Due to my husband’s work, we’ve moved often. At this time we live almost 1900 miles away from my parents and just 200 miles less than that from my in-laws, which is much closer than the 5000 miles when we lived in Turkey but still requires some major travel arrangements for visits. When our families visit, I want things to run perfectly. I want them to feel comfortable and I want them to enjoy the grandchildren that we know they miss so much. As I look forward to my parents visit….this weekend…hurricane notwithstanding. Here are a few of the things on my list to help prepare us and our home for the first visit this year.
Wash all linens in the guest room. I always like to add a little linen spray before adding each layer when making the bed. Make sure there are enough pillows and blankets.
Get your best towels out and freshly launder them. If they’ll have their own bathroom, make sure to clean it out the day or night before they arrive so it smells nice and fresh. Put in a new bar of soap, enough toilet paper for the visit, and I always like to have on hand extra toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, bath wash, and lotion.
Put a trash can or empty them out in the guest bathroom and bedrooms.
I like to break out the guidebooks and leave them in the guest room for some late night reading options. If they’ll be going out on their own, I also print out the directions off of the Internet to put with the books.
We always shop before hand to have our parents and in-laws’ favorite coffee for the morning. This means the strong stuff for my father-in-law and none of those flavored coffees for my dad. I also like to have breakfast foods ready to do. We usually hit the grocery stores with our guests once we know which meals will be eating at home.
We’ve been working hard to get all of our house projects under control. I have to admit that we’ll be looking forward to my parents’ visit to also get some things off of our ‘to do list’ as they watch the kids.
Fresh flowers always add a touch of hominess. I love that it gives the house a feeling of polish and the finishing touch.
What do you do to prepare for out of town guests? What did I miss?
1 response so far
1 Jenny Sep 22, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Last time my in-laws came I was too busy (it was my daughter’s birthday) but my mom kindly prepared a large chicken pot pie and left it uncooked. She brought it over so all I had to do was pop it in the oven. I think it’s a good idea to have a dish like that prepared so when the guests arrive and dinnertime rolls around you can focus on visiting with them, and not be stuck in the kitchen the whole time.
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