Five Steps to Make Your Holiday Guests Feel @ Home

It is holiday season and many of us will be migrating home to share our time with the rest of the family. In my case, my family is spread around the world; Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Germany. If we don’t count Germany, my home in Austin, TX turns out to be the most central location for the rest of my family to get together.  Which gives me the honor to host the Holidays for the first time.

That also means that I have to host my parents, my brother, his wife and new baby, V and I in my two bedroom townhouse. don’t get me wrong, it’s a joy to have them home, but how will I make them feel comfortable?

I have made up a list of five steps to make your home more enjoyable, welcoming and Zen for holiday visitors.

1. Complete Un-Finished Home Projects

This is not the time to take on long projects that down deep you know you will not finish on time, but it is time to complete some of those unfinished projects. I know I had quite a few; unfinished entertainment system area as well as un-hanged frames, stuff I have listed in Craigslist and paint for ‘quick’ painting jobs that never got done, all just laying around the house.

I believe that finishing such projects will give the house a feeling of home instead of a building site as well as make you feel good about finishing something you obviously wanted at one point or another.

2. De-clutter

Once the materials for those projects finished in the previous step are either used up and/or put away, the next step is to step back and take a good look at your house and see where you can reduce the content of ‘stuff.’ If you have ever watched HGTV then you are familiar with de-cluttering… They recommend it for everything, you want to sell your house? De-clutter. You want fix a room? De-clutter. Your house is falling in to pieces? De-clutter.

In this case, do you want the feeling of a roomier house? De-clutter.

• A good way to decorate while de-cluttering is to group similar small items into inexpensive deco boxes which are found in Ikea (or similar store).
• Also, it is the time of giving, try to evaluate what you don’t really need and donated to local non-profit organizations; Clothes, books, furniture and so on.
• Try selling stuff you don’t need in Craigslist.

A small article on De-cluttering, ‘Declutter 101: Where Do I Start?’

3. Clean

“A clean home is a happy home.” Sadly my home is seldom really clean, but no one can deny how good it feels when in a clean home. If you own a large house, I believe that as a present to yourself and accommodations to your guest it is really worth getting a cleaning service to do a detailing cleaning job in your home. I mean we get our cars detailed every so often, why not our house?

4. Have Hotel Like Accommodations for Guest

I do not mean have a spa and a hot tub…. See the following list:

• Have a space for them to unpack and have their own area.
• If your guest will have their own room take some time to decorate it by getting matching sheets, maybe a reading lamp, art or picture in the wall, etc.
• If you have a guest bathroom, have a little basket with grooming essentials: shampoo, soap, tooth paste, tooth brush, deodorant, etc.

The point is to provide them with a sense of privacy and comfort.

5. Set the Mood

This events are optional to your guest, but they are meant to entertain, promote sharing and setting a joyful mood.

• In this case we are talking about a holiday visit, so have holiday decorations, holiday music, holiday food, etc.
• Keep your guest entertain by scheduling events… visiting the light show or local holiday events, family game night, cooking and sharing time, etc.

I believe that even if you have no guests, these steps will provide you with a more enjoyable home for the rest of the year and a great mood to launch the year to come.

Happy Holidays and Marry Christmas!!