Staying at a friend's house for the weekend
Everything here is small, and together it is the difference between a guest and a houseguest. Most of it happens before you arrive, and the rest takes ten minutes on the last morning.
35 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Ask before you arrive
- What time suits for arriving
- Whether to eat before or with them on the first night
- Whether to bring a towel and bed linen
- Whether the dog, the child or the plus-one is genuinely fine
- Say your leaving time when you acceptA guest whose departure is known is a guest who is easy to have. Vagueness is what turns two nights into three.
- Bring something
- A bottle you would drink yourself
- Something for breakfast: bread, pastries, good coffee
- A small thing for the house, or for the children if there are any
- Your own things, so nothing has to be found for you
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Shower gel and shampoo
- Any medication you take
- Phone charger
- EarplugsSomeone else's house has someone else's noises, and one of them starts at six.
- Slippers or thick socks
- Clothes for a house you do not know
- Something warm, in case the heating is theirs and not yours
- Shoes for a walk you did not plan on
- Something you would wear out to dinner
- Tell them if you have an allergy, before they have shopped
- While you are there
- Wash up at least once without being asked
- Buy a round, or the bread, or the Sunday lunch
- Take your shoes off if theirs are off
- Be as quiet in the morning as they are
- Ask before helping yourself in the kitchen, once, and then stop asking
- The last morning
- Strip the bed and leave the linen folded
- Hang the towel up rather than leaving it on the floor
- Empty the room and check under the bed
- Leave at the time you said
- Say thank you the next day, in a message, properly
- Invite them backThe only real way to repay a weekend.
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What should you bring when staying with friends?
- Something for the table, something for the house, and your own toiletries. A bottle and a cake cover the first two, and the third means nobody has to hunt for a spare toothbrush at midnight.
- What do good guests do that others do not?
- They ask what time works for arriving, they wash up without being asked, they strip the bed on the last morning, and they leave when they said they would.