Hosting At Home

I love inviting people round to my house and hosting people whether its for a hour or for the night. I don't know where I have got this from but since having my own house I have developed a lot of house pride which I think everyone gets once they own their own place. I use any excuse to make people come round my house now so that I can play host so I thought Id take you through what I like to do before someone comes to stay.

One thing I love doing when someone is coming over to stay is make the bed with a fresh bed sheet, obviously tidy the spare room and then close the curtains and turn on the fairy lights. Whether it is sunny or in the middle of winter I think a dark room with fairy lights look so much more appealing. I want to make the bed look really appealing for the person because I know it isn't always nice to spend a night in someone else's bed.

I have got into the habit of leaving fresh towels folded on the end of the bed in the spare room because even though the people who stay over are mainly family members and properly wouldn't care about using the same towels, it is nice to have a fresh one. I also don't want my guests to have to ask for a towel. I am planning on replacing all of our towels soon so that they all match and match the bedding so it looks more pretty all together, sad I know.

On the night stand beside the spare bed I like to leave everything my guest could possibly need, a tooth brush in case they have forgot theirs, a empty glass and a new bottle of water in case they get thirsty in the night and don't want to go roaming round my house, a pair of fluffy socks which are very important during the winter (we are lucky our whole house is covered in carpet so we don't feel the cold too much (but some people don't like showing their feet which is where the socks come in) and a few hair bands because I know what it is like forgetting a hair band and sweating during the night with your hair stuck to you.

Because I love bath and shower products I have a huge collections that I spread across both bathrooms so when people stay over I like to leave out my mini shower gels and scrubs so that if they have a bath or shower they have something to use. Can you call it a shower if you haven't used a shower gel?! I also like to leave cotton pads out for our female friends to remind them to take their makeup off because I know how much they will regret it in the morning if they forget.

Whenever people are staying over at my house I like to stock up the fridge and cupboards, half of the time I cook a proper meal for my family and friends and the other half we get take away depending on whether I have been to work or not but I find the snacks and drinks are the most important. I know what it is like to get the munchies during the night so I like to have little snacks that people can take up with them to bed in case they do get peckish (we've all been there) and a mixture of drinks so people have a choice. I know alcohol isn't everyone's cup of tea and I am not a big drinker myself but whenever we have friends or family round we always get something to put in the fridge whether it is a bottle of wine or a crate of beer. Even if we don't drink it ourselves it is there in case our friends/family want it. We also have mason jars with little chalk boards on so we can write our guests names on the jars which goes down a treat.

Now I'm not saying I am the most amazing host in the whole entire world and that I do all of this every time someone comes over because I'm human and I work a lot but when I do these things, you can tell people really appreciate it and it gives them a rest from doing it themselves at home.