Published on , in Cleaning & Decorating, Seasonal.
There’s never a dull moment at Christmas, especially when you’re the one hosting friends and family. A balance must be struck between catering to your guests and enjoying a nice tidy home. Here is our guide to preparing your house’s sleeping arrangements for visitors over the festive period.
There are three distinct tiers of sleeping arrangement for visitors. Who gets what depends on the individual needs of the guest, so here is an overview:
Sturdy and comfortable, spare beds are the top-tier sleeping place for guests that have travelled a long way. They’re also suitable for elderly or infirm relatives who’d value the comfort, and for couples who require the space and privacy of their own bedroom.
Airbeds are an incredibly nifty space saver, and almost as comfortable as their permanent counterparts. Anyone with more than 3 or 4 guests at Christmas should invest in an airbed or two. With the right combination of bedsheets, pillows and some little bedside tables, you can transform the study, office or living room into a temporary cocoon. Come the morning, simply deflate the bed and put the furniture back (see below. Minutes later, it’s like no one was there.
With varying shapes and sizes, some sofas are better than others. While great leaps in comfort can be made with throws, fleeces and blankets, one thing you can’t adjust is the width of the furniture. Sofas are therefore better suited to shorter people, relatives or those that have drunk too much sherry and won’t mind the squeeze!
With that in mind, it’s important not to make your house feel like a hostel. With bedside tables, glasses of water, toiletries and clothes piles in every room, you mustn’t let it pile up and overwhelm you.
Don’t skimp on the bins! Even a little waste paper basket in every room will encourage good habits. If that’s not possible, tie a bin bag to every door handle. Put the economics of “nudge theory” to the test and see if these little bags fill up!
With Christmas being so full of rich food, people are often grateful for a simpler breakfast. Stock up on the usual cereals, toasts, milk and spreads and lay them out on a platter every morning.
Here’s the sneaky part
There’s never a dull moment at Christmas, especially when you’re the one hosting friends and family. A balance must be struck between catering to your guests and enjoying a nice tidy home. Here is our guide to preparing your house’s sleeping arrangements for visitors over the festive period.
There are three distinct tiers of sleeping arrangement for visitors. Who gets what depends on the individual needs of the guest, so here is an overview:
Sturdy and comfortable, spare beds are the top-tier sleeping place for guests that have travelled a long way. They’re also suitable for elderly or infirm relatives who’d value the comfort, and for couples who require the space and privacy of their own bedroom.
Airbeds are an incredibly nifty space saver, and almost as comfortable as their permanent counterparts. Anyone with more than 3 or 4 guests at Christm
There’s never a dull moment at Christmas, especially when you’re the one hosting friends and family. A balance must be struck between catering to your guests and enjoying a nice tidy home. Here is our guide to preparing your house’s sleeping arrangements for visitors over the festive period.
There are three distinct tiers of sleeping arrangement for visitors. Who gets what depends on the individual needs of the guest, so here is an overview:
Sturdy and comfortable, spare beds are the top-tier sleeping place for guests that have travelled a long way. They’re also suitable for elderly or infirm relatives who’d value the comfort, and for couples who require the space and privacy of their own bedroom.
Airbeds are an incredibly nifty space saver, and almost as comfortable as their permanent counterparts. Anyone with more than 3 or 4 guests at Christmas should invest in an airbed or two. With the right combination of bedsheets, pillows and some little bedside tables, you can transform the study, office or living room into a temporary cocoon. Come the morning, simply deflate the bed and put the furniture back (see below. Minutes later, it’s like no one was there.
With varying shapes and sizes, some sofas are better than others. While great leaps in comfort can be made with throws, fleeces and blankets, one thing you can’t adjust is the width of the furniture. Sofas are therefore better suited to shorter people, relatives or those that have drunk too much sherry and won’t mind the squeeze!
With that in mind, it’s important not to make your house feel like a hostel. With bedside tables, glasses of water, toiletries and clothes piles in every room, you mustn’t let it pile up and overwhelm you.
Don’t skimp on the bins! Even a little waste paper basket in every room will encourage good habits. If that’s not possible, tie a bin bag to every door handle. Put the economics of “nudge theory” to the test and see if these little bags fill up!
With Christmas being so full of rich food, people are often grateful for a simpler breakfast. Stock up on the usual cereals, toasts, milk and spreads and lay them out on a platter every morning.
Here’s the sneaky part - while guests are enjoying themselves, zip through every room and do the following:
With the guests fed and the dishes done, you can all enjoy the day without any leftover mess!
It’s not rocket science, but you’d be surprised at the amount of people that neglect this advice and end up feeling hemmed in with visitors over Christmas. Our advice, borne from years of experience packing and cleaning, tends to address the problem head on. The conclusion we draw from most of these articles is this - clean when convenient, and approach it in bite sized chunks.
