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Hosting friends for the weekend at home

Hosting for two nights is not hosting for dinner. The work is spread across three days, most of it is done before anyone rings the bell, and the part people remember is the bathroom and the breakfast.

39 items

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The items

  1. Two weeks before
  2. Confirm who is coming, and for which nights
  3. Ask about allergies, diets and anything they cannot eat
  4. Say what time suits for arriving, and when you are free on Sunday
  5. Tell them whether to bring a towel, so nobody guesses
  6. The beds
  7. Clean linen on every bed that is being used
  8. One spare blanket per bed
  9. Pillows that are not the ones nobody wanted
  10. Somewhere for a suitcase that is not the floor
  11. A lamp, and a socket they can reach from the bed
  12. The bathroom
  13. A towel each, put in their room rather than in the cupboard
  14. Spare toilet paper, visible
  15. Soap and shower gel that are not almost empty
  16. A spare toothbrush, for the one who forgot
  17. Say out loud how the shower works, if it has a trick
  18. The food, planned so you are not cooking for three days
  19. Friday: something made in advance
  20. Saturday: the one real meal
  21. Sunday breakfast, handed to a guest who offered
  22. Breakfast for more people than you are used to feeding
  23. Coffee, tea, and milk in quantity×3
  24. The hour before they arrive
  25. Empty the bin and the dishwasher
  26. Clear one shelf in the fridge for what they bring
  27. Put the heating on in the spare room
  28. Lay out the towels
  29. Open something and sit down for ten minutes
  30. Tell them the house
  31. The wifi password, written down somewhere they can see it
  32. Which tap is hot, which door sticks, where the light switch hides
  33. Whether they can help themselves in the kitchen
  34. What time you get up, so they know what is normal here
  35. Decide what you are not doing, and be at peace with it
  36. Accept the offer of help, the first time it is made
  37. Plan one thing to do together, not four
  38. Say your Sunday plans out loud, so the goodbye is not awkward
  39. Keep a spare key findable, in case somebody arrives while you are out

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Questions people ask

What do guests need that hosts forget?
Somewhere to put their things, a towel each, a light they can find at night, and a way of making coffee without waking the house. Everything else they can ask for.
How do you host a weekend without cooking for three days?
Cook one real meal, on the Saturday. Make the Friday something reheated, let lunch be bread and cheese, and ask a guest to take the Sunday breakfast. Nobody minds, and you get to enjoy your own weekend.