With the stress and busy schedules of the holiday season quickly approaching you may find yourself looking around your home in despair. In a few short weeks guests will begin arriving and your home is a cluttered mess. Have no fear – with a few easy-to-follow tips your home will be guest ready whenever they decide to appear on your doorstep!

The first thing you need to realize is that your home doesn’t look as bad as you think it does. People are always the hardest on themselves and remember – you still have to actually live in your house! No room will be perfect, not every little piece of life will be put away when the doorbell rings and that’s OK. Once you can ease up on yourself a bit, tackling the major problem areas will be much easier. A good rule of thumb to go by when cleaning your home is the fifteen minute timer. Literally set a kitchen timer for fifteen minutes and get to work. You will be surprised how much you can actually get done in fifteen minutes and how much less burned out you will be. Cleaning an entire house from top to bottom in a weekend is exhausting and by the time you are done, you won’t have enough energy to enjoy your company. By starting early and doing a little at a time, everything will get cleaned and you won’t look like you got run over by a semi truck.

If the clutter in your home is just too overwhelming and you don’t even know where to begin, here are some good tips. First, try to declutter one room at a time; jumping from room to room and never finishing will drive you crazy because you won’t see the progress. Sometimes it is easiest to start at one end of your house and make your way through the rooms. Some people prefer starting with the Master Bedroom because waking up in a clean, organized space every day will motivate you and help you keep a clear head.

When you begin, put away everything you see that you know has a space. Designate a table or empty laundry basket to place items that do not yet have a home. This way, you can keep moving and consolidate the problem items in to one area. Once everything is either put away or in the designated area, get to cleaning. Do the dusting, vacuuming and other tidying necessities. After the room is clean and feeling fresh, tackle the problem items. Sort through the items and try to categorize them. Think about why they were lying out where they were. The best way to organize your home and keep it that way is to adapt your organization to the habits that already exist. If you toss your purse, coat and car keys on a chair (or floor!) by the front door, consider a bench or coat tree. Something with storage area and hooks could be the perfect solution to containing your clutter where it happens.

This same mentality goes for your kitchen. During the holidays, this is going to be a busy room so organization and efficiency can save a lot of frustration and headaches. Take a look around your kitchen and try to pinpoint the problem areas and what solutions could work where they occur. Open your drawers and cabinets – are your silverware and utensil drawers out of control? A simple drawer organizer is a quick, inexpensive way to keep all of your gadgets within reach. Don’t forget the refrigerator; you will want to clean out and reorganize this area. With all of the ingredients and leftovers during the season, you will need as much space as you can muster. And, with an organized fridge, cooking won’t be a pain when you can see everything you need. Also, do everything you can to remove items from the countertops. If you don’t need it on a daily basis, see if you can store it in a cabinet. The more counter space you can find the better.

If you are expecting a lot of overnight guests during the holidays, prepare ahead of time. Go into your guestroom and place extra sheets, blankets, pillows and towels in a storage bench or in the closet. Freshen up linens on the bed and put out some fresh flowers. Go the extra mile for your house guests and fill the bedside table with cozy luxuries like scented soaps, mints and magazines. Whatever you can do to make your guests feel at home will be an extra weight off your shoulders when they are content to hang out in the guest room for a while!

No matter the size of your home or how many guests you are expecting remember that time is your friend. The sooner you can begin preparing your home, the lower your stress levels will be. Remember that you want to enjoy the season too! And the most important thing is that if there are toys lying around or the pillows aren’t perfectly placed on the sofa – it’s OK – people will remember how gracious of a host you were rather than how a stack of papers was left out on the desk.

Author Bio: Keith Smallwood is the president of Creative Energy Exteriors, a leading Richmond, Virginia home improvement company offering products and services such as Richmond replacement windows and Richmond storm doors. Creative Energy Exteriors can be found online at: Creative EnergyExteriors.com .

Category: Home Management
Keywords: carefree holiday,problem areas,weeks guests,short weeks guests