Tag Archives: guests

Argh. The doorbell rings. It’s the holiday season, and your house may be a jumble like mine with family in and all sorts of projects going at once. It’s tempting to pretend like I’m not home and not answer the door, but that’s so rude. So, I have come up with some quick clean up tips to keep the house at least presentable enough to let friends and family in the door.

My first tip is the old rule from when I was growing up. Make up the bed as soon as you wake up and make sure other family members do too. If the beds are made up, the bedrooms look pretty decent, and no one does much visiting in bedrooms anyway. Well, they don’t around here anyway.

Growing up, we had out of town guests on a regular basis. Dad worked and Mom raised the kids and kept the house in order. For this time maxed generation, it gets a lot more complicated. I work full-time at the college, write on the side, and it’s a stretch to be a great hostess. I’m sure I’m not alone, so here are some tips if you have company coming.

First, forget the 1950s model for entertaining. Seriously, things don’t have to be perfect. It’s about getting together and making some memories and not about the house looking like a magazine lay out and the food being gourmet.