With the holiday season soon approaching, you may be looking at your home differently than normal and assessing how well you can host loved ones to celebrate. If you plan to welcome guests to celebrate with your family, you may be wondering what changes to make in order to ensure everyone is comfortable as the number of attendees you are expecting grows. By optimizing the spaces you have available, you can maximize the usefulness of each one.
Avoid Cramped Dining Areas
Resist the urge to invite more people than can comfortably fit in your dining space if you are serving a sit-down meal. When guests feel cramped or crowded, they can’t relax and have a good time. As you plan the seating arrangement for your party, remember that each person needs around 10 inches of space around them when they are seated at the table. This gives them enough room to move around, converse with other guests, and eat or drink comfortably.
Optimize the Temperature in Your Home
Eliminating any source of draftiness or cold will help you maintain the temperature you want during the gathering without causing a spike in your electricity bill. Look for any areas of the home that may be allowing drafty air from outside to come through. Most homes lose 38% of heat or air conditioning through windows and doors that are not properly sealed around the edges. By ensuring there are proper seals around the door frame and swapping older windows for more energy-efficient ones, you can keep the home comfy for everyone who enters.
Check the Guest Areas to Ensure Comfort
If your overnight guests will be staying in a guest room or another part of the home that you don’t often use, take time to check it out and ensure it isn’t too cold, noisy, or damp. If your guests will be staying in the basement, for example, then you should check the area for any excess moisture or funny smells that might indicate moisture or mold growth. Up to 60% of basements in the US have an existing moisture problem, which you may not notice if you only go down there occasionally.
Create More Areas for Gathering Informally
Unused rooms in your home can become spaces where your family and guests can make memories doing things they enjoy between holiday activities. Your unused basement can become a rec room by adding a pool table, air hockey game, or video game system. An unused bedroom can transform into a media room where everyone can gather to watch holiday movies when you add ample comfortable seating, lots of oversized knit blankets, and a big screen TV. Get creative and don’t be limited by the intended purpose of the space. As long as you set it up properly, any space can be transformed into a welcoming casual room the whole family can enjoy.
Accommodate Everyone with Enough Restrooms
If you have the space and budget to do a quick renovation, creating another bathroom not only makes your home more comfortable for the guests who come to visit, it also helps to increase the value of your home. If you only have a small space available, even a small half bath can be useful when you have a large number of guests coming over and drinking all night.
Making these small changes to your living environment will help your guests feel more comfortable during their stay with you or while they visit for a holiday dinner and make things less stressful for you as the host.
