When you have short-term guests coming to stay at your house, the extent that you need to prepare for them will usually stop at doing a good cleaning of your space. But when you’re going to have people staying with you for an extended period of time, be it for a long visit or as a stop-gap between moving into assisted living or getting their own home, there are a few more things you should consider during your preparations.
To help you in figuring all of this out, here are three tips for preparing your home for a long-term guest.
Move Some Of Your Stuff Out Of The Way
When people will be coming to stay for an extended period of time, they will likely be bringing quite a bit of their stuff with them. So in order for them to have room for their belongings, you’ll likely want to move some of your stuff out of the way.
This will be especially important in the room or area where your guest will be sleeping or spending the majority of their time. If you’ve been using this space for other purposes, try to find different areas where you can store your personal items so that your guests will be able to keep their things close without feeling like they’re encroaching too much on your stuff.
Talk About Your Expectations
Either prior to your guest arriving or soon after they have arrived, you should sit down together and talk about what expectations you both have for this arrangement.
In some instances, there might already be an end-date in mind for when your guest will be leaving. In other situations, there might not be. But regardless of this, you should go over things like cleaning, cooking, and other distribution of responsibilities so that resentments don’t build on either side and that everyone feels like they’re contributing and doing their fair share of work around the house.
Let Your Host Hat Slide
For many people, having someone staying at their house can cause them to really don their host hat. But if someone is going to be staying with you for a longer period of time, it’s perfectly fine and normal to let that host hat slide a bit.
While you still want to do what you can to make your guests comfortable, you shouldn’t make yourself feel like you have to always be entertaining your guests or providing for their every need. You can give them more responsibility and stay closer to your own routines if you prefer, which may help everyone feel more comfortable in the long-run.
If you have long-term guests who will be staying at your home soon, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how to prepare for this.
