A Guest-Ready Home in 1 Hour or Less
It would be wonderful if our homes were always ready to welcome guests. Unfortunately, even the neatest homemaker can’t always keep a perfectly neat home. So what do you do when you find out there are guests coming anyway? Well, there’s no need to panic. It’s going to be okay! I’ve got a few easy steps for you to follow that will make your home guest-ready in one hour or less.
If you want a perfectly clean and neat home, I’m afraid that will likely take longer than an hour. But there are a lot of things you can do in a short time that will really make a difference and have your guests feeling comfortable and welcome. The focus is on having a guest-ready space, not a perfectly neat house.
1. Figure out which part of your home the guests will be seeing. Everyone knows that old story where a wife tells her husband that guests are coming and asks him to help clean up, so he goes to start cleaning out the garage, right? By figuring out where your guests will be, you know what parts of your home need focused attention and which areas you can ignore. If they aren’t going to be seeing your out-of-season clothes storage or your pantry, then those areas can stay messy and disorganized. In general, I would assume your living room, kitchen, bathroom, and maybe a guest bedroom would be the key parts of your home that guests will be viewing.
2. Make flat space. Start one room at a time, and clear off the flat surface areas. When there are open surfaces, a room feels neater and cleaner. Even if this means dumping piles of old homework or a tangle of charging cords into a laundry basket and hiding it in one of those areas your guests won’t be seeing, make some space on your horizontal surfaces. The goal isn’t to have a neat house, it’s to have guests feel comfortable. If you have to clear out the laundry basket later, that’s fine for this purpose. Your guests don’t even need to know about it. Flat space includes the floors! If there are stacks of stuff on the floor, hide them if you can, or put them away. In the kitchen, if you aren’t going to have to cook, you can hide dirty dishes in a stack in the dishwasher or even in the oven. Just make sure to take them back out before you preheat the next time!
3. Check the smell of your home. Light a candle, turn on a wax heater or essential oil diffuser, or open some windows and let fresh air in. When you spend a lot of time in a place, sometimes you stop smelling it. Especially if you have pets, odors can build up without your notice. This doesn’t mean your house stinks, just that humans get used to the things they smell every day! But your guests don’t smell your home regularly, so give them a good first impression. Vacuum rugs and floors if you have time, as this will remove extra pet hair and reduce the smell. A nice-smelling home is going to feel inviting.
4. Put out fresh hand towels in the kitchen and bathroom. For some reason, nothing makes me feel like someone is on top of their cleaning like a fresh, crisp towel. If your towels have been sitting limp in a laundry pile since they came out of the dryer, toss a couple back in for a few minutes until they are warm, and then fold them immediately over the towel rack so they have crisp, neat corners. This one gets double points, because fresh towels smell great.
5. If time permits, wipe down the bathroom mirror and give the toilet a quick scrub. A clean bathroom is always more welcoming than a questionable one. Plus, as with point 4, the cleaner will make the bathroom smell fresh and welcoming.
6. Don’t apologize for the state of your house! This is the most important point. If you apologize for your home as soon as guests walk in, they are going to notice the bad things. If you smile and welcome them instead, they are going to look around and see the open surfaces and smell the fresh scents. They are going to notice the good things about your home, and spend less time noticing the bad. Besides, we all have the right to live in our homes. Children’s toys piled in the corner, half-finished knitting projects in a basket beside a chair, and a stack of unopened mail just mean your home is a place where people really live, work, and play. That’s something to be proud of, and needs no apology.
Following these steps will make the guest-accessible areas of your home feel inviting and clean, with less than an hour of work. This isn’t the time to do a deep clean, but a light surface clean that makes your space look and feel appealing. With just an hour’s notice, you can be proud to welcome guests into your home. After all, being a good host isn’t about having a home that’s perfectly neat at every moment; it’s about making guests feel as though you do.