Is Your House Company Ready? (Generally!)

This am someone dropped by unexpectedly and I was fine opening the door and inviting him inside. Since the kids moved out it's so easy to keep the house tidy. It took a long time to get it into shape. One of the bedrooms is sort of a temporary storage area while dh does projects, but the rest of the house looks like a home. So, yes! It's not perfect, but I feel good about people seeing it. Though I hate it when people just drop by.

Yes. I live by myself. I think I have previously mentioned that before I go to sleep, every night, I get my house - Dateline Ready. 😊

If someone were to stop over, I wouldn’t be mortified. (Actually, today I would be….we've been Covid central for the last 2 weeks). We generally keep the public areas tidy. If I know someone is coming over, though, I do a deep clean…scrub, dust, vacuum, mop. We generally do that on weekends, anyway.

We are generally always company ready because we frequently have company - both dropping by and overnight. In fact, all three guest rooms are in use tonight and we had seven around the table for dinner earlier. We love entertaining and hosting.

Company ready doesn’t mean perfect to me though. It’s clean and picked up almost all the time. But, there may be a pile or a project or a bit of a mess somewhere … and that’s okay. We live here. Stuff goes on here. I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t.

My mother used to joke that the more candlelit her home was, the less clean it was. Meaning candles and ambience could hide a multitude of sins. Haha. I don’t go the candlelit route, but I have been known to wave at a project pile and say, “Don’t mind that. We’re in the middle of something.” Honestly, if THAT bothers a guest, then maybe they shouldn’t have come.

I saw on the socials once I think , someone talking about “scruffy hospitality”
As in always being ready to welcome people no matter what and not stressing about the odd dirty dish or footprint on the floor.
They also encouraged social interaction and shared meals if the situation arose,without the need to stress about perfection.
The idea was that good friends/neighbours could get together impromptu and jus t enjoy each others company and share whatever is available,maybe leftovers or finishing off a packet of biscuits or a bottle of wine.
I always liked the idea.
I am not a germophobe and dont have food allergies so that might colour my thinking but as long as it was people I knew well I’d be all in.

That's the way I feel about my house. If it bothers you, then you are not the company I want to have. My house is clean. I have a housekeeper who comes every other week. And before she comes, I remove all the clutter that is in her way in the four rooms she cleans. She also sweeps and mops the floor in my office. But otherwise she does bathroom, living room, kitchen, and dining room. Those areas are for company.

But I'll be frank, I have a lot of stuff. Everything doesn't have a place. I also have a lot of projects going all the time. In my living room and dining room and sewing room and office. We are not tidy. But we are clean.

Ready? It depends on your expectations

Dh's brothers and sisters just stop in randomly, ready or not. It drives me crazy because they can be so judgemental, the one sister especially. We are caregivers for our disabled son and we can go for weeks without a proper sleep. Literally just getting by.

Three weekends in a row we had surprise guests. The first weekend, a car pulled into the driveway. I was exhausted, looked like hell and there were tumbleweeds of dog fur on the floor. They were visiting from 5 hours away!! Seriously, pick up the phone. After an hour, the sister was standing at the front door and said "we should get going, I want to go to the coffee shop because I have to pee badly". In other words, she doesn't think our house is clean enough. FWIW, I scrubbed our main floor bathroom top to bottom the day before but whatever. The second weekend, dh's sister surprised us. I had just started vacuuming the living room as she arrived. She's a judgemental beotch and I could see her looking at the floors. The third weekend, dh's brother and our nephew stopped by. I was heading out the door to walk my dd's dog because they were away. Came back an hour later and they were still here talking about Jesus. We aren't religious. I stayed in the kitchen cleaning.

It pisses me off to no end. We take care of ds 24/7. He needs help in all areas. No, our home is not perfect.

They just don't get it the caregiving aspect of life although we've been doing it for 30 years. No clue whatsoever. We have family events that are not accessible. Other events where they don't even invite us at all.

On a side note, a random visit would be fun this weekend. Ds has covid. He's fine for the most part, healing up well. It would be a nice surprise for them.

Oh this ^^^^ but that is why there are doors there - I just shut them and no one knows how bad it is

First off - no one better just 'drop-by' -PLEASE call or text first.

As for company ready? It depends on the company, tbh. When my mum was still alive and she visited, I could clean from top to bottom for days before she arrived and she would still find and comment on the one spot I missed. My bestie? She lived with us for 7 years - if it's not clean enough for her, she knows where the cleaning supplies are, lol. (actually when she visited right after my middle child was born, I woke up and found she was mopping my kitchen, having washed all the dishes, and started laundry - but that wasn't a judgement on me from her, that was her jumping in and being helpful).

If my sister and BIL are visiting - I clean and tidy and organise in advance - they are empty nesters and minimalists...we're uh...neither.

But if grammadee jeremysgirl , LavenderLayoutLady or any of the other peas were coming for a visit - yes, an hour would be plenty to touch up the bathrooms and kitchen and do a quick tidy and I wouldn't expect them to poke into the DD's room or DH's hobby room or any of the other non-public areas nor would I think they were coming to visit/judge my house/housekeeping. I would offer coffee or tea and be happy to visit with them even if things were a bit chaotic.

My adult kids - I use their visits as an excuse to get some of the chaos tamed, lol, but I also know that they don't care - they're coming to visit us. And they grew up in more chaos then we have now (less people, bigger house, and less non-housework responsibilities = a neater and more organised home).

And I can't say that I've ever looked around someone else's house and thought negatively about the cleanliness or the clutter - I have been in a few where I've thought I needed to do a deep clean (of MY house) before I invite them over because they were beyond spotless, lol.

I think of “company ready” as being at a point where I’m not embarrassed if someone stops by unannounced. I would say our house is usually not at that point for me. If I had a little time? Sure.

I replied “mostly” because I actually have a lot of issues about this. My husband is a complete slob; he grew up with live-in help, but he also has not gotten the skills in adult life, so our house is only as clean as our once-a-week housekeeper and I can get it, which is literally clean but often with stuff everywhere. I grew up with a mother, however, who wouldn’t let anyone into the house unless it was perfect and who I believe has OCD, so I was never allowed to have people over. I have forced myself to let people come into my house freely whether it is spotless or not because I don’t want my kids to live that life. So it’s “company ready” in the sense that company is welcome whenever, but not in the sense of looking like I’m hosting our annual Hanukkah party or whatever.

ETA: the year I lived in SF by myself recently, that place was *spotless* and so organized and tidy. I would be lying if I said I didn’t really prefer things to be that way.

I like how you think!

I try to keep our main floor "mostly ready". With a few minutes notice, it would be fine. The basement with the bar. No. My 4 year old granddaughter lives with us and that is her space.

If I am having only family over, "mostly ready" is good enough. If I am having a large gathering, I want the whole house clean. I call that "mom ready". That takes work.