Is Your House Company Ready? (Generally!)

The parts I live in and care for - yes, I could do it in a hour (but I’d probably like more depending on who is coming because I’m just that way lol). Anything related to dh - no. He has a big office and his own bedroom that are disasters and his garage/workshop.

It's company ready as far as I'm concerned. And by that I mean that there are places that are messy, but the main areas guest would hang out are mostly clean and tidy.

You can come sit down in a mostly*(see below) clean kitchen and have tea, or sit in the dining room and play a game on a table that probably only has one or two things that need to move before that can happen. Or you can come crash out in the living room and watch a movie and you won't see any dust bunnies rolling by. And the bathrooms are all cleaned regularly.

My office area, however, looks like a whirlwind has just gone through it more often than not. And we do have a side table with a towering pile of games in the dining room.

*The top of my fridge is probably dusty, as it the top of the china cabinet in the dining room. I can't climb right now, and I can't reach those places because I'm short. So it all comes down to how often I think to ask someone else to dust them. And I typically have other things in my head that I want to talk to them about or ask them to do instead.

The living room end table has a pile of books waiting to be read. And my mud room, despite having a closet *right there* with ample shoe storage, tends to have several pairs of shoes, cleats, or boots dumped at the edge of the mat instead.

Luckily the people who come over either don't care, or don't care enough not to still stop by.


Now, if I knew people were coming over in an hour, then I could fix most of those things---well, I could make the office area look better, but not perfect by a long shot. If someone else was home, they could dust the tall places. And I could clear the dining room table and mudroom floor.

But I do tend to get people stopping by with no notice, and no one ever refused to come back based on how it was when they arrived. 

Yes, I am usually company ready. They only area that might not be is my scrapbook room and my master bathroom and closet.

It would take me about 10 min to straighten it up and have people over

I’d say in general, yes. Our master bedroom bed won’t be made but it never is. At least my side of our split king bed, it’s one of my favorite things about having a split. DH likes his bed all tidy and straight. I can’t stand a made bed, first thing I do in a hotel is yank the covers around.

My biggest problem right now is my DH is on long term medical disability and he is frankly a mess. It’s been just me at home for most of the day for years so all the clutter was kept at bay because despite my bed needing to be a mess I’m the complete opposite with everything else. Clutter makes my head hurt and that crazy man I married thinks nothing of stuff just laying around. I’m working on him and it’d still be company ready but not to “my” admittedly very high standards

I live alone ... so no kids and no husband and no pets ... and I have a cleaning person!

I'm also not messy ... I don't really like making my bed and I hate cleaning toilets and my stove but I do those things because they need to be done!

I do not dust or do floors ... ever.   

Oh, and I also never have people just show up ... my family and friends know that is not an option!

Someone could come in because the main living space is always picked up. I wouldn’t say it’s company clean because I probably need to sweep or dust, but it’s fine. The real problem is we only have 2 bathrooms
One is in the master and one is my boys’ bathroom. That would definitely need to be cleaned to guest standards because teenage boy standards does not equal guest standards.

Now, yes, because I'm home all day and start having students at 4:00. I need the house to be neat and tidy before they arrive.

When I was working full time outside the home it was generally pretty messy.

It's messy right now because I've been sick this week and can't teach anyway, and don't have the energy to clean.

(ETA: I just saw the "within an hour" part. For sure, always, unless you're super picky and require the baseboards to be spotless. But I don't need that kind of negativity in my life so we're probably not friends anyway.  )

Are you allergic to house dust? Extra judgemental? Stay away.

Are you planning to stay the night? Give me half a day to wash sheets and clean your bedroom and bathroom.

Lunch or dinner or coffee time? Don't mind a little clutter? Drop in. There will always be something to eat and drink. I can make room at the kitchen table. Or feel free to sink down in our comfy living room furniture.

I have a pre school aged kid so it is never, ever truly company ready. I’m hosting some extended family this weekend and my house is not ready, but I wouldn’t be completely mortified if they came today.

I said mostly because the majority of the time the kitchen/dining/living rooms look fine. Not always the case for my office and craft room though, and when things are particularly busy at work some clutter definitely builds up.

We have the house cleaned every two weeks, so it never gets too out of control. If we are having guest for dinner, I would need about an hour. If they are weekend guests, I would need about 3-5 hours to thoroughly clean their room and bathrooms and clean all other rooms that may be looking in. We call that second one getting "Mother-in-law ready".

Yes!  You summed me up so well! ❤️😂

Uh, no. I have a 2.5 year old and even though I'm a SAHM, I'm also solo parenting for 12 day stretches at a time while my husband works out of town. And I'm 44 and tired af most days. I stay on top of things as best I can but you all remember those years with little tiny tornadoes literally pulling things down as you pick them up. I'm in the thick of it, y'all. But the only company that comes over is my parents or sister or niece and they know I'm riding first class on the struggle bus most days. My toddler is a big helper though and regularly "helps" me wash dishes, rolls his hamper to the laundry room and hands me stuff to put in the machines, vacuums with the stick vacuum, sweeps, etc so there's hope that some day soon my house will be more company ready on a regular basis.