expectation for guests to re-make sofa??

[LottieGarbo]

Went for a social gathering at an acquaintance's house (think book-club type thing), we gathered in her living room and some of us sat on the sofa. When we got up to leave, she asked if we minded re-making the sofa - so moving the cushions back to their original places and straightening the throw.

We did so as it's no big deal, but it got me thinking if this is a normal part of going to someone's house and have I missed something?!
Haven't been to the homes of others very much due to lockdowns so it really made me do a mental double take.

I'd appreciate it if my guests did but it'd never enter my mind to ask and I'd tell them not to bother if I saw them. I tidy up after myself a little at other people's houses, just to save them a job.

I think this comes from a childhood of my parents reminding me to "plump the sofa cushions!" when I left the living room at the end of the day, because they were squishy feather ones that didn't recover their shape by themselves, so now it's ingrained and I always leave my/other people's cushions looking nice. Isn't it weird, the habits you carry with you through life!

We literally just stood up! The throw had started to slip down the sofa as we had been sitting on it and the cushions were a bit crumpled and had moved out of place...because we had been sitting there. No throwing or active moving of anything had occured.

Maybe she felt comfortable enough with you to treat you like family

I honestly don't know. It is a bit weird!

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

I always take a vacuum cleaner (cordless stick sort) when visiting friends or attending a job interview and do a quick 'whizz-about' prior to leaving. I thought everyone did? Although there have been occasions when we've got into a right tangle when eight of us are all hooving around with our vacuums after a soirée at a friend's (which is why I now always take a cordless).

I had you at the top of my party list and then I realised you were joking. I'm very sad.

I'd have put the throw on wonky as a protest at being asked to do that.

Sofas shouldn’t need remaking. They are shit if they do. Mine is from ikea and has the cushions you sit your arse on and the upright cushions you lean back on. That’s it. No remaking. Your acquaintance is weird AF. The time it took her to explain, she could have just done it herself.

I like my cushions in a particular place on the sofa, so I just put them back there after the visitors leave. Not that difficult. She sounds weird requesting her guests to do it.

'No, no disability, no newborn - her children are in their late 20's, was very much a 'oh would you mind just re-making the sofa' as we got up and then she just explained how the cushions and throw should be.'

You are way more polite than me OP. I think I would've laughed that much that I would've possibly pissed on her floor. Then I would've just left laughing so much that I would've failed to rearrange the sofa and left a puddle on her carpet. I'd never step for in her house again. I think it is extremely odd and rude.

To be honest I really don't like it when guests start tidying up and clearing glasses when they leave. I know they're just being nice, but it somehow makes me feel that they feel I need 'help' to host, or that I haven't made them feel properly relaxed as guests. I suppose it must come from my parents, who took that the view that an invited guest should always be treated with perfect grace and allowed to behave however they please. If you don't like the way they behave, you don't show an ounce of displeasure - you just don't invite them again .