Tidy Tips: 5 Things You Should Toss Before Hosting Guests

We love to host and frequently have friends coming and going. In general, we have a long list of ways to prepare for visits -- from food shopping (taking into account allergies), cleaning extensively (especially the kitchen), organizing and decluttering.

Today we’re sharing some tips that are not so glamorous but trust us, it goes a lot way. It’s important that your guests feel welcome and comfortable and we know these tasks help you to prepare for their stay!

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5 things to toss before your guests arrive:

Garbage & Recycling

The kitchen garbage and recycling. The kitchen is the busiest room in the house and you're bound to spend time in there with guests. Smelly and unsightly garbage is a quick way to dampen the vibe. 

Bathroom Trash

Similarly, empty out any trash cans in the bathrooms and guest rooms. We want our guests to feel like they're at a B&B when they visit - and basic cleanliness is a must. 

Old Food

Throw out old food in your fridge. Our favorite guests are the ones who get whatever they need from our fridge because it means they're comfortable in our home. To that end, we don't need them seeing week old meatloaf.

Used/Expired Toiletries

Used and/or expired toiletries in the bathroom. For example, we're not fans of soap bars. We don't want to use yours, and we don't really want you to use ours either. Go ahead and toss the bar next to your sink and replace it with a soap dispenser. 

Pet Hair

Pet Hair. This one sounds strange because you don't necessarily think about 'throwing out' pet hair, but we throw out handfuls of it! It's essential to clean and remove pet hair from carpets, couches, blankets, pillows, etc... before having guests. Not only is it unsightly, but so many people have allergies these days. The last thing you want (which we've experienced) is a dinner guest with red eyes and the sniffles who can barely stay awake because of the emergency Benadryl dose they had to take.

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PRO TIP

Change out the framed photos in your guest room with photos of you and your guests together — seeing those memories always makes guests feel more welcome.

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Tidy Tips: Decluttering Your Home

Decluttering can be overwhelming when you try to tackle your entire house in one weekend. 

So we’re breaking it down for you - not only by room but by the main categories*  that collect clutter. 

You can work with this document a few different ways:

1. You can tackle one room at a time, working down the list

2. You can start in one room and focus on just one category during that session. 

The key is to take a break from decluttering before you get decision fatigue (yes, it’s a real thing). 

*These main categories were determined based on our experience working in these spaces.*

Kitchen

-Expired food & spices 

-Condiment packets 

-Plastic utensils 

-Vases

-Menus 

-Tupperware

-Plastic bags 

-Countertop

Bedrooms

-Mismatched / torn socks

-Stained / damaged clothing 

-Old shoes

-Broken jewelry 

-Hats & gloves 

-Nightstand drawers 

-Hidden items under the bed

-Miscellaneous items on top of dresser

Family/ Living Room

-Magazines 

-Games / puzzles

-DVDs

-Candles

-Old electronics 

-Miscellaneous wires

-Books

-Throws & throw pillows

Bathrooms

-Expired medicine 

-Expired beauty products

-Empty products 

-Samples / travel sized items

-Towels 

-Nail polish

-Products in shower

-Countertop

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If you’re on a roll and looking to tackle more spaces, take a look at our decluttering CHECKLIST below!

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Tidy Nest Featured Press: 10 Ways to Declutter Your Bedroom– To Make it Feel Bigger (Homes & Gardens)

If we had to pick just one room in the house to declutter it would be the bedroom! Your bedroom is a place of peace and rest so bringing clutter into this space stains the energy in the room.

So when Homes & Gardens told us they were working on a story on decluttering the bedroom, we were very eager to share our number one rule when it comes to bedroom organization.

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FEATURED PRESS

Take a look at our other interviews with Home & Gardens over the years

Tidy Tips: Easy Ways To Keep Your Nightstand Clutter-free

Keep that nightstand clutter-free

Your bedroom should be a place of rest and relaxation, so bringing anything into the space that negatively alters that energy is a hard no for us.

Inevitably the nightstand tends to be a catchall for all the wrong things - paperwork, iphones and ipads, to-do lists, medicine, stacks of books, too many candles, and in my case, a few too many crystals.

Here are some quick tips to keep your nightstand clutter-free:

🛌 Use your drawers

📥 Add drawer dividers to keep everything corralled; otherwise you're going to be fighting a losing battle against a junk drawer

🧺 If you don't have drawers or if you have exposed shelves, use baskets to contain your items

🔌 Move your electronics outside of the bedroom - it's a big change, but it's well worth it

📚 Stick to one or two books (but no work books allowed!)

Let us know what your nightstand looks like!

Tidy Nest Featured Press: Here’s Exactly What You Should Be Keeping Under the Bed (Apartment Therapy)

What’s hiding under your bed?

Tidy Nest was recently featured in this article on under the bed storage.