Care to share the oddest thing house guests have done in your home this festive period?

[CharlieWeasleysWife]

We've had many guests over the festive period and most have been an absolute delight. However, have just waved off a few of DHs friends and they:

Removed phone chargers and toiletries left in the guest room/bathroom and taken home

Used (a used!) dish cloth to wipe their face then replaced on the sink

Complained we won't allow scary/violent TV until our young children are in bed

WTF?

Edited for typos

Me 🙋‍♀️

Me. I stick my face under the shower, no soap. Shampoo runs down it every other day when I wash my hair. Then I towel dry.

I don't wear makeup though so maybe that makes a difference.

Was your guest the new James Bond?

From my brother’s pov perhaps? Dh and I arrived at his house and did a basic clean in the kitchen. The counter tops and hob were covered in grease and food waste, ditto the sink and dirty dishes strewn around, dirty floor. As we went along, we tidied up and rearranged things so that there was somewhere to prep and cook food. This took us 2 hours working together. Mum cleaned the bathroom and loo.

Dh then tidied the desk in his office, where we were staying as it was strewn with paperwork and no other surface to put all our stuff on.

Brother moaned we’d put something from the kitchen he used almost every day on a table in the conservatory. For reference he leaves everything out gathering oily muck and dust on the counter tops, including 5 air fryers and doesn’t wash anything up properly and kept on telling us not to put the dishwasher on until 11.30pm as he gets cheap electricity then.

He’s never cooked a meal in the oven so that at least wasn’t dirty… He also didn’t lift a finger towards anything. We put the dishwasher on… during the day and he moaned about that. Dh cleared the kitchen after lunch and brother didn’t even offer anyone a drink.

I think he thought we were the odd ones as he complained about us doing all this despite doing nothing himself to contribute. I don’t see how food could be made and dishes could be cleaned without doing the work…

Wow some of these are awful. Nothing so bad here, but we once had a guest stay overnight who started her period early. She asked if I had anything and I gave her a little basket with 2 types of tampons and 3 types of STs (including the big nighttime ones) - all the packs were almost full. When she left the next morning she took the lot with her - left the little basket though which was thoughtful of her

What's wrong with using your hands and a bit of cotton wool?

One of our guests has broken our toilet seat and then denied it when I asked them. I told them it didn’t matter but they have actually snapped the hinge on the seat which is quite hard to do. I have ordered a new seat and it is waiting to be fitted. I don’t know why people can’t be honest if I had done this I would own up and offer to buy another one

I think my son must do this as he uses one toilet roll a day even though he works a 7 hour day. He has been off for 2 weeks and I had to stockpile toilet rolls just in case we ran out of them. I have asked him about it and he tells me he likes to be clean whatever that means.

SIL has also developed a new thing where she cannot eat in proximity to Christmas trees. She behaved as though we should all have known this, even though she had never told any of us. So she was quite agitated that there was a Christmas tree here at all, but eventually settled for having us shut the door to the living room so she couldn’t see it. She would ask again and again for someone to check the door was shut, as though the tree might be trying to escape and sneak up on her.

Thank you for my first big laugh of 2026!

Those asking about flannels, millions of people now use disposable wipes to clean their faces because they can’t be arsed to wash flannels - they then get flushed down the toilet and clog our sewers 🤷‍♀️. It’s a huge problem for water companies - I’m amazed people haven’t seen news coverage of it.

My brother in law and wife took all the toiletries we had put in their en suite for their use too! Like we were a hotel!! (Full sized bottles... not travel size)!!!! Another time when he stayed in our house when we were away he took or used up all the: towels, loo paper, tea bags, toiletries from all bathrooms, wooden coat hangers, a light bulb from one of the rooms..... plus a lot more... he replaced nothing. Needless to say he isn't invited back.

I use those as well but my daughter uses a facecloth to remove her make up. During the summer she accidentally left a couple behind so I washed them and took them with me to her house to return them. Unfortunately her facecloths are the same colour as my dusters and I took a couple of them to return instead. Just to add I don’t flush the wipes down the toilet because I know it can cause problems.

I've seen them occasionally, but generally not. And no holiday home we've stayed at has put any out.

I wouldn't think to provide a flannel for guests and have never been offered one when I have been a guest. I do use one when I wash at the sink, but in a house of four I am the only one who does - DC did when they were little.

A family member took all my old baby clothes. Whilst staying for a few days they asked my DPs for my newborn clothes for their pregnant best friend, DPs apologised but said that they had already promised them to a good friend. That seemed fine and there was no issue for the rest of the stay. The family member somehow worked out where DM was storing the clothes and somehow snuck them out to their car and took the lot with them. DPs discovered they had gone days later and had to make an embarrassed apology to their friend.

Oh I'm even more psycho, I cleanse with lrp and my hands and just dry my face...using a flannel/face cloth. I have countless amounts, use a fresh one every face wash (so 2x a day average).

How long did that relationship last @CharlieWeasleysWife ?

I had set the table out nicely for Christmas Day. MIL arrived on Christmas afternoon for dinner with a box of crackers. Looked at the table and declared she brought crackers but I didn’t have to swap them over if I didn’t want to. Then proceeded to bang on about how her crackers were better when I didn’t swap them.

Cotton wool and cleanser and have done for as long as I can remember !

Flannels are not for me!

SO thoughtful. Because taking the basket would be rude.

Some people use makeup remover pads and just rinse their cleanser off in the sink without said flannel. I personally use a cloth to wipe my cleanser off but don’t usually see them in hotels tbh. Last hotel before Xmas I stayed at just supplied cleansing pads and cotton buds

I trust you have asked them to post your your stuff back. It was probably accidental.

FACECLOTH FACECLOTH FACECLOTH.
Anyway, I once had a boy stay with us for a few nights. First year uni age. After his first shower (shower over bath), I walked into the bathroom to find the entire floor literally flooded. I panicked and started throwing towels on the floor to soak it up so it didn’t go down to the flat below somehow. He couldn’t see what the problem was. He also spent his entire time in bed and hardly ate anything even though i kept going to offer to take him out sightseeing and to offer/ask about food.

I wash my face in when I'm in the shower, with water.

I don't wear make up, I don't wear cleanser or use any kind of products, so nothing to wash off, product-wise.

The only exception is in the summer if I've been wearing sun cream, then I might use some cleanser in the shower, or at the sink with my hands then dry with a towel.

It's very rare I use soap on my face as it dries my skin. My skin feels unpleasantly tight after using it. I'd only use it if, say, washing off face paint after Halloween or something unusual like that. Might well use a flannel then also.

I don't know of anyone who uses a flannel anymore and I haven't seen any in the hotels I stayed at in 2025. I also would not use other people's flannels. Firstly I have very sensitive skin and secondly I find the idea a bit icky. I wear make up most days, use Liz Earle C&P for the record and take a ziplock bag with me for the wet muslins. Easy.
I also use a lot of loo roll. Qute rude to ask why I think. Just not everyone has perfect motions.

At least yours turned up. A number of years ago I’d invited immediate family around for an evening buffet Christmas Day. I put on a decent spread and bought drinks for everyone. An hour after they were meant to arrive I phoned to see where they were. They’d decided they weren’t coming. We ate what we could for a couple of days after but most of it had to be binned. Never invited them again.