How to Prepare Your Home for Overnight Guests

It’s always lovely to play host around the holidays, impressing family and friends who come to visit. While it might be tricky to safely accommodate all of your out-of-town family members in your home, it’s still possible to host a few overnight guests. 

Ready to host a few friends or relatives to celebrate the holiday season? From preparing a comfortable bed and delicious meals to offering extra personal touches, here’s how to prepare your home for overnight guests and make them feel welcome

Shop Our Home for The Holidays Collection.

Make General Preparations Around the Home

First, you need to make some general preparations around the home. Hopefully, you have taken time to winterize your home, but if not, here are some basic tasks to mark off your to-do list when preparing your home for overnight guests.

Declutter and Tidy Up

Instead of sticking to an annual spring cleaning, give your home a fall cleaning as well. After all, with the upcoming season of giving, you’ll be sure to accumulate even more. Take this time to go around each room and remove unnecessary clutter, boxing up or donating items you no longer need or want. Donate toys the kids no longer play with and cooking utensils and gadgets that might prove more useful in someone else’s kitchen. Do whatever helps to declutter and focus on the real task at hand–cleaning! 

Address Small Home Projects

As you perform a deep cleaning of the home, take note of any furniture or cabinets that could use some repairs. With the arrival of guests, you want everything to be in tip-top shape, and this goes for hand-me-down, heirloom furniture and antiques, too. Find the perfect piece of furniture hardware to bring it back to life or mend broken parts.

Shop All Furniture Hardware and Fixtures

Also, take this time to tackle any renovation projects or decorating projects you’ve meant to accomplish, making your home look more presentable to overnight guests. Whether it’s incorporating home accents or replacing living room seating so it can accommodate a bigger group, take the time to get your home where you want it so you can feel proud to host.

Plan Delicious Meals

When inviting overnight guests, take the time to plan a delicious meal or two. Whether it’s for a single night or a long weekend, jot down a menu for each meal in which your guests will be joining. However, realize you don’t have to cook them all! Mix up the meal plan and take some of the weight off your shoulders. For example, if you find the ambition to prepare a fantastic dinner feast, be sure to follow up with a breakfast spread of make-your-own bagels or even store-bought donuts. Alternatively, you could also request that your guests  prepare one of the meals. 

One great tip is to start a Pinterest board to store and organize all the breakfasts, appetizer snacks and dinners you wish to make. The week they arrive, plan each day out and make a grocery list. Take some of the pressure off, too, and find recipes that can be prepared ahead of time and popped into the oven at the last minute. Search for recipes like an easy overnight French toast bake or premade quiches for quick breakfasts. And remember to treat guests to your favorite restaurants, ordering effortless takeout meals like pizza–perfect for casual dinners and movie nights. When meal planning, remember to be flexible, especially when it comes to picky eaters like kids. 

Decorate for the Holidays

Since you will be celebrating at your home for the holidays, be sure to deck the halls and make your home more festive. Not only will unboxing vintage ornaments and glimmering string lights put you in the nostalgic holiday spirit, but once it’s all up, it will make the home feel ultra-cozy and celebratory.

Stock the Fridge with Seasonal Drinks

Stock your fridge with a variety of holiday drinks that everyone can enjoy. Hot apple cider or egg nog are some winter favorites everyone will love. Make sure to keep the coffee grounds close to the coffee maker in case guests wake before you. Don’t forget the little ones also, offering hot cocoa and juice boxes. 

Entertain with Fun Games and Activities

Be sure to keep your guests entertained during their stay. Whether you bring out the board games, puzzles or play a good old-fashioned game of charades, it can entertain adults and kids alike for hours. You can even create two separate spaces for adults and kids to do their own thing. While the adults enjoy a movie, the kids can play board games in a spare bedroom. Entertainment could be as simple as taking a tour of your hometown, driving by must-see monuments, historical architecture and other places of interest. 

Prepare the Guest Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Whether your guests are staying one brief night or hunkering down with you throughout the holiday season, take time to prepare their designated bedroom and bathroom. Just like a hotel room, turn their personal space into a suite-like retreat that offers plenty of creature comforts and amenities.  Here are some extra tips and suggestions that will create an inviting room where they can sleep peacefully, get dressed and more. 

Dress Up the Bed

Make the guest bed comfortable, dressing it up with freshly laundered sheets, linens and a warm down duvet. Keep an extra wool throw nearby, in case they get cold during chilly nights. Offer several pillow densities–hard, medium and soft–so that guests can choose the one that best suits them. 

Provide Reading Material

Offer some light reading material, like magazines and children’s books, to keep guests entertained. If they are early risers or night owls, leave a few magazines on the nightstand to invite them to peruse and amuse themselves until everyone is awake. 

Place a Card with the WiFi Password

Help your guests get connected as soon as they arrive. Even if they save the password, they may forget by the time they need to answer work emails on their laptop after everyone’s gone to bed. Leaving an easy-to-spot notecard on the guest bedroom nightstand or dresser is extremely convenient and keeps them from disturbing you. 

Leave a Small Gift Basket

Place a welcome gift basket in the guest bedroom to let them know you appreciate them making the journey and to make them feel at home. Stock it with a few water bottles, treats and extra items that might come in handy during their stay. That way, when they crave a midnight snack, your guests won’t have to leave the room and scrounge through your kitchen. You could also add more personal touches like a handwritten card or note to say “Thanks.” One nice gesture is to leave some cozy slippers.

Add Some Festive Holiday Decor

Besides making sure the guest room is tidy, add a few pieces of festive holiday decor. Arrange a vase with a floral arrangement of poinsettias and dried branches, placing it on the dresser or bathroom vanity. You could even place a mini evergreen tree in the corner of the room, wrapped in twinkling lights and ornaments to match the guest room’s color scheme. In addition, offer a scented candle in soothing wintry scents like cedarwood and juniper berry, along with a matchbook, inviting them to ignite it during evenings as they unwind before bed or soak in a relaxing bath.

Check Smaller Details 

Since you may not visit the guest bedroom too often, make sure to check smaller details as well. For example, turn on all the bedside lamps and lighting fixtures to ensure the bulbs are still in working order. Give them enough closet space and a few spare hangers to keep garments from wrinkling. Make sure any alarm clocks are reset to accommodate daylight savings time and that any TV remote batteries are fresh and operable. Essentially, take a close look around the room and fix anything that might need tending to.

Spruce Up and Clean the Guest Bathroom

Take time to spruce up and clean the guest bathroom, especially if it’s not used often. If your towels are old and outdated, replace them with new plush towels. Add plenty of hand towels and washcloths, too, so that guests can wash and pat dry their face. Hang a few plush robes in the bathroom as well, inviting them to take their time and relax after a long day of traveling. 

More importantly, make sure that the guest bathroom is sparkling clean. Update bathroom fixtures and offer amenities and toiletries that might be forgotten at home. Keep a tray of necessities such as soap, shampoo, conditioner and even some mouthwash. A bottle of soothing body lotion also makes a thoughtful touch.   

Shop All Bathroom Fixtures

Extra Hospitality Tips to Keep Overnight Guests Happy

Benjamin Franklin once said that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. In other words, as much as you may love the company of your closest family and friends, after a while, things can turn. Living in close quarters with our routine disrupted and little privacy can make both the guests and the host eager to regain their personal space. To tamper the annoying quirks and anxiety, here are some extra hospitality tips to keep everyone content.

Have a Tentative Plan

Along with writing down a meal plan, schedule a tentative plan for the days your overnight guests will be visiting. Of course, remember to be flexible with your plans and don’t force guests to do something they may not enjoy. Instead, keep a rolling list of all the activities and local events in the area and offer a few suggestions during lunch or dinner. This way, everyone can come to an agreement and you’re not wasting time deciding the day of. 

Offer Guests Some ‘Downtime’

While it’s important to schedule a tentative plan, avoid packing every minute of the day with activities. Guests need some downtime, the same as you. And how they spend their downtime is up to them. If a guest wants to read or do a crossword puzzle, let them unwind how they like. The same goes for kids, especially ones who tend to scroll electronic devices for hours. Offering guests their personal space and boundaries can make their visit less stressful for both of you. 

Celebrate Milestones and Accomplishments

Make time to celebrate each others’ milestones and accomplishments. Whether it was a big anniversary, job promotion or a new addition to the family, share in the year’s events and catch up on everyone’s lives. While it seems insignificant, sharing these events brings family and friends closer together. 

It’s not just about adult moments, either. Give young children some one-on-one time, too, letting them tell you about their newest interests, best friends and favorite activities–whatever they’re into! 

Don’t Burn Yourself Out

As a host, you want everything to go perfectly as planned. However, go easy on yourself and try not to worry about the little things. So what if the kitchen is still messy from preparing dinner? Also, don’t be afraid to accept or ask for help. Your guests may be secretly wondering if they will step on your toes by merely asking when you could really use the assistance. And it doesn’t have to be a big task! Guests can help set the table, wash dishes or take the dog out. Overall, when you tackle chores as a team, it goes faster and allows everyone to spend more quality time together.  

Get Some Fresh Air

Avoid that cooped-up feeling and get some fresh air. Whenever there’s a full house, everyone could use a breather, both literally and figuratively. Instead of getting overwhelmed by chatter and tight spaces, schedule a walk in a nearby park or at least take a stroll around the neighborhood. If you live on the West Coast where the weather is still sunny, head to the beach or pack a picnic. If you live in the Northeast, where it’s chilly by Thanksgiving, find an ice skating rink or grab some snowshoes or crampons for a peaceful walk in the snow. 

Image Credits
Source: Drpixel / Shutterstock.com
Source: Flamingo Images / Shutterstock.com
Source: Papzi555 / Shutterstock.com
Source: Chinnapong / Shutterstock.com
Source: Oksana Mizina / Shutterstock.com
Source: Joe Hendrickson / Shutterstock.com
Source: Marjan Apostolovic / Shutterstock.com