There’s no place like home for the holidays

I love the hustle and bustle, the cooler weather and the joy of holiday decorating! Aside from all of that, this time of year also brings a lot of house guests!  I enjoy hosting and having people over, but then I tend to worry about the food and beverages we will need versus what my spare bedroom looks like!  Every year, I usually end up scrambling to get it straight hours before our first guests show up…Who’s with me!?  This year I’m going to try something different. My goal is to have my guest room organized weeks before anyone arrives!!  

Is your spare bedroom ready for Uncle Joe??  Is it ready for cousin Lily’s 6 month old baby??  How about your in-laws???  Well, here are just a few tips and tricks to get that drab second bedroom ready for whoever decides to drop in and stay a while!

  1. Have a spare blanket or comforter available.  Sometimes when a lot of people are gathered together and the oven is going all day getting ready for that big meal, you turn down the heat.  Am I right?  Then you go to bed and forget that you left if turned down so overnight it gets chilly.  It’s good to have an extra blanket either laying on the foot of the bed or in the closet so your guests have easy access when necessary.
  2. Check the comfort of the mattress!  A lot of us never sleep in there so we may not have a clue how comfortable it is!  I am not asking you to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a new mattress, but what you can do is purchase a comfy mattress topper!  Memory foam and pillow top are just two of the options available. That once little change will make all of your guests happy, including Uncle Joe!
  3. Now that the bed is nice and cozy, it’s also handy to have a pillow and extra sheets in the closet or dresser.  These seem like no-brainers but you would be surprised how many people do not have these items readily available for their needy MIL!
  4. Make sure your side table/nightstand has a few of these items: lamp for reading material, the remote for the TV (if there is a tv in that room), and a clock of some form!  Easy enough!
  5. This tip is must.  Guests will be thankful to have access to an outlet or power cord for phones and iPads! Sometimes the bed or dresser is up against the closest outlet to the bed and it’s really difficult to reach.  It would be considerate to just stick an extension cord or power strip in the outlet so it’s closer to the nightstand.
  6. Lastly: A fan!  For those guests that are ALWAYS hot!  It’s nice to have a little table fan in the closet so they can use at night to keep them cool or for a bit of white noise to block out Uncle Joe’s snoring!  

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and don’t forget to be nice to one another!  Family and friends mean so much to me and I look forward to spending quality time with mine!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of our RCD friends and family!

 

JJ XOXO