Teaching God’s Word to our children is useless if we don’t live it out. Throughout Scripture, we see the importance of fellowship with others. Although it’s fun to go out and fellowship through field trips, homeschool co-op or association activities, days in the park, or church activities, there’s nothing that deepens a relationship quite like welcoming others into our home for those times of fellowship.

Whether you’re a natural hostess or are intimidated by welcoming others into your home, here are some tips for ensuring that your home is guest ready at a moment’s notice!

Self-consciousness about a messy home is one of the greatest hindrances to hospitality. So, start by remembering that perfection is not necessary. You live in your home. Be proud of that!

Even so, you can still live in a home that is hospitable to guests at a moment’s notice by putting a chore rotation into place. Make a list of every cleaning job that needs to be done in your home. Break the list up into manageable chunks, assigning each cleaning task to a day. Then, divide up the chores among your family members. Every morning, tackle that day’s chores first thing.
Obviously, this will take more time for families with young children than those with older children. But, it’s a great opportunity to teach your kids how to do chores – and they’ll learn quickly!

The result will be that everything in the house gets cleaned once a week. When company is set to arrive, you’ll just need a quick tidy up to be prepared.

Your menu plan is set. The groceries have been bought. You know what days you’ll need a little more for the planned company, and it fits into the budget just right. Then, an unexpected fellowship opportunity pops up. What to do?

It’s actually not that difficult to remain guest ready in the meal department without breaking the bank or expending a great deal of time and effort. Consider these ideas:

• Keep a few cans each of corn, black or kidney beans, diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, chicken broth, and chicken in the cabinet. Dump all ingredients in a pot, heat thoroughly, and enjoy a nice bowl of easy tortilla soup!
• Always have a meal in the freezer that can feed your family twice over. Make up a crock pot of chili or spaghetti sauce. Put the meal in a freezer bag. When unexpected company shows up, heat a pot of water to boiling and drop the freezer bag directly into the water for a quick, thorough thaw and reheat.
• Keep some cornmeal and a quick, easy cornbread recipe on hand as well, or make sure that there’s always an extra bag of crackers or tortilla chips to round out the meal.
• Try keeping a few snacks on hand like popcorn, pretzels, brownie mixes, or cookie ingredients for when guests drop by between or after meals.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll realize that our schedules frequently prevent spontaneous hospitality. Perhaps it’s time to sit down with the calendar and schedule and make some changes. Determine what is truly important and what is just busyness that robs you of family time, rest, and fellowship with others.

By working margin into your life, recognizing that fellowship is more important than being the perfect hostess, and making sure that there’s always a “company” stash in the pantry or freezer, being guest ready will become an automatic and natural part of life!

You don’t have to have an extroverted, hostess personality to welcome people into your home, but understanding how your personality works does help you learn how to interact well. Take our Planner Personality Quiz to learn more about your planner personality type.