What naice things do you make sure are visible to visitors

[Wiggles84]

Most of the time I have detol hand soap in my bathrooms but if I know someone is visiting my home I get out the posh L'Occitane matching soap and moisturiser stuff I recieved for Christmas a few years back. Surely people notice it's always the same amount of fullness each time they visit? Plus who has enough time to moisturise their hands every time they wash them with a toddler in the house. Jesus if Im more than 15 seconds having a wee he'll be banging the door down wanting to come in or he will have jammed quavers in the xbox. There's no time for the luxury of hand moistorusing. Plus it's a bugger keeping a grip on his squirmy hands St the best of times let alone adding lubrication into the mix.

When my guests leave, back it goes under the sink so as not to waste it.

I also like the fruit bowl to be bursting with beautiful fruit. We always have bananas and satsumas but for some reason a pineapple just makes my mundane life feel that little bit more exotic. "Ooh look at wiggles84 she must peel her pineapple fresh each morning for her delightful childs breakfast". No a quick bit of toast and a banana and we're off to start our days. No one's got time for that surely?

None of us even like pineapple

I know, I know I shouldn't care what people think but what little things do you project to the world so as to not to appear the frazzled dog tired slutten you are?

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!

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

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.

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?

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

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)

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'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.

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

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!

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.

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.

Thanks AbyssinianBanana

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

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.

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

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.

This is my absolute favourite thread on MN. I spend a silly amount of time standing / staging the cushions on my sofas. It's simple unacceptable for visitors to walk in and be faced with saggy, crumpled cushions.

Classsssssssicssssss!

Word to the wise, the hand cream goes off after a year or so, so chuck it out if you don't want to get caught coz it'll stink!

I do also 'stage' the sofa if people are expected round, and ban anyone from sitting on it before they come round. So DP, dog, cat and I all scrunch ourselves up on little armchairs and pretend the big sofa isn't there!

I also like the sofa not to look sat on, so it looks like I haven't been sat on it all day like I really have

Puny my efforts are for overnight guests mainly.
For coffee meet ups it's just stuffing the kids shite in a cupboard, washing up, and trying to find time on my travels to buy a really pretentious cake thing from m&s (as if to pretend that's what we eat all the time, instead of Aldi Jaffa Cakes).

I am desperately trying to sell my house at the mo, and hadn't thought to burn my Yankee candles. I have en masse viewing tomorrow, shall I rush out and buy a stunt pineapple to see if it works?

Oh and a candle burning is essential, to mask the scent of toddler nappy changes.