Someone is staying over for Thanksgiving, and the spare room is currently storage with a bed in it. Think of it less as decorating and more as setting up a good hotel room: a handful of things that need to work. Go through this list in order and it takes about an hour.
The bed
Clean sheets. Strip everything, including the mattress protector, and make it up fresh. Not the sheets that are “probably fine.” Wash the pillowcases on hot, and if the pillows are completely flat, replace them; a new pillow is about the cheapest hospitality upgrade there is.
Layers. Sheet, blanket, duvet, and a throw (on Amazon) folded at the foot of the bed. People sleep warm or cold, and layers let them sort it out without touching your thermostat.
The bathroom
Towels where they can see them. One bath towel, one hand towel and one washcloth per person, stacked on the bed or the bathroom counter. Guests won’t go looking in your linen closet; they’ll quietly reuse a damp towel instead. If they’re sharing a bathroom with the household, a small basket labeled “guest” avoids early-morning confusion.
A tray of things people forget. A spare toothbrush, travel toothpaste, deodorant, a razor, contact lens solution, ibuprofen and bandages. A travel-size multipack lasts for years of guests, and this tray gets noticed more than anything else in the room.
The practical things
A charger that reaches the bed. A power strip or multi-port charger (on Amazon) on the nightstand with both USB-C and Lightning cables. This matters more than almost anything else here.
A night light and the wifi password. A plug-in night light (on Amazon) in the hall between the guest room and the bathroom, so nobody walks into furniture at 2 a.m. A card on the nightstand with the network name and password, and if there’s a TV, a note that the streaming apps are already logged in.
The welcoming part
A small basket. A bottle of water, one sweet and one salty snack, the TV remote if there is one, and a short handwritten note welcoming them by name. The note is what people remember.
Clear surfaces. The top of the dresser, the nightstand, one closet shelf and two empty drawers. Guests need somewhere to put their things. The old cables and magazines can spend the weekend in a bin in your closet.
A note for the morning. On the kitchen counter: where the coffee is, that they should help themselves, and roughly when you’ll be up. Put out a couple of mugs, and write down the door code or leave a spare key if they might go out. Nobody wants to tiptoe around a sleeping house wondering whether they’re allowed to make coffee.