One of the best things about hosting dinners, parties, get togthers and out-of-town family guests during the holidays is the fact that you are forced to get your home in order.

That is precisely what happened when I accepted the task of hosting my extended family for Thanksgiving last week.

Step 1: Declutter

The first order of business was to de-clutter all of our non-liveable spaces which for us included the basement. It had been the dumping ground for baskets of laundry that needed to be washed, for piles of newspaper, mail and other papers that needed to be sorted and for any and everything that my Type A/OCD’esque brain could not stand to see occupy space upstairs in our main living quarters.

It took me one sleepless overnight adventure, but I did it! I bagged up the junk, and managed to push, lift and carte all the various crates of stuff into the laundry room, our utility room or behind the wet bar that we do not use.

Step 2: Invest in Home Goods and Accent Pieces

Then, I headed out to my local thrift stores, home discount outlets and home improvement stores and invested in pillows, games, a dart board, throws, sheets for a couple of unused mattresses I decided I’d turn into a lounge centerpiece and a few other decorative knick knacks.

You can create a color scheme for creating a cohesive look my purchasing colorful pillows from Amazon starting around $7 each delivered to your home for free if you have Amazon Prime. { Sign up for PRIME HERE if you don’t}

Step 3: Hire a Cleaning Service to finish the job

If  you have your go-to cleaning service, call them to help you do the professional level polishing, mopping and cleaning. If you don’t, there are lots of apps now that will give you the options to pick. I have used HANDY (and am an affiliate for it). ‘

With Handy, you enter what task you want to have done, or in the case of home cleaning, how many bedrooms, bathrooms and floors are in your home. Then you can either schedule a weekly, bi weekly, monthly cleaning plan or just select one time to try out the person or service you will ultimately pick!

Our cleaners took 4 and a half hour to give our home a super deep cleaning it needed. I had planned to save money by washing the base boards and crown molding myself before they arrived but I ran out of time to complete that task. They handled it superbly and did a masterful job cleaning the dust off the fans in each room, washing down stained walls, mopping, scrubbing filthy bathtub, and leaving our home spotless. I could not have asked for anything more. They went above and beyond and did an excellent job. Masterful and thorough. I could breathe easier figuratively, knowing my guests would be coming to a very clean home and literally, that all the dust and grime had been scrubbed away!

I’m so happy that I considered scheduling routine maintenance every two weeks.  You can also book them for handyman, plumbing, minor furniture assembly and more. We had someone come fix a hallway light that had been out for over a year, and hired yet another handyman to change the door knobs on all of our closet, bedroom and bathroom doors. They were all wonky and a lot of them stopped locking altogether.

Overall, the quality of work was superb because

That’s it! I highly recommend you follow the aforementioned steps to getting your home Holiday ready and to really check out HANDY and at least sign up for FREE to see if it is something you can fit into the family budget at least once!

Another option is to consider Amazon Home Services.

It works a similar way in that after you input all the detail about your home, the service hand selects a few service providers local to you to get it done.

Amazon Home also offers additional services like Treadmill, Elliptical and Exercise Equipment set up, Carpet Cleaning, iPhone Repair, TV Wall mounting, Framed Photo or Picture mounting, Home Theater set up and Furniture Assembly. 

SIGN UP FOR AMAZON HOME HERE!

Good luck and take time to enjoy your family, friends and the Holiday Season, in general!