5 Ways to Prepare for A Guest

You know your home should be immaculate before guests arrive. Whether it’s your neighbor of 5 years or President Obama, you don’t want anyone making large-scale assumptions about your lifestyle based on the number of clothes you have on the floor. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time to dedicate to cleaning. Thus, we are sharing a few key shortcuts on how to efficiently prepare for a guest.

1. Have A System

Start by making a plan: do the prep work first and during the time you’d have to wait, do other things. For example, first, you can prepare the bathroom and the kitchen by spraying the all-purpose cleaning spray onto the sink, the mirror, cabinets and so on. Since you have to let these sit for a while, you can move on to de-cluttering and clean other rooms and then come back to the bathroom and the kitchen.

2. Go For The Hotel Look

The best way to achieve the clean look fast is to have the minimum amount of items out in the open, including clothes, decorations, and other regular household items like remotes and coasters. Try to achieve the hotel look – leave nothing on coffee tables, nightstands, tables, desks, and basically leave all horizontal spaces empty. You can put everything away in drawers or get away with a cheat box you will use exactly for hiding away anything and everything.

3. Dust

Once you have put most of your stuff away, it will be much easier to dust. You can do this by just swiping a dry microfiber cloth over surfaces once, working back-to-front. Start at higher surfaces like wall art and lamps so the dust falls down to the furniture below which you will clean next. If you can’t reach ceiling light fixtures and paintings, use a long-armed duster. If you notice dust on the walls, wrap a wet towel around the broom and wipe them down. Don’t worry about the floor at this stage. Move around the room clockwise.

4. Vacuum And Mop

If you haven’t cleaned your upholstered furniture in a while, you can use the upholstery addition and vacuum clean it quickly. A steam vacuum cleaner will do wonders for furniture and make it look like new in no time. After that, you can vacuum your carpets and rugs, starting at the back corner of the room and moving your way out the door. It is enough if you run the vacuum over each surface once. Finally, mop the floor with a dampened mop in the same fashion.

5. Make It Sparkle

Once you have done all of the above, then returned to the bathroom and the kitchen to clean those, there are a few final things you can do to make your home look fresh and clean. One of them is to change the linen, make the beds, change towels, change throws and cushion covers. Another one is to make all glass surfaces gleam using a glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth for your glass tables and mirrors.

Stay focused and you can accomplish this is just under an hour. Put your cell phone away and it’ll probably take 30 minutes. If you have dinner plans, you can always call Maid Sailors and we’ll come through and do it in a jiffy while you toast to 2016 (it’s January so you’re still allowed to).

Has this helped you prepare for a guest in your home? If so let us know below!