How to Make Guests Feel Welcome
The holidays are right around the corner...
literally next week, (where did November go? and why is it so freaking cold so fast?) and tis' the season for relatives and friends to stay over. In our home, some will be "planned" guests, while others will stay over "unplanned" because they succumbed to the peer pressure of staying longer and having " just one more drink". Regardless of whether a guest was planned or not I have a plan in place to make them feel comfortable, especially if they don't have the toiletries they need.
Whenever guests stay over, I like try to make our guest room feel as close to a Bed and Breakfast as possible (and I normally do cook breakfast the next morning). So I try to set up the room in a manner to make them feel welcome. The best part is that this can be very inexpensive to do.
So this is my formula to help guests feel like they're staying at a B&B...
"Bed-Basket" + Towels + Pillows + H20 + Luggage Stand = a comfortable room.
My main focus of this post will be the "Bed-Basket." It's super simple to put together, and once you have it created, all you have to do is stick is in a closet, pull it out when guests are staying over, add a couple of fresh washcloths and you're good to go. (I also keep it "set to go" in the closet in case we have guests staying over that weren't planned and may not be "ok" to drive home.)
The "Bed Basket"
You'll need the following to create a welcoming basket:
Wifi password: I like to include the Wifi password for guests that are staying over for a while. Our good friends live in California and whenever they come and stay with us, they often have to work remotely- so they usually ask for our Wifi password.
Soap+ Lotion: $=free! I'm a teacher and usually students give me gifts for the holidays or at the end of the year that include soaps and lotions (maybe they're trying to tell me something). So I usually keep that stuff in a bin in our bathroom and refill our guest basket with those items.
Toothpaste+toothbrushes: $=$1 store! Normally "planned" guests bring these items with them, whereas "unplanned" guests don't. There's nothing worse than a night of a drinking and waking up to bad breath. I get the toothpaste and toothbrushes from the $1 store, since in most cases they'll be a one-time use.
Shampoo+ Conditioner: $=Free! The main reason they're in the bags is because I usually save toiletries from when we stay at hotels. I have long hair, and bring my own shampoo and conditioner when I'm staying away simply because the small shampoos+conditioners hotels give often only last me one use. Therefore, I collect them and bring them home and add them to our guest basket. (Must be my mom's Italian in me. I feel like an old Italian lady stuffing crackers in her purse every time I bring these toiletries home.)
Toiletries: $=Minimal, I include Q-tips, hair ties, a disposable razor, Tylenol (for hangover headaches or other "ailments"), and tampons in this little bag.
Towels and Pillows
I usually place the towels underneath the basket on the bed and the "sleeping pillows" off to the side somewhere with fresh pillowcases on top. If you read my previous post on "How to Make a Bed... look amazing" you might have heard that I don't prefer guests to sleep on the nice pillows that decorate the bed (lol), and the same actually goes for my "decorating" towels in the bathroom (Ps- I use to think my mom was nuts for not allowing us to use certain towels in the bathroom... I get it now). Instead of telling them this outright, I put what I call "sleeping pillows" in the corner with fresh pillow cases so they can take the hint. The pillows I got from Kohls : 2 for $7 !
H20 + water glasses
Including water and glasses for your guests is not only welcoming, but helps rehydrate the drunk ones in the middle of the night (and also lowers the chances of someone getting sick in your pretty guest room..haha). I use to include water bottles- but that got to be a pain because Shad and I usually don't buy bottled water unless we are planning on having guests. Instead, I just include a carafe of water on the bedside table with a glass or two.
Optional: Luggage Rack
Just recently I purchased this luggage rack pretty inexpensively from Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% coupon. I found that most guests have to sift through their things on the floor. Conveniently this just hides in the closet and I take it out with the "bed-basket" when people stay over. Here's the link for where I purchased it: