As I’m sure most of you known (especially if you read my blog post on Friday), my parents were just here visiting for a long weekend. They left this morning to head to Chicago for the next part of their vacation and I miss them already.

We had a pretty chill weekend. The boys went to the Ohio State game on Saturday. We took them to Piada and Skyline Chili because they don’t have those at home. And we had breakfast at The Best Breakfast & Sandwiches yesterday because my parents saw that restaurant on a PBS special about the best breakfast places in America.

Anyway, since they are family, I knew my apartment didn’t have to be perfect, but it’s still sort of fun to make your home presentable and make your company comfortable. So here are some things I did to accomplish that.

Display extra toiletry samples. I collect toiletries from hotels and things like that so I always have extras in case our company forgets something. I display them in the bathroom for easy access. This time, I put them in a fun Halloween box on the back of the toilet with some other essentials like toilet paper rolls wrapped in Halloween tissue paper.

Light candles. I displayed candles in the bathroom and the guest room to make it smell nicer and more inviting. I bought brand new fall scented candles and they smell heavenly! I put the delicious Farm Apple Pumpkin scent in the bedroom and the Pumpkin Ginger Cookie scent in the bathroom.

Put books by the bed. I don’t think my parents used them at all, but I put a couple books by the bed in case they wanted some reading material. They were books of short(ish) stories because I knew they wouldn’t want to start a novel. I had the “Mary Poppins 80th Anniversary Collection” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories” sitting out. (I added Sleepy Hollow after I took the pictures. Whoops)

Make room in the closet. In my humble opinion, there is no better way to feel at home on vacation than to unpack your suitcase. When I stay in hotels, I usually fill up the dresser drawers and closet with my clothes and store my empty suitcase elsewhere. Especially if I’m staying more than a couple nights. It just makes everything more accessible and less stressful. Unfortunately, I don’t have an empty dresser in the guest room, but I do have some room in the closet. I made sure to clear everything out of that little space and have some extra hangers hanging in there. I know mom hung the jacket she wore to church in there and they used it to hang their towels too.

Make room in the bathroom (or outside of the bathroom). Just like being able to unpack my clothes, I like to have my own space in the bathroom. Again, unfortunately, we only have one bathroom at the moment so it’s hard to clear out a space. So I set up a little table outside the bathroom for my parents’ stuff. This was my mom’s idea a couple years ago and we’ve done it every year since!

Clean the apartment (of course). This is a no-brainer. Or at least I hope it is. I always make sure my home is presentable. I don’t want my guests uncomfortable over a dirty shower or dusty end table.

Buy food you know they like. And last but not least, I stock up on food. I plan meals ahead that I am comfortable preparing and I know my guests will like. I also make sure I have plenty of snacks and have them easily accessible so they feel comfortable helping themselves whenever they want. This time, I made sure to have plenty of Diet Coke in the fridge because we don’t drink much soda at home but I know my parents live off of Diet Coke.