With those chilly mornings and evenings drawing in, it can mean only one thing – the countdown to Christmas is on!
While the festive season is a great time to get together with friends and family, it can also be a stressful time, with so much to think about in terms of planning and preparation it can be easy to feel overwhelmed.
Add to this guests staying at your home for a couple of days and you have the recipe for a potentially stressful situation!
The key, of course, to a successful festive break is to get organised in plenty of time. And while I can’t help you decide what to get your Great Aunt Alice this year, I can share some of my top tips for getting your home guest-ready.
If you do have guests coming to visit the most important thing to consider is where they will sleep. Ideally this will be a room of their own, not only will this give them a space of their own to escape to for some quiet time, but will also be a place to store all their luggage and gifts.
If your spare room is looking a little neglected, don’t panic, there is still plenty of time to get it ship-shape and in-law ready!
Of course, in an ideal world getting your home ready for guests would require little more than a clean and tidy, however many of you may be faced with a much larger project.
Firstly, if your spare room is a dumping ground, spend an afternoon sorting it out, store what you can in the loft space. Invest in some basic storage solutions, such as lidded plastic boxes to neatly store and stack everything else away.
Once the space is tidy you can see what you are working with. Firstly check the walls – are they in good repair? If the walls are papered and seen better days, you will need to strip them. From here assess the quality of the plaster, while it may seem like a big job, giving the walls a light skim will leave them looking smooth and fresh and offer the perfect base for painting.
Re-plastering the walls will require the skills of a professional plasterer, visit www.checkatrade.com to find a trusted and approved plasterer in your area.
Whether your walls need plastering or not, if the room has been left untouched for a while it will most likely require an update of the décor. The easiest way to achieve this is with a coat of paint, while this is something a competent DIYer can do themselves, for those short on time or unwilling to tackle the project, a professional decorator can be called upon to paint walls, ceilings and woodwork to a high standard.
With the décor refreshed you should next consider storage for the room, not only will this make your guests stay more comfortable, but it will be useful all-year round. If your room is especially small or unusual in shape, consider inviting a joiner to design bespoke storage for the space.
With vetted tradespeople, including plumbers, decorators and electricians, www.checkatrade.com is the perfect place to start when you it comes to getting your home ready this Christmastime.
By Craig Phillips, Checkatrade Ambassador
