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?

Do people really do this

IMHO, if its too good for us to use every day, then its too good for guests too!

Might be back in stock by Chrimbo OP and you could put it on your wish list .

I give you....

.egg bowl arranged by cooker like I bake or make breakfastcheerios all the way here

Abyss your colour co-ordinated books made laugh & then I thought about it & realised that ours are similarly well organised, but each shelving cube has a topic, Art, Fashion, Music, Food, Nature etc & as above, always start with the taller books to the left graduating down in size to the right.

Its how I like them though, not for guests. Thinking on it further, I do, do a lot to display our bits & bobs, but always for me/us, not for guests. Most I might do is light a smelly candle or our wax burners to get rid of stale smells & cooking smells smelly assed cat smells, but I do that without guests too.

Check out this bookcase (not mine)

Stunt pineapple on strictly!!!

Yes to stunt carrier bags to make my home look like it's inhabited by someone well- travelled and enigmatic (ie ME!!). I keep carrier bags from foreign countries nonchalantly on display, which have an even higher cachet if they are in a non-Roman alphabet script like Russian or Mandarin. Also like to tickle visitors' curiosity with my prize exhibit, a carrier bag advertising a Private Investigator which I got from a charity shop!

Which dance was it in or is it part of the general decor Cheque?

In a little skit between C & T, just before Will Young's dance.

I think it's def a little nod from the producers to MNetters

(Claudia pulls a pineapple from a carpet bag)

I ate a pineapple today in celebration of this very thread. Chopped it up and everything.
Fantasising about Aesop soap now.

Is this your gaff OP

abyssinian they must be easier to sort to put on the shelf but how do you find anything?

Nothing here but MIL always bakes a cake if someone is coming over. But it's not for the guests to eat... just to make the house smell nice!

She also bought some lovely mugs from Tesco, but she didn't want guests to know they were from Tesco so she tippexed over the Tesco label on the bottom

I chuckled to myself this morning. I called over to my friends house, good friend the kind that you don't tidy for and whilst I was there drinking coffee she pulled a pineapple out of the fruit bowl, sniffed it and chucked in the recycling. Clearly stunt pineapple.

When I was living in a student house & knew prospective tenants were due to visit, I'd dress my inflatable alien in my lab coat or put it in the shower or make it look as if it was taking a toy dog for a walk.

Not rtft so it might already have been mentioned - "the occasional garden" by Saki is about exactly this.

Pineapple is traditionally a symbol of welcome and hospitality, it's obvious why, now!
"I so appreciate you coming round I've prissed up my lifestyle to enhance your visitor experience"

AnneGables I'm now picturing your guests cowering on a perfectly plumped sofa while you stalk up and down in front of them, shouting "well? Come on, one of you must need a shit!"

Must confess I don't do anything like this, just aim for achievably clean and tidy (and my children will eat any fruit that goes in the fruit bowl, probably would even if it was plastic), but I'm finding this thread curiously inspiring.

Loving this thread.
I have been known to put out my Cath Kidston tea towels and Molton Brown hand wash in the kitchen when we have guests.

Anyone else wondering if those times we've been to someone's fragrant, tasteful and HomesandGardens houses that it's not really how they live? It's rather reassuring.

I have found my people.
I have an vintage sewing box currently sitting on a sitting room side table, slightly askew with a few inches of ricrac hanging artfully out the side next to a vintage cotton reel and darning mushroom. I did so some sewing and darning...about 3 months ago but didnt get round to putting it away then decided it looked impressively crafty. One person who stops by on a regular basis said "oh you're always on the go with your crafts, aren't you?"

I have a huge Kilner jar in the kitchen, half filled with organic golden caster sugar, complete with a retro, embossed label. Inside the jar is a fancy, hand carved wooden spoon. Next to the jar is a stack of Mrs Beeton books and a selection of cookie cutters arranged in a pretty bowl.
I do bake but I never use anything from my display section, it looks too nice. I rotate the books and cookie cutters once every couple of weeks so it doesn't look too staged.

My downstairs bathroom cupboard contains only my Origins, Sunday Riley and Aesop bits and bobs (mostly gifts). Everything less impressive is in our huge, ramshackle family bathroom cupboard.

Our hall is sprayed with homemade room fragrance, the fireplaces stocked with nicely arranged logs (and pinecones!), my dining room table is currently home to a vintage cake stand full of homegrown apples. I've cultivated a little reading corner vingette in a dark nook. A pile of old vogue magazines supports a pretty charity shop lamp, next to a cosy chair and a couple of cosy blankets with a half read book left over the arm of the chair.

Having the house guest ready pleases me no end. I'm loving the stunt pineapple and most everything else.
My family think I'm crackers.

Ah, good...good, another acolyte...Welcome to the fold DoYou

Stunt pineapples on Poldark!

I'm going to get a pineapple for harvest festival. It will be like the mumsnet scarf of yesteryear.

Yes to the Harvest Festival pineapple!

Love love love this thread. Yes to his n hers guest dressing gowns (and addin a bowl of guest toiletries), posh biscuits and room spray.

But our main guest ritual, for evening / dinnery occasions, is to have champagne flutes and canapes assembled on the kitchen table when they arrive, so the scene is set for an evening of languid pleasure. Little do they know that I was slopping stuffed peppers and chargrilled artichokes out of plastic tubs into the canape dishes and trying to cram the slimy containers into the bin seconds before the doorbell, while DH runs from room to room screeching that he can only find 4 unchipped glasses...