How to Clean for Unexpected Guests

Learning to posture ourselves as open—open to loving our neighbors well, welcoming them into our home, and doing life with them—shifts our mindset. Instead of avoiding, we begin to expect unexpected guests. While we talk often about slowly embracing a missional lifestyle, taking baby steps and trusting that God is growing something rich and beautiful in us—today I’d like to dive into a very practical component of our response to mission: how to clean your house for unexpected guests.

It used to be that if a knock on the door echoed through the house we pretended like we weren’t home unless we were expecting someone. I felt no obligation to face a stranger, assuming it would without fail be someone dropping off a package or trying to sell us something. So I beckoned my toddler girls to step away from the front window and wait in silence until the knock subsided, and then we would check the door for any left-behind evidence of someone having been there.

When I opened the door only when we expected a friend to stop by, I could prepare by power-cleaning before their estimated time of arrival. But welcoming an unexpected knock means opening the door without five-minutes of emergency hustle to tidy the space. And that can feel really vulnerable, especially when my house is overrun by clutter, crumbs, and zillion teeny tiny toys.

But how do I balance house-cleaning with being a welcoming and hospitable neighbor? How much cleaning should I do or not do? How can I keep my house in some semblance of order with limited time and an intention to be available and interruptible?

Here are a few tips from what I’ve been learning along the way.

1. Define your priorities.

You know you best. What are the minimum items that you want to be taken care of to feel at peace in your own home? For me, it’s bathrooms and dishes. It matters more to me that the bathroom is presentable than it does if all the toys are off the couch. I’d prefer dirty dishes to be contained to the sink at least. After bathrooms and dishes, I prioritize floors. We don’t have any pets, so crumbs from endless kid snacks multiply very fast. Walking through all the crumbs is not my favorite, and I’d like visitors to not have to brush crumbs from their feet either.

Once you’ve defined your house-cleaning priorities, it’s easier to not let unfair expectations weigh you down. Be grateful that there are no toys in the bathroom even if they are everywhere else in your house. Focus on the wiped down counter even if you haven’t cleaned the floor for a few days.

The goal is to be able to be relaxed and at peace in your living space. If our contentment is based on a list that can never get done, we rob ourselves of the joy of actually living, and our to-do list overshadows our relationships. So determine your must-dos for you to be able to relax, and accept that all the other things on your cleaning list don’t have to be done before your neighbors can enter your space.

2. Minimize unnecessary stuff.

I heard it from the experts long before I tested it in my own home. I eyed the piles on the counter disheartened, knowing that most of it could be tossed in the trash yet dreading the work of actually going through it. To keep mail off the counter I eventually found a basket to contain it . . . and that basket, overflowing with mail that I should have tossed sooner became another neglected, albeit contained, pile. Minimizing unnecessary stuff takes work upfront, and some work for the upkeep, but I now know from experience that it truly does make it so much easier to keep the house presentable.

Myquillyn Smith, The Nester and author of Cozy Minimalist Home, shares this:

“Less stuff not only simplifies my home but also simplifies my life.”

This is a great principal to apply to cleaning your home for unexpected visitors. If you do the work of getting rid of what does not benefit your space, you will have far less stuff to keep organized. In the long run, your house will feel lighter, and you will feel lighter as well.

3. Set a 10-minute timer.

We started with an idea from Google and a set of sand timers purchased from Amazon. We used them for school, timeout, and an array of other things. Now that the kids are a little older, we’ve revisited using a timer and implemented 10-minute power cleans. Ten minutes flies by, and when we are all working together to put things away, we can make a noticeable dent in the mess. If your house being semi-clean makes it easier for you to open your front door, try a ten-minute power clean once or twice a day.

4. Welcome visitors anyways.

Is your house in the middle of renovations? Is it a day that even with your priorities named a ten-minute power clean can’t salvage the damage? Do you have a newborn or toddler who just won’t sleep and you are more than exhausted? My advice to you, and to myself, is to welcome visitors anyways.

This last tip is not always easy, but when I embrace it, choosing connection over a clean house, something just feels right inside. The days I feel way behind on everything are opportunities to be real, to still open my door, to let my mess be seen.

Showing up real sets the precedent for the depth of your friendships with your neighbors. It invites your guests to join you, pretenses aside, and it also helps them brave opening their own doors to embrace connection. Likewise, when we are authentic and accessible, our lives have greater impact. Our proximity to Jesus rubs off on those we allow to be proximate to us.

I know that opening your door when your house doesn’t feel clean can feel really intimidating. It was for me for so many years. Use these tips to guide you, but give yourself grace to go at your own pace. Your exact baby steps are between you and God. And He will be with through every single one.

Before we pray, I want to share a few verses I’ve read recently during my morning routine. I hope they encourage your heart as you begin to expect unexpected visitors in your own home.

“Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you.”

– 1 Peter 5:7, TPT

“Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful servants of the many-colored tapestry of God’s grace.”

– 1 Peter 4:10, TPT

“But you are God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world.”

– 1 Peter 2:9, TPT

Let’s pray.

Thank you, Lord, that we get the opportunity to “broadcast [Your] glorious wonders” right in our own neighborhoods. We get to be part of Your mission—to demonstrate through the way we live and the words we say that You are near and You are good. As we let go of our expectations of how clean our house must be before we welcome guests inside, would You be the wind that steers us? Show us what to hold tightly to and what to let go. Remind us that You never leave us and, as 1 Peter 4:14 promises, “the Spirit of glory and power, who is the Spirit of God, rests upon [us].” In Your holy and precious name we pray, Lord. Amen.

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P.S. Did you know that The Uncommon Normal is also available as a podcast? Tune in to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to listen!

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