The Holiday PressureTest

Thanksgiving is so near!

Which means if you're hosting for the holidays this year, it's time to get your home ready. Lucky for you! Dean Sharp, made a handy list of things you should go over before you set the table for dinner.

Enjoy!

1. Think like a hotelier and event planner

• Where do we hang out?

• Where do we eat?

• How are the “essential services”?

• Where do we sleep?

2. “Stage” your guest room

• #1 rule of staging: make your guests feel it’s THEIR OWN SPACE

• Details matter.

• Tactile, touchable, practical.

• Minimalist.

• Organized - A place for everything.

• Flowers - beauty and effort - someone cares today

• White linens

• Robe & slippers

• Aroma

3. The William Morris Test (British textile designer, poet, novelist,) - “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

4. How’s the flow?

It’s not just about square footage. It’s about circuits and/or dead ends. Questions of flow are a guide to future remodeling.

5. How are the drains?

Increased toilet and sink activity

6. Check toilets

Takes more than one flush? Runs continuously? Does it rock?

7. Bathroom Guest Maintenance tools?

Deodorizer. Toilet brush. Extra tp easy to find?

8. Fix the garbage disposal (or get rid of it)

Invented by architect John W. Hammes in 1927 in Racine, Wisconsin. 50% of US households have gd’s. UK 6%. Canada 3%.

9. How’s the hot water supply?

Time for a tankless?

10. Check the heating system

Change filter (set calendar reminders for 90 days). Your system’s filter is not for you! Time to add a humidifier?

11. Repaint bathroom with moisture resistant paint

Benjamin Moore Aura Bath & Spa

12. Clean the oven and cooktop

baking soda & vinegar paste left overnight. Perhaps avoid self-cleaning cycle on older ovens (it’s hard on an oven).

13. Check oven temperature accuracy.

14. Clean the microwave!

15. Clean the fridge!

16. Clean the coffee maker.

17. Clean the hood vent filters.

18. Where are you cooking?

Can the BBQ help?

19. Where are you eating?

Is outside a possibility?

20. Have mop, broom & dust pan on hand. Clean the vacuum.

21. Declutter

• Make room for decorations, presents, cards, people & food

• Replace layers, don’t add.

• Are you a clutter bug or hoarder? Ask someone!

22. Having guests in your home is about serving their needs, not having them serve yours

• Don’t use the hall toilet or the house will flood.

• Sebastian Maniscalco: “Don’t ask guests to squeegee the shower.”

• A “shoe free home” causes stress to guests.

23. Secure the house

sometimes holidays mean you’re not home at all

24. Where do coats and purses go?

25. Walk the path

How do guests experience your home from the street to the feast

For more information, listen to Dean explain it all below:

Don't forget "HOME with Dean" is now live on Saturdays from 6am-8am AND Sundays 9am-11am.

As always, you can follow Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer, on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @HomeWithDean.

Missed the show? Don't worry you can podcast Home With Dean on the iHeart Radio app here.