What Summer Entertaining Revealed About Your Home
and how to use those lessons to make hosting holiday guests easier!
Your Overnight Guests Seem to Be Running Out of Places to Put Their Things
What Your Summer Guests Taught You
Pay attention to what happens when someone actually stays in your guest room. Are they placing their phone, glasses, water bottle, and other essentials on the floor? Is their suitcase taking over the room because there’s nowhere else to put anything? Are they trying to clear a tiny corner of the dresser to make space for their belongings?
Try this before the holidays:
A guest room should have room for the guest. Keep the nightstands and dresser tops relatively clear so your guests have somewhere to put their things. A lamp, perhaps an alarm clock, or one small decorative object, is plenty. And if you don’t have a nightstand, definitely get at least a stool or small side table big enough to fit a phone and a glass of water. That means resisting the urge to use the dresser as a display area, or the nightstand as a place to showcase every pretty figurine you inherited from your aunt. Your guests’ belongings are going to become part of the room for a few days, so having breathing room makes the space feel more welcoming. I’m also a big fan of luggage racks because they are easy to fold flat and store when not needed. This also gives your guest a place to put their suitcase higher than the floor, for easier access (especially important for older guests).
Your Powder Room Hand Towel Never Has a Chance to Dry
What your summer guests taught you:
When you have a house full of people, your powder room gets a workout. And if everyone is reaching for the same hand towel, it can go from fresh and dry to damp and questionable surprisingly quickly. It’s one of those things you might never notice when it’s just your family using the bathroom, but suddenly becomes very obvious when you’re hosting.
Try this before the holidays:
Give guests an alternative to the one communal hand towel. For larger gatherings, you can provide individual disposable guest towels in a small basket or tray. They’re convenient, especially when you have a lot of people coming and going. Or for a less wasteful option, have a small basket of freshly laundered, rolled hand towels. Guests can grab a clean, dry towel and drop the used one into a separate basket or hamper. The goal isn’t to make your powder room feel like a hotel. It’s simply to make sure the next guest isn’t drying their hands with the towel the last ten people just used.
Your Guests Keep Asking, “What Can I Have to Drink?”
What your summer guests taught you
When you’re hosting a crowd, the refrigerator can become a revolving door. Kids are looking for juice or water, adults are looking for wine or beer, and suddenly you’re spending half the gathering answering questions about what’s where.
Try this before the holidays:
Create a designated kid-friendly drink station that’s separate from the adult beverages. A small beverage tub, drink dispenser, bar cart, or even a lower drawer in the refrigerator can work. For the Summer it’s easy to have two coolers (maybe two different colors) filled with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. For the indoor holidays, you can set up a bar area, have large ice buckets, or a beverage fridge, with different types of drinks stored separately. This lets everyone help themselves. Kids don’t need to ask an adult every time they’re thirsty, and adults don’t need to get up every five minutes to play bartender. When I design kitchen/coffee bar/wet bar cabinetry for families, I like to include beverage drawers instead of a mini fridge. The top drawer is for wine & beer, and the lower drawer is for juice drinks, soda, and water bottles.
Nobody Uses the Formal Living Room
What your summer guests taught you:
If everyone gravitates toward the kitchen, dining room, or outdoor spaces while your formal living room sits empty, it may not be that you don’t need the room. It may simply not be set up for gathering.
Try the before the holidays:
Give the room a purpose beyond looking pretty. Rearrange seating so it’s conducive to conversation, add a few flexible pieces like an ottoman or occasional chairs, and make sure there’s a convenient surface for drinks. Layer in warm lighting to make the room feel inviting in the evening. This could also be a great spot for a sofa bed, if you have a shortage of guest rooms.
We’ll dive deeper into the topic of “formal living rooms” next month…
Final Thoughts:
You don’t need to renovate your house before Thanksgiving, or completely rethink your holiday decorating. Instead, look back at what happened this summer. The places people gathered, the things they asked for, and the little frustrations that kept coming up are clues about how your home actually functions when it’s full of people. Use those clues to make a few thoughtful changes before the holiday season arrives. Because the goal isn’t to create a perfect house for your guests. It’s to create a house that works well for the way you actually live, and the people you love having in it.
