don't clean for your guests.

I appreciated one of my favorite mantras this week.  For years I have said to my bunnies "Don't clean for your guests, or you might hate them when they walk through the door.  Clean for yourself."  I taught my girlies to set apart one day a week for CLEANING.  Have a routine to cover the basics.  This way your house is relatively clean on a regular basis.  This prevents what you want to avoid at all costs: Knocking yourself out when guests are coming. 

It is worthy considering that it might make more sense to clean AFTER your guests leave.  Especially if the guests include young children.  Or messy adults.

Today's post is a few tricks to give your house that just-cleaned feel even when it might not be perfectly scoured & scrubbed...  a few suggestions that give guests the "illusion" that you slaved all day in preparation for their arrival.  Sometimes 'life happens' and you just don't have the time to spend the day power cleaning your house.  Here are a few things that you can do in a single power-hour before the guests walk in the door:

1.  Softscrub bleach all the sinks.  They will sparkle & shine.  And the fresh smell permeates the bathrooms and kitchen.

2.  Dust at least one piece of furniture in each room.  Again, smell is paramount.

3.  Pick up the clutter.  There is no easy way around this one.  You just have to pick up all the stuff.  Of course it is best to put things away as you go.  If time is really limited, you can always take loads of stuff to your car until you do have time.

The reason I selected this photo is that minutes before I snapped this photo, the area was scattered with dozens of movies which our family had viewed - or thought about viewing - in the past week.  The scene is now serene because someone took the time to tuck them back in.

4.  Put out a beautiful, freshly ironed linen towel.  This gives a wonderful impression that you are so organized that you had extra time on our hands.  ha.  For some reason, placing this lace-trimmed towel on the handle of my dishwasher right before my guests arrived on Monday night made me forget all the things that did not get deep-cleaned.  It instilled a sense of peace and pleasure.   (And no, I did not have a glass of wine before I hung it up.)

5.  With scissors in hand, check your yard for something of beauty that you can put in a vase.  Even plain hosta leaves can add a touch of freshness to a room.

Then, open the door and welcome your guests!  Enjoy them.  They came to see you and will never notice there is dirt on the floor.  Maybe hand them a refreshing beverage. Recipe to follow.

Mother Rabbit wishes to apologize for the long delay in posting.  I will return to my travel tips but for now I just had to get back-in-the-blogging-saddle.