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 get Dh to check the kids loo for 'evidence'. Does that count?

DP asked if we could just fill an old washing up liquid bottle with water so it looked clear for guests, and did some demonstration of 'ooooo look at our fancy clear liquid' while he squirted the yellow stuff in the sink behind his back, then saying 'oooo look it really bubbles!'

Nice towels, the best sheets on their bed, a good scrubbing of the bits that are usually ignored. The cafetière comes out if I have somebody to share it with; usually my brother. I don't save poncey toiletries for best any more, I've had too many disappointments of keeping them too long and finding they smell stale and horrid. I will put a new bar of lovely soap out for visitors, but I'll use it up after they've gone.

Fresh flowers, bit of candlescaping, nice placemats and I put a cookbook open on my cookbook stand in the kitchen, bonus points if we are actually eating what the recipe book says we are. Swap the sainsbo's mag for the waitrose mag, new soap and put the britta filter in the fridge! Real butter in the butter dish and try to bake something or if I don't have time make something shop bought look homemade!

I hate clutter, so we don't really have anything in the house that isn't used. As soon as something is past its best it gets chucked out and we buy new, so everything's already quite...nice. I'm also of the opinion that life's just too damn short not to use the fancy soaps I get at Christmas on myself. I think the only things we keep around that aren't used often would be the Halloween/Christmas decorations.

I have some lovely cups and saucers, a teapot and a cake stand that I've bought out of various charity shops over the years. They're all different patterns but DD and I are massive Alice in Wonderland fans and enjoy the odd random tea party between us If I've got visitors coming over, I'll always bring those out. I like the house to always smell amazing so there is always a Yankee candle burning anyway. We are in a cottage bungalow and you pass the bedrooms before reaching any of the communal areas, so I'd definitely make sure the beds were changed and spread up if we had people stopping by. I'd also remove the clean washing from the radiators and make sure the towels were freshly laundered.

Oh a recipe book open on a book stand! That is good!

I forgot we also have a bar of fancy soap on a wooden flat dish in the bathroom which is just for show too. There is a pump next to it.

Half of this stuff is for my enjoyment as much as guests though.

My nice washing up liquid bottle us 3 yrs old and filled with fairy, I also have a carrier bag heirachy with dh snorts at....

Gow what is your nice washing up liquid bottle?!

tigerdriverll Last year my lovely neighbour gave me her panettone she had received from her sil because it clashed with her decor!
I always put my "nice" towels out, fresh flowers and make sure the front door I clean!

I also need to know what a nice washing up liquid bottle is? I'm clearly a heathen. As far as I'm aware this is as posh as they get

Smellies & music are generally on the go, but might swap the heavier hippy scents for something more floral, swap opera or rock for something a bit less intrusive. We only get cake or bikkies in when visitors are expected.
We made the mistake of having a 4 ft square coffee table, so we have to clear away all the detritus that accumulates on it during the week (months)

I have a gorgeous panettone tin (but I just use it to keep crisps in). I love the idea of the cook book on the stand. And I'm also intrigued by the idea of posh washing up liquid . . .

The origanal liquid was crap, so filled with fairy!

Oh no, it's not clear, it can't possibly go on my fake washing up area

Gin your fake washing up area makes me happy because part of me completely understands the thinking behind it even though I don't think I could ever be bothered enough to create one

I don't do much for adult guests (all my friends and family know what I'm really like so they would just laugh at me. Having biscuits in the biscuit tin is about the limit.

But if I know that the DC are having friends over for tea I like to pretend to be far more of a 'proper' mummy that I really am. I make sure that their bedrooms are clean and tidy (rather than leaving the mess they've made in the morning for them to clean up when they get home), make hot chocolate for them when they get home (the nice stuff made with milk not the instant low calorie stuff), have a selection of healthy snacks ready, make sure that there is a proper home cooked meal part prepared and ready to finish off for an early tea, make a selection of deserts/cakes plus get in plenty of fruit/yoghurt etc.

I know I do this because I can remember when I was a child I loved visiting people who did this sort of thing. If they tell their parents what I do they will probably wonder how my DC have managed not to be obese given the amount of food I seem to offer.

The fake washing up area is amazing I can not stop laughing!

I don't do any of this stuff, maybe this is why I don't have many visitors

The only thing I do do is arrange the kids toys nicely on the floor so it looks like they've been playing a lovely gentle game of trains and farms together like they like each other before they skipped out into the garden together to extend their play - instead of dumping a load of boxes on the floor, beat each other up then I kicked them outside because they were doing my head in with the screaming

This is a hilariously weird thread! (Though, yup, there's a long historical precedent for the 'there for show, return uneaten' pineapple - it was the height of guest rudeness to cut themselves a nice chunk of pineapple, given that many visitors knew that if their hosts weren't aristocrats with their own hothouses, a bought/rent or return pineapple was a massive expense...)

If I thought someone had started to burn scented candles, created a 'just for show' washing up area or put out Special Visitor handsoap just because I was dropping in for a cup of coffee, I would think they were completely mad! Do the people in your lives really notice such things? Do you notice these things if you go to someone else's house??? I mean, who checks the label on the towels?

I have to say this completely explains one of those other frequent threads that have always puzzled me on Mn , where posters complain that the reason they don't like unexpected visitors is not because they're busy or exhausted or feel like having their house to themselves, but because they haven't had time to tidy.

If the pre-visitor tidy also involves burning candles so you can pretend to have made cake, replacing the towels, cups, shampoo, washing up liquid and soap with more expensive varieties, panic-buying flowers and fruit etc etc, then I'm surprised you don't need a warning of several days before the most casual caller for coffee!

My fake washing up area started when I noticed a similar one at a new friend's house. It looked so nice! I've no idea if hers is fake - they have a dishwasher so it could just be barely used, but I'm not taking that risk with mine

As I said earlier though, a lot of the stuff I do is just as much for my benefit. It makes me feel instantly deflated to see a tired old sponge next to the sink.

I agree Gin most of what I do is for my own benefit, it's a shame I can't be that motivatied to keep it nice for "just us"

I love that people do anything like this, I don't understand why some posters are seemingly 'looking down' upon it. People are quirky, doing little things to make yourself happy to receive visitors is brilliant.

Personally, in the winter I spray just a little polish onto the radiators so it all smells warm and fresh, but not overbearing.

Your soap and hand moisturiser will be well out of date now!

I can't be arsed with stuff like that. Our soap is an own brand which is in a bottle hung on the wall by the sink.

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" ohh ! We don't peel or cut. Pineapple. The Best Buy we have in the house is screw for pineapple. Works in seconds and it looks immaculate. The middle bit taken out plus the skin. All you have to do is pull out the slices. Yum!

at setting up the Play Mobil!

I was laughing along at posters idiosyncrasies and then I realised I have unintentionally developed a cracker: I instruct guests to call at the front door "just come up the stairs the knocker is a bit stiff..." so they walk straight into my lovely hall and on into the sitting room thus diverting them from the basement entrance (the only one we use) which leads straight into chaos....

I love this thread. I've been googling for posh washing up liquid and am totally going to stage a washing up area!