Preparing your home for the holidays will help make your home inviting and comfortable for family and friends.
Whether they are coming for the day, a dinner or as overnight guests, we have created this holiday checklist to help you get ready for family and friend visits.
Your Home Exterior
- Make sure all outdoor and holiday lighting is functioning properly and is turned on when it is dark. You don’t want to spend your holiday attending to an injury from a fall.
- Get rid of wasp nests still hanging around. It may sound unlikely, but do you really want to apologize to family or friends about being buzzed or worse by wasps?
Living Area
- Declutter your home before guests begin arriving for holiday events or overnight stays. Remove anything unneccessary from countertops, coffee tables, foyers, kitchens, living room, den, and dining room areas.
- If the carpet isn’t looking it’s best, schedule a professional carpet cleaning. A good professional deep cleaning with have them looking brand new. Be sure to have them apply a stain guard so that when spills happen they will be easier to clean.
- Clean the windows so that guests can clearly see your outside decorations.
- Add Nightlights for those overnight guest unfamiliar with your home so they don’t rip in the dark.
- Add a coffee station in a family room to avoid crowding in the kitchen.
- Use scented candles to add a nice holiday smell to your home. Its a little thing, but it will add to the holiday decoration and inviting feel of your home for the holiday season.
Bathrooms
- Replace or clean grout to give a fresh look to bathrooms.
- Make sure you have enough guest bath and/or hand towels. Consider special towels with a holiday theme to keep with the spirit of the season.
Kitchen
It seems for every gathering, the kitchen is the hub of activity for entertaining. Remove clutter from the counter-tops, prep your oven, clean the microwave, clean out the refrigerator and get your serve-ware ready and polish all silver. Stock your kitchen properly, create a cooking schedule and set up buffet style food service for guests.
Guest rooms
- Fresh linens for guests. Nice fresh smelling linens are a must.
- Create closet space to make your guests feel more at home. No one likes to live out of a suitcase.
- Bedside clock and reading lamp. Make it easy for your guests to sleep or wake on their schedule.
The holidays can be a stressful time, but by preparing your home for the holidays with this checklist, your festive holiday season will be much smoother. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!