What naice things do you make sure are visible to visitors

This thread is fab.

It's more hiding than bringing out round here.

However I wouldn't dream of having anyone over without getting some fancy biscuits in. Most of my mates wouldn't dream of going anywhere without bringing fancy biscuits.

We all had to give it a break towards the end of Mat leave as we were getting fat.

A coconut would not have the same effect at all, it could also lead to questions.

Hahaha laughing at people having the cookbook out. I actually always make sure I hide mine and pretend I came up with the (usually lovely if I may say so) food we are eating.

puny I must confess my house is staged pretty much all the time. I am hopelessly obsessed by interiors, soft furnishings, paint...plus, a relative of mine is a professional interiors stylist (has worked for all the glossy mags) so I love visiting her house and getting creative ideas feed my obsession

Thanks AbyssinianBanana

Well, yes, but also because mostly people who come over aren't planned, and I'd hate for it to go missed

Our sink area is normally surrounded by unwashed dishes :( we are both really useless at it. I find the staged area gives me a bit of motivation to do the job I hate.

TheColoner- it's True Grace curious purple. Smells of vanilla to me. I usually light diptyque' coriander for myself - makes the kitchen smells clean and fresh to me. I also have to share newest find Frederic Malle's Jurassic Flower. Smells of magnolia... So lovely and fresh I have burned through a third of it in a week... It's now being "saved" so it bloody lasts til Xmas and I can ask for another. I'm pretending I don't know its cost, so I use it everyday with wild abandonment.

But if the staged washing up area is out all the time, isn't it for you rather than guests

Also, I think you must be generally quite tidy for it to work - not much point in having a staged washing up area if it is surrounded by unwashed dishes.

Anyway, it makes me vicariously happy that you are making the world a prettier place, even if it's just next to your sink!

I'm fur coat and no knickers all of the time. Guest toiletries are for overnight guests, especially my close friends.

I've got some serious MN user crushing going on I love a staged area and have just added some more pretty washing up stuff and a reed diffuser to my Ocado shop.

Gin I think the terminology is your problem. Rayher than calling it a staged washing up area rather just think of it as part of the mise en scene.

I don't go to such extravagant lengths, but I try to make sure there is bog roll in the toilet, and no puddles of wee (Thankyou DS)

Puny my staged washing up area is out all the time! I like looking at it

I think you are all barking, but am slightly charmed by the demented lengths you go to for visitors. Can I ask for details, though? Are these visitors (for whom you stage washing up areas, buy special fruit and flowers, put out the expensive towels and soap, blitz clean, rearrange the bookshelves, put out a scatter of educational toys arranged pleasingly, empty the bathroom of visible toiletries etc etc etc) who come over for an hour to have coffee, or overnight stayers, or people you've invited to dinner, or what? And, given all that work, do you have them over often? And, crucially, do you think they do a similar thing for you, or for visitors in general? Is everyone in your friendship circling carefully staging their houses for one another?

Aldi's own eco washing up liquid is clear so I've bought some. I also got stunt mini squash for a windowsill arrangement. I may eat them after Halloween.

Am perfectly happy to be tragic so long as my house is really, really pretty

I dont have a best for guest thing but i do have a guest bedroom.
In that room for my guests I have a basket with
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Hand Cream (nice unscented/hypo)
Paracetamol
New Flannel
New buff puff wash thingy
Hairspray (in the gold can)
Hair grips/ bobble
Tissues
etc etc etc.
I want my guests to use anything they need and always let them know its their for them. I would hate to think they needed something but didn't like to ask.

I burn a lot of nice candles all the time as they make me happy, I also burn a lot of cheap ones in the hope they smell nice!

Elspeth I try and keep my bathroom like that all the time, it drives DP mad. He's forever rummaging through the cupboards to find his toothpaste.

Our only bathroom is downstairs though, and I feel like people who turn up unexpectedly and then use the loo, wouldn't want to see all our crap. But really, I don't want to look at it when you can see the basin from the kitchen!

Congratulations stuntpineapple!

We don't have an ensuite so guests have to use the family bathroom with all our toiletries.

I go through it like a hurricane. All bath mats swapped out for blindingly white ones, and any evidence of actual hygiene needs tidied away e.g. toenail clippers, Zovirax, Always and contact lenses.

All my skin care items are brutally purged leaving only La Roche Posay and Bioderma. The clean and clear blackhead cleanser is banished. Any visitor must surely think I'm a semi immortal creature with no bodily functions except the ability to have perfectly "normal" skin.

Please does anyone else do this?

This thread made me giggle. I turn from a sofa slob into a proud housewife when I hear the doorbell and realise its someone visiting... I rush around lighting the candles, put on the LED glow bar behind the telly, coordinate the cushions on the sofa and check that no empty loo rolls are visible in the bathroom bin...I do behave a bit strange and my kids find it amusing that as soon as the visitors leave, I slump in my chair and say "thank god they've gone"

Congrats OP! How exciting

Love this funny thread. I won't be adding Mumsnet to my Facebook though having just looked it up and seen the sneery, bitchy posts about it. Must be AIBUers.

Op, what happens to the pineapple when the guests leave? Do you chop it up and present it in a goody bag?