Opening your home to guests can be both a daunting and exciting experience, especially if it’s your first time hosting.
Hosts can find themselves excited at the new opportunity to make money whilst they travel, through sharing their home, but can also find themselves at a loss when it comes to leaving adequate space to allow storage and comfort for their guests.
Whilst you may think it would be quite simple to figure out, a question we are constantly faced with is:
“How much space should I be leaving for my guests?
When arranging storage space for guests, I find it important to keep in mind that they’ve chosen your home for its unique features and personality. By reminding yourself of this, you will be able to clear an ideal amount of space whilst also maintaining the personality, and lived in feel of your home.
Determining the right amount of storage space for your guest’s belongings depends on two factors - being, the area of your home where you are providing space, and the length of your guests stay.
For a more concise understanding of how much space to leave for your guests, I have gone through the three key areas of your home where you will need to leave storage space for your guests, with general recommendations regarding the amount of space to leave for them.
When it comes to your kitchen there are a couple of things to consider, including the shelf life of your consumables & providing an adequate amount of space for your guests food storage.
For your fridge and freezer I would advise removing any short life items that may spoil throughout the duration of your trip. Please don’t mistake me here, I don’t recommend wasting your food contents!
What I suggest is planning a week or two in advance to consume the foods that you will not be able to keep, whilst you are away from your home. To free up storage space, and retain your long life items I also suggest storing these items in your crisper and fridge doors.
Depending on the length of your guest’s stay and the size of your fridge, I suggest leaving at least 1 shelf area and 1 area of door storage.
Additionally, it is recommended to leave the cleared areas of your fridge in similar locations to reduce guest confusion. For example leaving the top part of your fridge free and storing your long life items towards the bottom part of your fridge.
Shelf space for guests is necessary to store dry food items that your guests may consume. Due to the nature of dry foods, these items can be stored for longer periods of time, so we understand that most homes have quite a lot of shelf space filled with these items.
When leaving shelf space for your guests, I recommend leaving 1-2 easily accessible shelves for your guests, in an easy to reach locations.
It is important to outline clearly in either your guest manual, or through instructions placed on your fridge, which items you would/wouldn’t like your guests to use, and which areas you have provided for your guests to utilize.
Whilst considering how much space to leave for your guests in your bathrooms, it is important to recognise that guests will need space for a variety of toiletries and storage of their toothbrushes. The space allocated in a bathroom should be clean, hygienic and easy to access.
Similar to the amount of space I have recommended you leave in your kitchen, I also recommend leaving one shelf and draw space for your guests.
Although they may not unpack the entire contents of their toiletries bag, leave enough space for them to do so, and to be able to comfortably store their items for easy access, as if they were in their own home.
The most important places to provide space for your guests in your bedroom, is your wardrobes and draws.
I suggest providing hanging, folded and shoe storage space for all guests, and clearing an area in your wardrobe where these storage areas are in one section.
Whilst clearing your wardrobe, it is important to not feel obliged to remove every item from your wardrobe. Although if you have any items that are of high value or meaning to you, you may wish to store these at a trusted friend of family members home.
To go the extra mile, I highly suggest providing hangers for your guests to utilize throughout their stay in your home.
Whilst the task of clearing space for your guests may appear daunting and somewhat confusing, I have also found it a great chance to spring-clean and remove items that I don’t regularly use. Additionally I have also found myself re-kindling my love for some items that I had forgotten about.
For any items that I wish to keep secure, or any foods that I wanted to keep, the utilising of tamper tape seals have come in especially handy to securely store my cherished items.
If you are unsure of how much space to leave for your guests, or need some help with the management of your short-term rental, feel free to contact us on sales@madecomfy.com.au or leave a comment below.
