{"id":1700,"date":"2008-09-07T21:14:28","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T01:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/?p=1700"},"modified":"2010-12-01T14:09:49","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T18:09:49","slug":"making-your-home-a-haven-for-guests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/making-your-home-a-haven-for-guests\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Your Home a Haven for Guests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the reasons I want to make my home a haven is so that guests feel welcome. Today at church my pastor spoke on hospitality. He mentioned a few things that I thought I should pass on to my readers.<\/p>\n<p>Hospitality is not about impressing people with ourselves, our furnishings or our food, hospitality is about relationships and caring for others.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first thing you need to do is to invite people to your home. This does not need to be a formal invitation, email or phone calls are fine.<\/li>\n<li>When people arrive at your home greet them at your front door. Invite them in and make them feel welcome.<\/li>\n<li>Create a comfortable space for your guests. You do not need to have expensive furniture, but there does need to be a clear path to a sitting area and places to sit that are not littered with clutter.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your home neat and clean, not sterile. Remember you are not operating on your guests so a sterile field is not necessary. If you have children people will expect to see some toys laying around your home. Just make sure things are picked up and orderly.<\/li>\n<li>Create an inviting environment. If you are a tightwad (like me) you probably keep your air conditioner or heat at a money saving temperature. When guests come, set the thermostat to a temperature that will make them comfortable.<\/li>\n<li>Food is a great way to make conversation. Have you noticed that at most parties people congregate in the kitchen? If you are having guests your menu does not have to rival one of a cruise ship. If you are on a tight budget, you can always invite people over for dessert or lunch, which are much cheaper.<\/li>\n<li>Plan your conversation before your guests arrive. This does not mean arm your children with 3 x 5 cards with a list of questions. Rather talk with your family beforehand about things you would like to know about your guests. This will open up lots of areas for discussion.<\/li>\n<li>See your guests off. My sister&#8217;s in-laws walk each guest to their car and wave in the driveway until the guests drive away. I think this a wonderful way to let your guests know that you had a great time and want to see them again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few more thoughts&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Invite people who are different from you to your house. It is a great way for you and your children to learn about other countries, states or backgrounds by inviting people who do not share your past.<\/p>\n<p>Keep something in your pantry or freezer that you can make for last minute guests.<\/p>\n<p>Check your bathroom before your guests arrive. Make sure there is soap, extra toilet paper and a hand towel. Many times in our house these things are moved around or thrown in the hamper and not replaced. Don&#8217;t make your guests search for these items.<\/p>\n<p>Try to maintain your house so you are able to give an unexpected invitation if the opportunity arises. This is one of the reasons I love <a target = \"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com\/blog.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Making your Home a Haven Monday<\/a> and <a target = \"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.5minutesformom.com\" target=\"_blank\">Tackle it Tuesday<\/a>. These memes challenge me to keep my house organized on a regular basis. I want people to feel like they can drop in anytime and I will not be embarrassed by the state of my house. There might be toys or school books out, but the general feel of the house will be one of cleanliness and organization. There are several methods of keeping on top of your household chores<strong> <a target = \"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flylady.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Flylady,<\/a><\/strong> <a target = \"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.titus2.com\/ecommerce\/products\/prod_listing.php\/1150\" target=\"_blank\">Managers of their Chores<\/a>, <strong> <a target = \"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.e-junkie.com\/ecom\/gb.php?ii=50191&amp;c=ib&amp;aff=33005&amp;ev=86f29d6e08\" target=\"ejejcsingle\">and Motivated Moms Planner <\/a><\/strong>are some of the more popular tools.<\/p>\n<p>These tips can also apply to welcoming your husband home from work. At risk of sounding like a 1940&#8217;s housewife, take fifteen minutes before your husband comes home from work and do a quick pick up of your home. I know that when I come home to a picked-up house my mood improves greatly. If I come home and trip on toys, and step in a sticky mess on the kitchen floor it is hard to stay happy. Fifteen minutes a day is a small amount of time to invest in the happiness of someone else. The other benefit of this plan is that if my husband comes home to a disaster, he realizes I probably had a really bad day, and the chances of going out to dinner just skyrocketed!<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t want my home to be a stumbling block for fellowship with others. I want to make my home a haven so people feel welcome, anytime.<\/p>\n<p>Our first home<\/p>\n<p><a target = \"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/s533.photobucket.com\/albums\/ee336\/anderbach\/?action=view&amp;current=100_1000-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/i533.photobucket.com\/albums\/ee336\/anderbach\/100_1000-1.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photobucket\" width=\"462\" height=\"308\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our current home and welcoming committee<br \/>\n<a target = \"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/s533.photobucket.com\/albums\/ee336\/anderbach\/?action=view&amp;current=DSCF0005-5.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/i533.photobucket.com\/albums\/ee336\/anderbach\/DSCF0005-5.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photobucket\" width=\"452\" height=\"339\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/hh_signature_green.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-506\" title=\"hh_signature_green\" src=\"\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/hh_signature_green.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"163\" height=\"20\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the reasons I want to make my home a haven is so that guests feel welcome. Today at church my pastor spoke on hospitality. He mentioned a few things that I thought I should pass on to my readers. Hospitality is not about impressing people with ourselves, our furnishings or our food, hospitality [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1147,1280,1677],"class_list":{"0":"post-1700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-my-home-homemaking","7":"tag-guests","8":"tag-hospitality","9":"tag-motivated-moms","10":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v15.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Making Your Home a Haven for Guests - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/making-your-home-a-haven-for-guests\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Your Home a Haven for Guests - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the reasons I want to make my home a haven is so that guests feel welcome. Today at church my pastor spoke on hospitality. He mentioned a few things that I thought I should pass on to my readers. 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