenon of making an improvement in our home right before we have people over, and preparing for houseguests tends to make us aware of how much we can do to make our homes more pleasant. Part of the joy of preparing for houseguests is going over every inch of your living space to see what needs to be cleaned, fixed, or replaced, and then relaxing later with the knowledge that everything is ship-shape.
Unfortunately, while many of us benefit from preparing for houseguests because it motivates us to make improvements in our homes, just as many of us have had the experience of rushing to get something done before visitors arrive. If you don’t plan ahead and try to prepare for houseguests at the last minute, you could end up mid-way through the caulking process on your new towel rack when the doorbell rings. Luckily, you can avoid this common trap with just a little bit of preparation. Follow this simple timeline to make sure that preparing for houseguests is a joy and not a burden.
A week before your guests arrive is the ideal time to start preparing for houseguests. Take about ten minutes to do a quick inventory of each room of your home. Carry a notepad and a pencil with you as you walk through your house or apartment, and visually scan each room from top to bottom. Look for anything that is broken, and write it down on your list. In addition, take a few moments in each room to think about anything new that you could buy for that room that your guests would appreciate, and add those items to your list. When you are preparing for houseguests, think small; while an expensive flat-screen television for the guest bedroom would probably be nice, an affordable new set of pristine, stylish pillowcases might make just as big an impact on the appearance of the room as a whole.
Once you have your list completed, read through it once without making any marks on it at all to remind yourself of everything you want to do as part of the process of preparing for houseguests. Then, grab a red pen or marker and circle anything that absolutely must be done in advance, such as any project involving paint, glue, caulk, or another substance that requires time to dry. Get a blue pen and circle anything that you can do at the very last minute, such as replacing a light bulb or ironing a set of drapes. Finally, get out a black pen and cross out anything on the list that you don’t think you really need to do. Preparing for houseguests is a big job, and it is difficult to anticipate how long things will take, so it is better to plan to do less than you have time for than it is to try to do more things than you can reasonably accomplish.
Once you have your list of everything you want to do, it is time to start preparing for houseguests in earnest. Get started on anything that is circled in red. Because you have a full week to finish everything on your list, you can take the time to finish one project before you start enough. While multi-tasking is an important part of preparing for houseguests, it is best to save that kind of frenzied strategy for last minute tasks and to enjoy taking your time now. When you are doing big projects like painting, is better to finish what you start than to start things you can’t finish.
When you have completed everything that is circled in red, try to work your way through as many of the tasks that you have written in pencil as you can. You probably will not be able to finish all of them, as important but unexpected tasks nearly always come up when you are in the midst of preparing for houseguests. Work your way through the penciled items on your list until two days before your visitors are scheduled to arrive. When you reach that point, skip right to the last minute items that you have circled in blue. These small, quick tasks can have a big impact on the look and feel of your home, and this last minute flurry of simple activities with big results can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of preparing for houseguests.
