Get Organised for Guests - tips for getting your home ready for post lock down visitors
Are you ready to welcome visitors back into your home, or has lockdown taken a toll on the communal areas in your house?
Sometimes I ask my Decluttering Club "If I turned up at your house today, what would I see...?" Usually this provokes at least one horrified "Err, please don't!" The other day we were laughing about the fact that we're just not used to welcoming visitors into our home anymore, and this lead on to a conversation about the impact lockdown has had on our living space.
Maybe for some of us nothing's changed, our house looks exactly the same as it did before we went into the first lockdown. For some who have taken the lockdown opportunity to declutter and organise, they might be keen to show off their newly organised rooms. For others though, the thought of of inviting people over and them seeing the clutter and mess that's built up, might be filling them with dread. If that's you, how do you get your house organised for guests?
If you've become a bit complacent over lockdown, now's the time to start looking at your home through the eyes of your guests, because they will notice the mess that you've become accustomed to. For you it's become normal, you see it everyday!
Here are a few quick tips to help you get your house ready for visitors.
Declutter your hallway
Organise your living room to create a relaxing space
Meal prepping is easier in an organised kitchen
Reclaim your dining room
Declutter your hallway for a great first impression. This is the first "room" people see when they step through your door, you don't want them to be tripping over things, or have no room to hang their coat.
Declutter your coats and shoes. Spring is the perfect time to go through everything and weed out what's no longer used. Anything that won't be worn again until the autumn, store elsewhere.
Agree a limit on the number of jackets and pairs of shoes each member of your family keeps in the hallway and move the rest into storage further away.
Go through any "clutter collectors" by your door, by this I mean bowls for keys, trays for post, baskets for random outdoor clothing items.... you have these because you think they're going to help contain your mess, but in reality they often end up adding to the problem. Be strict about what goes in them, or remove them completely and allocate items a more specific, permanent home.
Organise your living room to create a relaxing space - have you become lax about storing toys, or other items that normally don't belong there, in your living room? If so, it's time to return toys, games, and craft supplies to play rooms, kids bedrooms, or at the very least organise them neatly into boxes and baskets which can be stored out of sight when not in use.
Go through any newspapers and magazines that have piled up. Tear out (or even better, scan), useful recipes or articles and recycle what's not needed.
Take the opportunity to give cushion covers and throws a wash, as part of a wider spring clean.
Meal prepping is easier in an organised kitchen - the easier this will be (and the more effortless it will appear), if your kitchen is clutter free and well organised. Do an audit of what's in your cupboards, fridge and freezer. Make a list of a few easy to throw together, stand by meals and stock up on the required ingredients.
If your kitchen has become a bit of a dumping ground over the last few months, clear your surfaces and return items that don't belong there, to a more permanent home.
If you're reading this and thinking that the task for getting your kitchen back to any kind of well functioning state, requires much more than this, my Chaos to Calm Kitchen DIY Guide would be perfect for your decluttering & organising project.
Reclaim your dining room - if you've been using your dining room as a make shift home office, you'll be wanting to reclaim that space for entertaining. If you're out of your house and back into your office, this should be quite easy to do, but even if you're still working from home, it's time to have a good declutter and re organise.
Sort through your paperwork, file and scan what needs to be kept, shred and recycle the rest. If you don't have your own shredder Shred It can be booked for a one off visit.
Set up a storage system for your work equipment and stationery. Think about what's absolutely essential for doing your job on a day to day basis. Store all but the key items elsewhere in your house. Organise the work essentials that remain so that they can be packed away easily, temporarily moved to a different room when you want to use your table and then are easy to put back once your guests have gone.
What have you been doing so far to re claim your space and improve your home life as lock down eases, or what are you got planning to do?
Let me know in the comments below ⬇️
Jo Hall is a Berkshire based Declutterer & Organiser, working on site 🏠 and supporting clients virtually 👩💻
To clear your clutter, get organised and keep your house that way, click here to find out more about the Chaos to Calm Kitchen DIY Decluttering & Organising Guide and My Eyes on Your Room
