5 Tips For Preparing For Holiday Guests
Whether it's a tradition that your family hosts for the holidays or if this is your first time hosting the in-laws, Powerizer is here to help you prepare for houseguests this season.
First, let's discuss overnight guests.
If you want to make sure your guests feel welcome, start with providing a private space for them to sleep. There are plenty of posts on Pinterest for converting your office, den, or loft space into a guest room. Rather than invest in a separate bed, there are great self-inflating mattresses that transform any small space into a private sleeping room. Pull together linens for bedding and bath and provide them during your quick welcome tour. It eliminates the need to ask, "Where can I find towels and sheets." When hosting multiple guests, provide different colored bath sets. It helps guests quickly identify which color towel is theirs, so they are motivated to reuse them during extended stays.
For laundering sheets and towels, use one (1) scoop of Powerizer Complete in the laundry drum. For a more substantial load, run a soak cycle and use two (2) scoops instead. Avoid all other laundry additives such as stain remover, fabric softener, bleach, scent boosters, and dryer sheets.
Powerizer makes Laundry easy, as an natural laundry detergent, it will make sure that scents from fabric softeners are removed, eliminating the possibilities of triggering a skin allergy. Neatly fold each towel set and stack them like presents. For an added holiday touch wrap them in ribbon and place them in a container or bin along with travel-size toiletries.
Second, be sure to deodorize your home.
We all have memories of entering a room, and the first thing you ask yourself is, "What is that smell?" Immediately you begin to look for an answer to this unsolved aroma crime. It's easy to remember the pet odors like the stench of an overflowing cat litter box, urine from an untrained puppy. Cigarette smoke can make people feel ill and can bring an onset headache, sometimes even trigger a migraine, and food odors like seafood or bacon tend to linger. They will add a stench to your garments. The smell will make a guest hesitant to want to settle in. When this happens, take immediate action and PowerizeIt!
- Our removing pet odors from carpets blog has some helpful tips if you have a furry pet.
- For other surfaces make a concentrated mixture in a pretreat bottle, or create a wash solution in a bucket or the sink. Wipe down surfaces immediately after cooking.
- Open windows and doors to help prevent lingering scents, us the exhaust on the range hood.
- Remove trash with food remnants causing foul odors. Use a concentrated mixture of Powerizer to wipe down the insides of the trash can. This can be easily cleaned up with a dish scrubber or a wet microfiber cloth.
- Make it a habit to run the garbage disposal and then pour Powerizer granules down the garbage disposal. Don't be afraid to let it sit inside overnight before rinsing it away the next morning.
Third, declutter and make a donate pile.
It's incredible how removing clutter can clear your mind allowing room to receive more information.
Take a look at all the surfaces in your home, and ask yourself, is that item in the correct place? Do I need it? When was the last time I used it? If you decide its no longer serving a purpose, remove it, store it, return it to whomever or wherever it belongs, or donate it. For all those, newly exposed surfaces go back with a wash solution of Powerizer to wipe away dust and dirt. Use plain water and a damp microfiber cloth to rinse the surfaces to remove leftover detergent.
Fourth, deep clean the bathrooms and kitchen.
It's just simply unacceptable to host guests and not have the two most important rooms in the house clean.
Tip #1 is to clean before guests arrive. Also clean while preparing food, enlist guests to help with the clean up after meals by following a simple process of rinsing, stacking, and soaking dishes and pots and pan. We all remember a guest who felt the need to clean the entire time guests were visiting. Honestly, it can make guests feel uncomfortable seeing someone stress about cleaning instead of enjoying the moment. Powerizer can help with clean as you go tricks, making clean up a breeze.
Tip #2 Make a couple of pre-treat bottles for managing your cleaning tasks efficiently. I always have a container for the bathroom clean up and one for kitchen messes.
Tip #3 Microfiber cloths are your best friend. Powerizer and a microfiber cloth can clean up messes on the fly making your final cleaning as easy as wiping away dirt, grease, or food spills, then spray water and use a clean damp cloth to rinse and polish surfaces. Trust us; it's that easy.
For a faster kitchen clean up don't feel ashamed to enlist guests' help. Guests want to help. Allow them to help. After dinner is over, make a Powerizer solution in a water pitcher. Direct guests to rinse the silverware and dump them in the pitcher of Powerizer. Also, rinse plates in the sink and stack them so that cleaning them all at once goes quicker for hand washing or loading the dishwasher. For baked-on pots and pans messes, use the pre-treat concentrated mixture in the pots and fill each with water and start a soft boil to loosen baked-on food. By the time you're ready to put away leftovers, all the pans will be prepared for a quick scrub using a dish scrubber. Read our blog on How to clean a microwave.
Maintain a clean and presentable bathroom. Again clean before guests arrive. If you must clean during and notice a drop of urine on the toilet seat or footprints on the floor, make it easy and place a microfiber cloth and a pre-treat bottle under the sink. In this blog, "How to Clean your Bathroom Like A Pro," We suggest attaching a toilet bowl brush to the side of the tank using a suction cup with a hook. If toilet matter won't quickly rinse during the toilet flush sprinkle Powerizer in the urinal in the powder form. Also, consider squirting the concentrated pre-treat mixture into the toilet and easily brush away toilet messes. If hard water spots and drips from the soap dispenser accumulate on the countertop, use a microfiber cloth to wipe them away quickly. Educate guests that this one bottle will be enough to clean the tub if applied to the cloth, wipe away residues, and the dirt ring from the tub or shower, so the next guest doesn't have to. Just make sure guests know to rinse the rub after so its not slick.
The fifth and last reminder is to spruce up your vehicle. The second most time spent outside your home is going to be inside your car. Odors can linger, spills and leftover stuff can clutter the trunk and floors. Winter driving can make your windows dirty. Make sure you have wiper fluid. Remember to clean the interior fog from condensation, keep a clean microfiber cloth nearby. Here we have created a Powerizer Car Care Kit, which will help eliminate the time you spend and money maintaining the interior of your car.
First, declutter so that if your transporting guests they have room to place luggage in the trunk. Make sure you take time to vacuum out the carpets and floor mats. Remove odor-causing containers like that 3-day old coffee cup. Wipe all compartments down. Use a mechanical clean using only water, a squeegee, and a clean damp microfiber cloth. For outside windows, add Powerizer to the cloth and wipe them clean to remove dirt. Then follow with the same mechanical clean used for the interior windows. Check out these quick tips to clean car interior. As an added touch, add a few bottles of water in the door panels or back seat pocket for the ride to and from the airport.
Make this holiday season memorable. Start by earning the title of "Hostess with the Mostests." Planning makes guests feel special and not like a burden. Enlist guests to follow protocol for cleaning up after themselves, especially after that big holiday dinner. Cleaning ahead of time allows you the host to enjoy more special moments.