How to Prep Your Home For The Holidays

How to Prep Your Home for Holidays

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Ahh, the Holiday Season. While hosting family and loved ones in your home can bring so much joy, I can’t help but picture National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Clark scrambles to prep his home for the holidays. He puts up lights, decorate the house, and create the ultimate Christmas experience for his family – and everything goes terribly wrong. Fuse boxes blow, unwanted relatives show up unannounced, and a general mess is made of the Griffith Family Christmas.

While Clark eventually realizes that the Holidays are about more than the lights and décor, it can make us all begin to wonder, will my holiday preparations be this exhausting, too?

Never fear; simplicity is here. Here are five simple ways to make your holiday guests feel cozier than chestnuts roasting on an open fire – without any of the Christmas Vacation drama.

1. Prep your home for the Holidays by Sprucing  it Up

Start early and do all the big tasks first: clean the gutters and handle the leaves, schedule a flue inspection, do the deep cleaning tasks, and declutter. The day before guests arrive is not the time to be sorting through drawers and scrubbing the carpets when there are so many little things to do at the last minute.

Focus on the main spaces of your home when you clean and declutter — places like the bathrooms, dining room, living room, kitchen, and the guests’ rooms. Rather than obsess over every nook and cranny, divide your attention between the high-traffic areas.

2. Create Extra Space in the Entryway

The first thing your guests will see is your foyer or entrance to your home. What an opportunity to make a first impression! This can help set the tone for your holiday gathering.

Add some hooks to the wall for extra coat-hanging space. Maybe add a storage bench where your guests can comfortably take off their boots and shoes. Lay a rug or welcome mat down at the entrance to keep everyone from slipping on mud and snow – and to protect those floors you just cleaned! Finally, light a holiday scented candle before they arrive to set the mood for a lovely holiday together.

3. Extra Seats to Sit and Sip

The kitchen is already going to be inundated with dishes, food, and beverages (hello, spiked eggnog). To keep guests and family from crowding an already-crowded space, put up a coffee and tea station in the living room. Make sure there are plenty of seats available as well, so everyone is free to sit and visit!

4. Make Bathroom Supplies Readily Available

Typically, we keep our bathroom supplies hidden away. But what happens if your guests need a restock in the middle of the night? Pull all of your towels, toiletries, and especially toilet paper out from their hiding places and display them on open shelves.

No shelves? No problem! Arrange the bathroom supplies in cute little baskets or stockings to place around our bathrooms. Side note: make sure there’s a plunger in every bathroom. No one wants to spoil holiday cheer with that awkward conversation.

5. Contain the Action

Once it’s all said and done, your guests leave your house raving about what a lovely time they had, it’s time for one last step: cleanup. To make things exponentially easier on your future self (because let’s face it, your guests will be back for more next year), take the extra time to make things neat, labeled, and easily accessible.

Use empty wrapping paper tubes and wrap your lights around them to keep them tangle-free until next year. Grab some containers during the post-Christmas sales and pack up each room into one or two boxes. Label each container by room, indoor/outdoor, and with a bullet-point list of what goodies are inside!

Did you know Handyman Larry is Santas helper? He can help with your organization, build you extra custom seating and other home holiday maintenance. He can help you assemble those Christmas gifts and more.

What are things you do to get your home ready for the holidays?