Holiday House Prep: Getting Your Home Ready For Family

I’ll be hosting Xmas here just as I hosted Thanksgiving here this year. It just feels right that Grandma’s house be the place we all gather. Of course prep for me is not just cleaning – I always seem to be in the middle of some kind of construction project I’m hustling to finish before my guests arrive!

(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)

We are but a couple of weeks away from the most wonderful time of the year, and there is still so much to do. There are presents to wrap, there is food to buy and there are decorations to hang. Most of all? There’s a house to prep because the extended family are T-10 days from descending on you all!

It’s a busy season, but getting the house ready is the biggest job of all to do, and you have to plan it to perfection if you want it to look fantastic. Organization is key, and more than that, you need to use the right materials to get the job done to a high standard. With the list below, you can prep your home for the festive holidays without delay. Ready? Let’s go!

• Don’t Waste Time!

There isn’t long to go before Christmas is going to be at your doorstep, so the best thing that you can do right now is to organize your home cleaning schedule into blocks of time. Get your cleaning done methodically, and if you can, rope in the rest of the family to help!

Start with the entryways and work your way through room to room. Make sure that you have the right mops, cloths, squeegees and cleaners like Lemi Shine so that you can clean your home naturally. You don’t want too many cleaners through the house because, you know, chemicals.

So, use them sparingly! In holiday house prep always remember some guests (and fur guests too!) might have sensitivity and allergies to accommodate.

• Guest Room Ready

It’s not just about the guest room, but it kind of IS when it comes to the in-laws coming to stay. Guests go together with the holiday season, but there is a chance you’ll be sharing your home with your mother-in-law for a few weeks, and there’s that underlying need to impress – even when you don’t really want to! So, you need to get your guest room cleaned as best you can and that means it’s an all hands on deck situation!

Pull in the kids and your partner so that the guest room (and all other rooms) are ready. There is cleaning and decluttering to be done, from changing the bedding to vacuuming the floors.

Have some snacks at the ready to put into the oven before they arrive so that the whole house smells like cookies!

If you are fortunate to have an en suite bathroom to your guest room, prep it with some toiletries spa-style and a basket filled with fresh, fluffy towels and for that extra touch, light a Christmas-scented melt for your burner, and your home will smell gorgeous.

• Set The Atmosphere

Once you have thoroughly cleaned the house, you need to think about setting the stage for your guests. The baseboards that they won’t pay attention to will be cleaned, of course, but more than that you want people to walk in and be impressed. Make sure that your Christmas decorations are coordinated, the music is on at a low level and make sure that everyone is presentable and ready to greet everyone. Give the house a walk through just before the guests arrive and make sure it’s all ready. Here are a few things that you should remember to do:

• Make sure every bathroom has fresh towels
• Replace the toilet paper in the bathrooms and make sure it hangs right
• Have drinks chilling in the refrigerator
• Karate-chop the pillows on the sofas and beds (for presentation, naturally)
• Get rid of any tripping hazards in corridors
• Take a laundry basket around the house to pick up stray socks
• Give the coffee table a once-over with a cloth and make sure that the coasters are ready
• Check on the cookies so that they don’t burn!

The Takeaway: Merry Christmas

You must finally remember that it’s a festive time of year for you, too. So, while you’re there cleaning the entire house, you need to make sure that you are doing what you can for yourself as well as your guests and your family. Getting your home ready for the whole family is also getting it ready for you, so clean the house to your own standards and make sure that you’ve got the snacks in that YOU want.

The holidays are a time for family, but they’re also a time for renewal, so don’t be afraid to change things around and move the furniture to fit the season. The Christmas tree must go somewhere, right? Have a happy holiday season and enjoy those cookies!

(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)