Five Ways To Prepare Your Home for Guests This Holiday Season

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This is going to be the best Thanksgiving ever.  It will be the first one celebrating it in our new house, but even more exciting, all of our family is coming down to spend it with us: my parents, Mike's dad and his girlfriend, and Mike's sister and brother-in-law.  We are going to have quite the full house, and I could not be more thrilled.  The preparation for the holidays is beginning, and I have the perfect follow-up today to the guest room essentials post I shared a couple of months ago.  Now that you have a guest space, there are still a few things you need to do right before guests arrive to make sure they're comfortable:

1. Open the windows: Let some fresh air into the space.  Even if you're in a cold climate, just crack the window.  If it hasn't been lived in for a few weeks or months, especially with the door closed, it can start to feel a little stale.

2. Stock the kitchen: Have cereal in the pantry and eggs in the fridge for breakfast as well as lunch meat and bread for sandwiches.  It takes a bit of money to travel, and one of the benefits of staying with family or friends is not having to pay for a hotel and not having to necessarily go out for every meal.  We usually have deli meat in our refrigerator, but for us, it's remembering to get mayonnaise and mustard for guests!

3. Dust and refresh: Since our guest room hadn't been used in a couple of months, even though I washed the sheets after our last guests, I decided to re-wash them so they smelled fresh when our family arrived.  The guest room is also a little out of the way of our normal (cleaning) routine, so dust had accumulated.  Scotch-Brite™ 50% Stickier Lint Roller are great for large debris pick-up such as pet hair & crumbs and grab more than just lint and hair.  My favorite use is on lampshades.  These are impossible to clean with traditional methods, but run a Scotch-Brite™ Lint Roller over them, and they're like-new in just a few seconds!  It's also great to run over the carpet in that room so you don't have to pull out the big vacuum: crumbs, sand, and glitter can all be grabbed since the sheets are 50% more adhesive.

4. Add holiday decorations: This will be the first Thanksgiving that our families are away from their own homes.  We want them to feel comfortable but also like they're getting the full holiday experience.  We've pulled out the holiday pillows a little early, and while we put away the jack-o-lanterns, we kept out all the fall-themed decor.

5. Update those guest room essentials: Make sure there are plenty of snacks and water for your guests - those tend to be the first things to run out.  A Scotch-Brite™ Lint Roller was also the perfect addition to my guest room basket because you can clean up quickly with easy-tear sheets.  Having two cats, our guests might find the occasional cat hair around the house (and on their clothes), and these are perfect to keep clothes lint, hair & fuzz free.

As you can tell, we're excited for the holidays!! We did all of our grocery and guest room-updating shopping at Walmart.  I found my Scotch-Brite™ Brand items in the laundry aisle, but you can also find different products in the cleaning aisle or the sewing & notions section.

Looking for even more ways to keep your house holiday ready?  Check out the Scotch-Brite inspiration page.  You can even save $1 on any two Scotch-Brite Products (Scrub Sponges, Lint Rollers and Scrubbing Dish Cloths) by clicking here to print a coupon.

What are your plans this holiday season?  Will you be hosting or hosted?