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Home Cleaning Tips for Every Hosting Vibe

A group of friends taking a selfie at dinner party toasting the celebration with holiday vibes.

Your hosting style shapes how you do your home cleaning for holiday entertaining — and the challenges you might have along the way. Whether your approach is perfectionist, relaxed, or balanced, you can use related cleaning tips to focus on what’s most natural and productive for you. That way, you’ll simplify your holiday cleaning, de-stress — and max your enjoyment.

Which Style Is Most Like You?

Style 1:  ‘Everything has to be sparkling clean and in place.’

Cleaning personality: Strives for perfection, wants the home dressed to impress 
If there was an award for the most effort and the highest standards in home cleaning for a holiday gathering, this personality would win hands down. These hosts pay attention to every detail in every area: intensive housewide cleaning, extensive color-coordinated decorating, and anticipation of everyone’s preferences. Kind of like running a five-star boutique hotel with no housekeeping staff.

Watch out for this: “With a perfectionist, there can be a lot of frustration, because you never feel finished or satisfied, even after all the fabulous cleaning you’ve done,” says Debbie Sardone, owner of SpeedCleaning.com and former owner of Buckets & Bows Maid Service in the Dallas area. 

Tips for a less-stressed holiday:

Style 2: ‘Focus on the key areas, but let’s not go overboard.’

Cleaning personality: Aims for balance in home prep, seeks shortcuts
The hard part of balance is maintaining it. It’s so easy to lean too far in either direction — cleaning too much or too little or being distracted by things that aren’t that important. And before these hosts know it, a shortcut or miscalculation results in something like a fridge with a funky odor. They overlooked it, but their guests looking for milk for their morning coffee got a noseful. Eww.

Watch out for this: “Because people with this style aren’t obsessed with every detail, they tend to do surface cleaning only,” Sardone says. “They may have tidied up the home and put items away, but the floors may still be dirty and tables dusty.”

Tips for a less-stressed holiday:

Style 3: ‘A relaxed vibe is just right to make everyone feel at home.’ 

Cleaning personality: Seeks to do the bare minimum, embraces casual hosting
It’s great to make your guests feel at home. These hosts are relaxed and casual, which can put everyone at ease. But an extreme hands-off approach spells trouble. Super-laid-backed hosts may not do enough activities like decluttering — and that can invite stress. Now that’s a holiday guest you don’t want.

Watch out for this: Relaxed hosts may not have the most clean houses, but they aren’t about being pretentious. “Work smart, not hard” is their motto, Sokolowski says. They want guests to feel welcome and right at home, even if a little clutter comes with the territory.

Tips for a less-stressed holiday:

Make your holiday cleaning style work for you. Once you know your problem areas and plan some workarounds, you’ll accomplish more with your home cleaning time and be happier with the results — and the holidays.

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