If you are fortunate enough to have a spare room...

[newyorkbreakfast]

How do you keep it? Do you always have the bed made up even if nobody's coming to stay for some months? I dislike the look of the unmade mattress but feel it's a bit of a waste of time making it up when the covers will get dusty.

I have three, but just chuck a throwover on each bed.
I don’t want musty bedding on there for possibly weeks between the DC’s visits to the old homestead! I dress each bed with fresh bedding the day before they arrive.

We have two.

One we keep as a games room with a sofa bed in there

The other is more a standard spare room and yes, the bed is always made with a throw and cushions too. I just change the bedding about once every 4-6 weeks or so to keep it fresh.

In theory yes I keep the bed made up, but not for your reason - it’s so that if it is needed for some reason in the night - DH unbearable snoring, one of the kids is sick on their bed, etc - it is ready.
In practice however it almost never is made up.
It’s in the attic though so weeks can go by without me going up there.

I just leave the bedding on after visitors and then change it before new ones

We've got sofa beds in both of ours now, and use the rooms for other things.

But we only have overnight guests once or twice a year.

Made up before guests arrive and left on until the next guests. We hardly ever have anyone who stays more than one night though, and generally our guests are very clean.

We leave the old bedding on and then change for a fresh set when we have guests. We don't really get unexpected guests so it's easy to do and if one of us needed to use it in the middle if the night (illness etc) I don't think we'd be bothered about which sheets were on it.

Thank you all. I think the consensus is for made-up beds. My mother used to tell me to always strip the bed after having stayed as a guest. I must have been rather inconvenient.

We have three spare/unused bedrooms

One bed is made up for me or DH to use when the other one of is snoring, one just has a throw on it to stop the mattress getting dusty and covered in cat hair (we use this room as a clothes drying and ironing room), and the other room had a single bed which we have replaced with a desk for me to use as my wfh "office" during The Covid (and beyond, it seems).

No you weren’t being inconvenient, OP! My DC and their partners always strip their beds for me after they visit, and I’m grateful that they do.
I don’t want used sweaty bedding left on the beds for weeks, that’s revolting - it goes straight in the washing machine and back to the airing cupboard.

My spare room is visually ready, with a counterpane over it, covering the pillows.

I'm trying to run it down from being my office for teaching from home, but am not allowed into school because of lockdown restrictions to return my books and clear the place.

What I have found, though, is that my perfectly clean bedlinen, by being used so infrequently, smells op-shoppy so has to be laundered again. A sideline of the present lockdown is that I've not been allowed any guest except my bubble DD for about a year. She has her own room, always made up, and never smells.

Ours is a sofa bed which means we don’t have this issue, but when we had a “proper” bed I went by the rule that if someone got in who lived here (DH when I booted him out for snoring, the kids, me sneaking off for a cat nap etc) then the sheets don’t get changed, but they were always always laundered before and after anyone else slept there.

Pp’s suggestion of putting a throw over the bed to prevent dustiness is a good middle ground.

We have a made up single bed in one spare room, only person who uses it is adult DS when he visits or DH if one of us is ill so we don't keep each other awake at night. The other spare room houses the boiler and a large Pax wardrobe, there is no room for a bed. We don't have anyone apart from DS staying over

I really very much dislike guests stripping the bed unasked. And if they ask I tell them not to! I know it’s meant helpfully but actually it feels a bit controlling- like a task is being dictated to you, that feeling of “I was going to do it soon and now you’ve asked me to!” that sets off my rebel feeling.

I’m actually going to have a spare bedroom when we move ( not exchanges yet though ) we will go from a two bedroom to a four bed.
I plan on keeping it made up as dh snores and now I will have someone to go or kick him out to. Can’t wait.

Yes. Pre-Covid the bed was always made up and used every 4-6 weeks or so.

If/when someone came to stay now, I would need to strip and wash the bedding first - it hasn't been slept in, but has been sitting there untouched since February 2020.

It used to be 'made up' as solely a guest room, stripped as soon as a guest left, aired then the bed remade. If it hadn't been slept in for a while & we had a sunny day I'd put the bedding on a short wash & line dry. Remaking it with fresh linen.

When Covid hit I turned it into a storage room. It's been brilliant. The people who would normally stay are overseas still (but some of them lived in the U.K. pre Covid) & so until it's likely I'll have someone staying again I'll leave it as it is. Any emergency guests can make do with the sofa bed for one night & then we can sort the spare room the next day if necessary.

I have 3 spare rooms.
One is a guest room it's always guest-ready apart from the bed I will make before they arrive.
The other room has dd's numerous dolls in the bed😂😂😂 that's their bedroom.
The remaining room is also guest-ready apart from the duvet cover it has dd's old cot in there for when I watch my great-nieces and nephews.

Ours is made up partly because DH snores and if it's bad I escape, partly because of DS has a bad dream or is poorly he gets into our bed, if one of us has an early start our a particularly hard day at work the next day the spare room is available. Always stripped, washed and remade before and after guests outside of the house. If one of us use it and we're not ill it just gets remade and washed every month/six weeks or so. I dust, polish and hoover in there once a week so it doesn't really get dusty

We have one spare room, not used much. I have an "in between" set of bedding and a "guest" set. If someone is coming, I put on the fresh guest set, strip, wash and put that away when they leave, and replace it with the "in between" set. Nobody ever actually sleeps in the in between set if you see what I mean.

We technically have 2 but one is an attic room so the DCs have it as a playroom and it's never been used as a spare room. The other is downstairs and has a sofa bed, with bedside tables either side, both mine and DHs desks and a wing back chair. It mostly functions as our study, but can very easily be turned into a spare room, with my desk set up as a dressing table and the sofa bed folding out to a decent sized double. We like all our rooms being usable, and feel it would be a bit of a waste to have the room sat there empty most of the time. The key for us is making it seem very much a nice room when people do come to stay, so have made sure the sofa bed is large and comfortable etc.

Sorry, I think it’s a bit gross to leave used bedding on there for weeks and months! I always change the bedding after visitors, and then leave it made up but with a very large throw that goes over the duvet and pillows so nothing gets dusty. That way it’s available if needed unexpectedly.