I have been blessed.  All of my adult life has been spent in the same city with all of my family and all of my husbands family.  Until August.  Everything changed.  We moved to a new city.  And now I have house guests. 

This is new territory for me.  I am fumbling my way through, figuring out how to be the “hostess with the mostess”.  This last week my 2 sisters, their combined 5 kids and my Mom all came to stay with us for spring break.   Now, even though I call myself a Lazy Mom, I actually have a little OCD.  Let’s re-visit the definition of a Lazy Mom.  She isn’t really lazy.  She just finds fast and efficient ways to get more done so she can have more fun.  I’m all about the shortcuts, but not all about the mess. 

I’m afraid my first go around at being a hostess back in September wasn’t so great.  I was so stressed out about the stuff everywhere, that I couldn’t enjoy myself and I probaby made my guests uptight.  This time, though, I really geared up for having them and psyched myself up for clutter.  I have been missing my sisters so much (in Tulsa, my sisters, parents and I all lived in the same neighborhood) and was so excited that they chose to spend their spring breaks with me and my family.  I promised myself that I would choose to ignore clutter and messes and instead choose to focus on family.  They would only be here a few days.  When the mess disappeared, so would they!

One thing I did was to put fresh flowers in both of their bathrooms.  When I was a house guest someone did this for me and I thought it was a really nice, personal touch that I wanted to do for them.  (Thanks, Paula!)  It’s inexpensive.  I just got some fresh flowers from my grocery store and put them in vases I already owned.  They both commented on the fresh flowers and thanked me for it.

Something I think should be a given is washing all the sheets and towels before your guests arrive.  Most of you probably don’t even know why I am including such an obvious tip.  I have been a houseguest before and had to sleep on unwashed sheets.  The sheets weren’t gross or anything, but knowing that they weren’t freshly washed and that someone else had slept on them totally grossed me out.  If you have ever done this, please don’t do it again.  Always wash your sheets and towels in preparation of your guests.

Other obvious tips:  run the vacuum cleaner, clean the bathrooms and straighten the rooms.  Again, obvious to most, but you never know! 

Another tip I picked up along the way is to put a clean bar of soap in each shower.  People don’t want to use “used” soap.  It’s kind of gross if you think about it.

In preparation of their arrival I spent a lot of time in the kitchen.  I prepared meals and froze them or kept them in the refrigerator.  I didn’t want to spend time cooking while my guests were here.  I did spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen cleaning up, heating up, etc.  Any time I could cut out was a bonus.  I woke up before my guests each day to get breakfast in the oven so that when they came to the kitchen it would be ready for them.

We had a GREAT week.  We shopped, ate, toured and explored all week.  It was worth all of the work, mess, laundry, and cooking I had done.  When they left, i had a little deja vu.  Laundry, vacuuming, grocery store, etc.  Even though i am still in my pajamas as I write this and am completely worn out, I am already looking forward to next spring break to do it again.

What are some things you have done to prepare for house guests?  Any secrets, tips or pet peeves?