Things that (irrationally) annoy you when staying at other people’s homes

[NameName2023]

Currently staying at my MIL’s house for a couple of days and three things have irritated me and I need to get over it:

1. bed - actually applies to both my SIL and MIL. Both of their spare rooms are huge, ridiculously so. Yet they only have double/kingsize beds when there is easily enough room for a super king. This is probably my issue though as we have a super king at home so I’m used to the space, rather than having to squeeze in with my 6’5”, rugby built husband.
2. Drinks - not once have they offered anything. I’ve offered to make tea if I’ve made myself one. Also, they’ll only offer alcoholic drinks if DH is in the room (DH was getting toddler down for bed, he came in to top up the milk bottle and FIL offered him a drink, despite me being sat there without one. It’s like women can only be offered a drink once the men have!).
3. lunch - literally nothing in the fridge for lunch today. They knew they had guests but obviously didn’t think to get food in to make sandwiches or anything. I’m breastfeeding our baby and bloody hungry. I was offered a very nutritious breakfast of Rice Krispies and thats all I’ve been offered today. DH and I are going to the supermarket later. Going to stock up on snacks.

I guess some of it is my issue but it’s just really annoyed me. I just want to be back home!

It’s tea in my case, but I always do. Presumably you are on,y staying with people you know well? I always say ‘if you hear me moving around early don’t feel you have to join me, I’ll just be making tea and I’m quite happy doing that myself’. I haven’t horrified anyone yet…
If anyone stays at mine for the first time I always tell them that I don’t always sleep well and if the same is true of them and they need a cuppa in the night/first thing to just help themselves and show them where stuff is.

I don't want to buy a cafetiere either. If I had a regular guest using it, I might, but for people who stay once a year or less?

🤷‍♀️It's your guests .

But for the record, instant is rank if you're used to real coffee.

A cafetiere costs a fiver.

And takes up space in my kitchen.
I have been told coffee bags are some kind of compromise...

"🤷‍♀️It's your guests ."

Yep. People who come to stay for free and shouldn't be too fussy.

I am really intrigued if you say you don't stay away and/or don't have overnight guests: if you have friends or family that live too far away for a day trip do you just never see them? Or are you forking out for hotel rooms / holiday lets for the whole family each time? Surely there are things about staying anywhere other than home that are annoying?!

Yep. People who come to stay for free and shouldn't be too fussy.

It's more about how YOU want to host your guests.

I like my friends and want them to feel comfortable and welcome.

It's not about it being free/money. 😂

I have been told coffee bags are some kind of compromise...

I once had a box of individual coffee filters that you poured boiling through, from Waitrose. The coffee was amazing tbh.

The coffee bags are a good compromise.

No point having a cafetière you're rarely going to use and takes up cupboard space. Plus a waste of a bag of ground coffee for a guest who stays a couple of nights. Unless you have a refill place nearby and can buy a tiny quantity!

I found providing breakfast options for guests harder when I lived alone. I had some cereal I liked plus some porridge oats, and bread to make toast. But I wasn't going to go and buy a load of different cereal for a guest for a night or two that I'd then have to eat up.

It's easier now I have a family and we regularly keep different breakfast cereals in.

You can get tiny cafetières for one person.

Really surprised someone doesn’t provide towels to friends and family staying with them, and also always takes their own when visiting friends and family. We always provide guest towels. Leave them on their bed, and always have them provided. That’s the basics surely.

We actually live in a old house that untill
we cut the cord had a long like strangling hazard light pull cord above where you would place the bed. We have left the fixing in case anyone in future wants to add the cord back or maybe wire in a switch from that point.

What do you mean come to stay for free. What an odd take on inviting friends and family to stay with uou .are you being sarcastic? I’ve seen another poster also going on about it being free.

My mum insists on cooking big self-service platters of food for dinner. I sound like an absolute bitch for complaining, but:

• she does this for breakfast no matter how often we say we're more tea and toast eaters at that time of day. It's made "to order", so we're put under pressure to get up early to be served a breakfast we don't want, delaying what we do with the day.
• then we have to get back early from whatever we're doing to allow her cooking time. The kitchen is a corridor between two major parts of the house, and if she is cooking, she doesn't want us to pass through.
• she overestimates the amount of time needed to cook the meal, rendering the early return pointless, and whatever you were doing must be stopped to eat.

I currently nap trapped by my four month old having said that it would probably work best with his naps for us to eat between 5.30-6, only to be told dinner was ready at four sodding thirty. Oh, and she says that she'll happily take the baby - except that's what she said yesterday, only for both parents to completely lose the plot after having him for ten minutes.

I can hear her carping through the floor about my non-attendance an hour before expected!

I wouldn't mind a Peppa pig duvet cover for a night. Makes a change from the animal crossing one I have...

We bulk buy most foods and so far no child has taken the piss with the free rein.

See I don’t drink hot drinks and I don’t go to someone’s house and expect a glass of water/cola etc the second I step though their doors so mostly it doesn’t even register, as I just grab sips of water basically from the fridge all day.

Although with mil an offer of a coffee would lead to a having a fag and feeling the need to inspect every part of my garden and judge any weed I may have while leaving her dirty fag butt somewhere so coffee isn’t to be offered freely I don’t think anyway for her 😂

I dont stay at any ones place only my own or a hotel.
I cant stand visiting people that have clutter or homes just full of crap tables chairs cupboards sideboards display cabinets cant see the walls because of pitchers and photos.
Kitchen tops you can't see because of clutter.
And a litter tray in the kitchen or upstairs or even in the house fuck that.
Bathrooms with bottles all over it hair in the sink and a stinking bathroom bin just why.
Hallway coat hooks looks like a jumble sale so much hooked on it.
And homes that have pets cat & dog hair everywhere i can smell pets like a non-
smoker smell smoke yuk.
No windows open at all.
Tvs so loud you cant hear.
And small children yapping on so loud you think just shut up.
I really can't deal with any of the above yes i think i may have issues.

Overly perfumed plug-in’s in the guest bedroom. they make me and my husband sneeze and we end up with stuffy noses. I’ve learnt to check for them now and not only unplug them but pop them outside the room on the landing.

Not being offered breakfast. I have to eat when I get up. But I am now not afraid to ask for a slice of toast

Understandable if you’ve issues, I assume all your friends and family live like this? And that’s why you stay in hotels?

I dont have family.

They probably assumed you'd go out for lunch ?

I hate mornings ..do i wait for everyone else to get up before i make a brew?

Do i flush the loo or leave a middle of the night wee run?

So who are you referring to? Your friends?

anyone that does any of what i said in my post its not mean its just me.

Agree. Been a long time since I've seen spare blankets in a hotel. They all have controllable AC but it rarely works in my experience.