Whether wanted or unwanted, holiday house guests have a way of hogging the bathroom, overcrowding your coat closet and taking over the kitchen because they just have to prepare their famous glazed carrots on the same stovetop you’re trying to fry up some latkes.
They can also take over power outlets, forget to turn off the lights, and mess with your thermostat when you aren’t looking. In other words, not only do house guests get in your way, they can waste money and energy too. Happy holidays!
This holiday season, I’m working with ENERGY STAR to encourage the purchase of eco-friendly electronics, plus offer helpful energy saving tips for your holiday house guests.
Maybe post these rules on the front door and then quiz your in-laws before they’re allowed to come inside?
Just a thought.
16 RULES FOR HOLIDAY HOUSE GUESTS
1. Please turn off lights in the house when they are not in use. If you like raiding the fridge in the middle of the night, I don’t want more evidence of your late night munchies other than the half-eaten pecan pie.
2. If you decide to cook three hundred holiday cookies to feed the entire neighborhood, please open a window if the kitchen gets too hot. Do not turn on the air conditioner except in case of menopausal emergency.
3. If you do open the window, please close it when your baking fury is over. so we don’t let all the heat out of the house.
4. If your toddler insists on using the same monkey-themed flatware for every meal, please rinse it out in the sink as opposed to running a half full dishwasher just to appease your hell-raising little monster.
5. If you like to go to sleep to the soothing sounds of late night infomercials, please try to hit the “off” button in the seconds before you doze off. There is no reason our TV should be wasting energy on pajama jeans or Bowflex when nobody is listening.
6. As important as it is for your children to wear their Christmas PJs every night, wait until the hamper is full before you load the washer and dryer. Running the wash for half a load wastes both energy and water.
7. Please set all smart devices (phones, tablets, laptops) to the power management mode. This will ensure the device goes to sleep when you do.
8. Please spend less time daydreaming about how your pacifier cleaning invention would do on Shark Tank and more time actually washing your body and getting the hell out of the shower.
9. If you and your family really insist on long hot showers, please take them together.
10. When you are watching your Christmas movie marathon, please stream from your tablet or laptop instead of a gaming console. Streaming from a game console uses ten times more energy than streaming from a laptop or tablet.
11. I don’t care what happens to your child’s brain if he spends 24 hours a day playing Minecraft but please know that shutting down your iPad and saving battery life by making him build a city with real life blocks is good for the environment too.
12. Everybody wishes their phone battery was 100% charged at all times and god forbid you should miss your ex-boyfriend’s holiday office party on snapchat, but if the earth had a say, it would tell you to unplug that thing and let it drain every once and awhile.
13. Please don’t hold your picky eating toddler up to the fridge with the door wide open while he contemplates and rejects every option in there. That’s three hours of energy that would be better spent elsewhere.
14. Do not fiddle with the thermostat! We have it set to 70 degrees and programmed to dial back the temperature when we are asleep or out of the house. If you have problem with this, take it up with management as opposed to taking it into your own hands.
15. Although we love the twenty foot light up Santa you gave us for the holidays, we are more than happy with our energy saving LED light strings, so do not be offended if we regift him back to you next Christmas.
16. As much as I love the Yule Tide log on television, I’d much rather watch an actual fire.
In addition to following basic energy saving rules for your home (and hopefully spreading the good word via your house guests), look for the ENERGY STAR label on your favorite brands when shopping for lights, home electronics and home entertainment products this holiday season.
The best gifts are good for the environment and the ENERGY STAR label means the product is designed and certified to save energy, save money and protect the climate while delivering all the latest features. In fact, ENERGY STAR home electronics are 25% more efficient.
If each TV, DVD player, and home theater system purchased in the U.S. this year earned the ENERGY STAR, we would prevent nearly two billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions every year, equal to the emissions from more than 175,000 cars.
Visit energystar.gov/holiday to learn more energy saving tips and what home electronics make the most eco-friendly gifts this holiday season.
Giveaway: Energy star certified wireless sound bar
I’m giving away an ENERGY STAR certified wireless sound bar from Samsung (value: $227) in the comments below! (Actual sound bar might differ from pic above.)
You must be a Mommy Shorts subscriber to enter. Then leave a comment telling me the most egregious thing a holiday guest has ever done in your home!
Winner will be announced on December 18th, 2015.
Winner Update:
Congrats to Stephanie Hare! Please contact pam@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.
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This post was sponsored by Energy Star, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Stay for three weeks. Ha.
My sister in law threw out a container of saffron in our spice cabinet because she thought they were just “little red worms.”
This is actually the first time we are having a big Christmas at our home, which is very exciting and a little stressful. However, for my daughter’s birthday this year we had some out of town friends stay and one of them took 6 30-45 minute showers the weekend they stayed with us, Friday night-Monday morning. 6 showers for one person in less than 36 hours, plus his wife showered a few times and they gave their son a bath one night (my family and the other 2 families we had staying the weekend bathed as well). Needless to say, our water bill was a little high that month.
My extended family is notorious for coming in while I am trying to get things done and cleaned up and piling their stuff anywhere that is useful to them. It drives me nuts that I just cleaned off the kitchen Island and they show up and their are bags and boxes galore set on it, especially when we have others coming over and I do not want the mess! Our guests also think electricity is free and leaves the lights on in every room they have been in.
Lately when my Mom visits she ends up going into the guest room and shutting the door and then is in there for a majority of the visit. This has been driving me nuts because I cannot understand why she would visit and then not be present!
Poopy diaper left on a high shelf in the bedroom, just out of sight. Weeks later we finally figured out the source of the mystery smell.
I actually have two. First, when my aunt visited I made this special apple cake dessert, one of those desserts that you never make because it is so time consuming. While it was cooling, she went in and helped herself to a piece- from the MIDDLE, she didn’t even cut it neatly, it looked like she scooped it out with her bare hands. It was suppose to be my fancy dessert for the housefull of guests coming for dinner. Instead, I bought a cake from the grocery store.
Second- my mother in law will not leave our thermostat alone, she constantly turns it up to 76, even at night. We are sweltering, our bill is climbing higher and higher and she is still complaining how cold she is!
The worst thing a house guest has done is actually to inappropriate for me to even mention, I’ll say the second worst was overstay what was suppose to be 2 weeks ended up being 6 months.
We haven’t ever had people stay for more than the day of, but I am not afraid to call people out or kick them out, either. Even family. I’m often the one saying “Okay, everybody, time to go!” even if I’m not the host. Everybody in my family loves me, so I think that’s why I get away with it.
I work full time and have a 1 yr old son and 3 yr old daughter who take up a lot of my “free time”.
Needless to say, but I will anyway, my house isn’t spotless…or even close to it.
One of my guests took the liberty of buying one of those cheap plastic brooms and mop from Wal-mart and left it as a “gift” for me in my kitchen.
It wasn’t until later that I noticed writing on each of them.
On the broom: The guest traced their hands for where I should place mine and wrote “Move back and forth on floor.”
On the mop: Simply, “For use when your feet stick to the floor.”
I was on call for Work on Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. My in laws insisted we be all be together, so they decided to bring Thanksgiving to our house. They insisted (again) that they would bring all the food and that we do nothing. Well, they showed up 2 hours late to our house, with the turkey still needing an additional 2 hours of cooking time. Needless to say, our toddler was asleep during our eventual dinner and the screamed throughout the very late dessert. And then I was called back into work before getting my pumpkin pie.
My mother, last thanksgiving, commented after dinner how she would love to come stay for a week or so sometime. (She’s one state away) I replied, “That’d be fun! We should do that! ” then, she looks over at my brother who rises, walks to his car, and pulls her packed suitcase out of the trunk. Not cool. Not cool at all.
I had a house guest visit, and while I was at work she rearranged all my kitchen cupboards. (moved glasses, plates, food, everything!) AND moved pictures I hung on the walls. When I asked why, she said, don’t be upset, I’m helping you do things the right way! (I had lived there for three years already, apparently I had decorated wrong for all that time!)
I asked my guests if they wanted to take any left over food home and someone actually took the food – like, all of it. I was relying on some of those leftovers for lunch for a few days!
A few years ago my sister came to visit with her boyfriend for a few days. She ended up needing to have emergency gallbladder surgery and ended up staying another two weeks to recover. It was a bit much since her very large boyfriend kept eating everything in the house but anything for family right? Well it gets better. One morning I woke up to find her boyfriend crying on my couch with her nowhere to be found. She had broken up with him and left for home leaving him stranded with no money two hundred miles from anyone he knew. He ended up stuck at our house for almost another month before I broke down and spent almost $100 to send him home on a bus.
My mother-in-law came to stay with us our first Christmas in a new house. I came home from work to find she had re-organized my linen closet b/c she couldn’t find the 10 washcloths she needed to have in the bathroom. Then, while looking at photo of me from college (10 years before) remarked that she guessed “some people’s faces get rounder as they get older or maybe just as they gain weight”. I was four months pregnant at the time. Her final criticism was of my insensitivity in choosing a stainless flatware set that did not include a left-handed butter knife!
The most offensive action our house guest ever did was let her dog lay on our furniture and in the guest bed. We love pets but not on our furniture. Also, we found some lovely goldmines in the yard after they had left! So much fun ????
While out for the morning I came home and my mother in law had let my daughter open several Christmas presents because “they wanted to.” W. T. F!?!?!
At our New Year’s party a (adult!) guest threw the decorative confetti around the room. We were still finding it when we sold our house 4 years later…
We had a pair of guests make whoopie in the shower.
10. When you are watching your Christmas movie marathon, please stream from your tablet or laptop instead of a gaming console. Streaming from a game console uses ten times more energy than streaming from a laptop or tablet.
I had no idea! This is great info!
Also, house guests: I remember as a kid, we had 2 boy cousins that came to visit that were probably 7 & 9, and one of them peed on the mattress and never told anyone! My parents ended up throwing out the mattress and we all secretly called them “The Urinators” for years.
One of our house guests took a six pack to the back patio and sat outside drinking and smoking cigars. When he was done, he came inside and returned the leftover beer to the fridge. Little did I know that he had used the six pack cardboard carrier as his ashtray… The night after his departure, I went to pull the cardbord carrier out of the fridge to grab a beer, and the inside of my fridge and kitchen floor were covered with cigar ashes.
Christine Simington – I think you take the cake. That is AWFUL!
I’ve got a regular houseguest ( whom I’d like not to see, EVER again) who always does at least 2 of the following at each visit:
-plugs the toilet
-leaves the front door open, repeatedly (it’s winter, and we’re in Canada)
-leaves all lights on/ possibly fridge open as well
-his hotspot ‘doesn’t work so well’ so I feel obliged to let him onto our wifi… an expensive decision
-will let out any pet that shouldn’t go out
-will feed kids with allergies, whatever is convenient for him
-the grand slam (for me).. will toss homemade chicken stock down the drain ’cause he thought it was dirty dishwater. ( Because I’d save that in a tupperware…)
Instead of using eye makeup remover and cotton balls, my in-law stained our white washcloths.
Posted this on Facebook, too but not sure of the contest rules so here goes:
Sigh. Hands down, it was when my (ex!) brother in law decided to pop in (surprise!) from Germany and stay with us. While I had a one year old. In a two bedroom apartment. For an undetermined amount of time. While he worked on his house (he owned a cabin close enough to commute daily). He’d come home every night covered in construction debris and get into bed, without showering. “Americans shower far too often and ruin the body’s natural oils”. You’re ruining my natural cotton sheets, you butthead.
The icing on the cake? When his wife and two teenage boys also flew over. No notice was given to us, we just came home from work and Surprise! Three extra adults! Long story short he was there for four months, and his family was there for in excess of six weeks. They maybe showered twice during this time. Whenever I voiced a concern I was being, “a typical American, too concerned with superficial values.”
To this day I could still choke my ex for his spineless responses to his much older brother.
they got sloppy drunk & told EVERY relative EXACTLY what they thought of them……for an hour before they were asked to leave 🙁
Our house guests always use all the hot water and monopolize the TV! Can’t complain too much though- most of them love to cook!!
Thankfully all of our family lives close by so we don’t have overnight guests, but my family is notoriously early, like showing up hours before dinner is served and we have yet to finish cleaning and setting up the house, let alone shower and dress ourselves. His family is notoriously late to the point we are always waiting on them to eat and they always seem to arrive as my family is talking smack about their lateness. The last time I asked my MIL to bring the potatoes, she brought a 5 lb bag of uncooked mashed potatoes that still needed to be boiled for 35 mins before they were ready to serve and we already 50 mins late on serving dinner! To combat this, I don’t ask the in-laws to bring anything and we tell different family members different start times so that everybody actually shows up around the same time.!
My son is a very light sleeper and the guest room has a “jack and jill” style bathroom that is shared with my son’s room. Despite me telling my mother and father in law that my son is a light sleeper and requesting (nicely) that they wait til morning to shower or shower earlier, they insist on staying up late (midnight or later) and then showering, which inevitably wakes my son. To which they are always surprised and wonders “why he is crying”.
The worst I guess would be coming over for breakfast when we invite you for lunch, refusing to eat the breakfast we had (cinnamon buns) and then complaining for the next 2+ years that we invited you for breakfast but didn’t give you anything to eat.
Or…
Come over and sit on the couch away from everyone else, look miserable, and speak to no one (except to complain/criticize) literally every time you are invited for anything.
Then complain that I told someone I didn’t like you.
Thank goodness for everyone else that comes over.
Oh my goodness, for that second issue- perhaps my MIL is related to your family member. Because that sounds very familiar! Lol
A child wiped their ice cream fingers all over our glass door while a parent stood by and watched without saying a word. So you can imagine how the rest of the house looked!
When your guests plant themselves in front of your tv all weekend 😛
I think the most offense thing we had a house guest do was throw out our dog’s bed while she was watching our dog while we were on vacation. Our dog will tear up a new bed with a few days but once she gets the way she likes it she stops. So her bed looked rough and one day while we were gone our guest just threw out the dog’s bed and then threw a couple of nice (brand new) comforters in the cage and I came home to my dog cages filled with comforter stuffing. When I asked her why she threw out the bed she said because it looked old and awful. I sent her a picture of the destroyed comforters this is why her bed looked looked so bad she chewed it up to how she likes it and she said it wasnt her fault that my dog chews up bedding. I was furious I told her to replace to the comforters, she refused, I havent talked to her since.
My mother in law came to stay with us after my daughter was born. We don’t necessarily get along but i welcomed what I thought would be help anyway. She did not help with my daughter one bit, however she made sure her “baby” was taken care of and complained every time my husband had to do any house work.
My mother is always cold. Instead of bundling up, she leaves a space heater on in her room all day/night. I constantly sneak into her room to turn it off whenever possible. … upshot is that at least she doesn’t force is to turn up the heat for the entire house.
We tried the space heater, she had that on 24/7 AND turned up our thermostat. She said it’s because she is from AZ and we lived in WY. Would have made sense except she kept her AC set to 68 year round, so why did my house have to be 76?!? Lol
I’m so glad I’ve never had some of these guests- worst I’ve ever had is either the kids running around outside and bringing muddy shoes inside- or just not leaving until late (and I just wanted to sleep!).
My grandmother always offers up leftovers afterThanksgiving dinner. My cousin and her boyfriend immediately got up from the table and went to the kitchen to prepare their take home bags. Only much later after they left did we all realize they had taken ALL the leftovers. Every. Last. Bit.
The classic my friend was staying with us. She asked if her new boyfriend could stay too. Long store ahort we heard them all night long! Yikes. Save the love making for your own bed!!
I don’t have anything too crazy but I did host thanksgiving last year two weeks postpartum and my SIL ignored my instructions to bring your dishes prepared and only the oven would be available for heating. She always shows up with all her ingredients and then uses every utensil and dish in my kitchen to prepare something gross that no one wants and then I have to clean it all up. She tried to claim that my kids like to cook with her. Don’t drag them into this!!
My great grandma gives the toddlers soda. Makes me crazy.
Oh my! We’ve only had guests for one Thanksgiving, and happily everyone was well-behaved. Hopefully reading the list of awful things that others have had to deal with will make it easier if something minor happens in the future…
My aunt walked over to the thermostat and TURNED IT UP BY ABOUT 30 DEGREES. Aside from that, no crazy stories, lol.
My mother comes and starts never ending sewing projects on my dining room table with pins and needles all over my dining room and living room. My husband gets LIVID at me for the pins and needles.
My in-laws love to come in my house and make the biggest mess when cooking or having coffee. They use every pan in the house known to man to make spaghetti and meatballs and then just pile all of the dirty dishes in the sink for me to clean. The best part is every time they come to visit they love to leave their dirty coffee spoons on my white counter and it is now stained. Gotta love family.
We had a house guest bring their own food once because they didn’t think we would be able to cook up to her standards. Her loss.
He thought my guest room was my bathroom and peed in my carpet. He was intoxicated.
Last year at our family Christmas party my 2 year old niece decided my vast collection of Lush bath products were toys and successfully smashed over $100 worth of bubble bars and bath bombs. She looked very proud of herself and smelled like roses and lavender. This is more my own fault for even buying that many luxury soaps to begin with.
Nothing, because we don’t have room for house guests ????????
My step father eft the bathroom door ajar and unlocked when going to the bathroom and not saying anything until I opened the door all the way to find him peeing. Side note I had my 2 month old daughter on me in my carrier at the time.
The only Christmas guest we ever have is my Grandpa and he has never done anything egregious – he is too sweet!
My mother-in-law is a VERY early riser. She tiptoes around for awhile, but by 6 or 6:30, she gets bored and decides it’s time for the rest of us to get up. Her method to achieve this? Bacon. And coffee. She gets it rolling, the whole house smells great, and then you realize that IT’S STILL DARK OUTSIDE! Why? Why is it bacon-y before the sun comes up? Nonetheless, we all get up and stumble downstairs, for a very early, enormous breakfast.
Re-arranged my living room!
Fall asleep and snore very loudly..
An adult wet the bed.
In his prayer at the table before dinner, my uncle strayed a bit. Referencing the “mainstream media” in his blessing. That was a first!
Leaving the bed undone!! I get that I will be washing the sheets but still! Do not leave the guest room looking like a mess. Happens almost everytime!
Follow me around the house watching and commenting on everything that I was doing!
This will be our first holiday hosting our in laws… so I may have an answer to this question in a few weeks.
We do not host, so nothing.
Leave a mess EVERYWHERE they go for me to clean it all up after them.
My in laws (MIL, FIL, SIL and her hubby) and my husband and daughter were all having dinner, and a discussion came up about my SIL’s in laws. They talked about future kids, and what babysitting will be like between 2 sets of grandparents. My SIL must’ve said something about her in laws that caused my MIL to say something about being lucky that she is here with my children. Why was this upsetting? Because I was 3 months pregnant, my mother passed away and my father had Alzheimers. I thought she was being quite insensitive in the way that she said it, and even if she didn’t mean it that way, she could have apologized to me as I walked away crying. I got no apologies for 1 week. Instead what was discussed at the dinner table after I left was my husband’s inheritance and other nonsense when my husband stood up for me. I still don’t like it when holidays roll around and we have dinner plans.
holiday house guests haven’t been to bad actually! though some regular family guests anticts i could do without. like coming out of the master (which has its own full bath) to take my bathroom over (the only other bathroom in the house) right when i need it to get my son to school. And i can’t use hers since i wouldn’t dare go into the master they are using while here.
At a recent family event, a relative took a lot of my decorations and moved them around the way they thought the looked best. I noticed something was off when they left and blamed my 4 sons of the prank. They swore it wasn’t them. Found out who the culprit was when they bragged about it to another relative.
I don’t offer to host family events because then I’d have to clean up after a bunch of people. I already have an 11 month old, 2 year old and a 28 year old man-child to clean up after!! That’s enough for me!
Drink all the wine. :'(
I haven’t ever been able to have holiday guests. I could only imagine what my friends and family could be capable of!
Passing out after one too many drinks and not leaving when we are clearly ready to go to bed.
How about gorging on all the sweets and cookies set aside in containers to use as gifts? Luckily I noticed the tins were awfully light when I picked them up to take to the party as it would have been very embarrassing to take the crumbs and some half eaten cookies.
I hate it when guests don’t take their shoes off and walk all over with their dirty shoes.
Reading those make me so glad I’ve never had to deal with hosueguests! Our place is too small for us as it is. We rent a 2 bedroom, my husband and I have 3 kids, so needless to say it’s a tight squeeze for just us 😛
My mother in law refuses to use my “too fancy” Kitchen aid Mixer and instead always makes me dig out her ancient hand blender that smells like burning plastic when it runs. Happy Holidays!
Family is nearby so overnight guests are rare, but leaving used dishes all over someone’s house drives me nuts. We have young kids so we rarely drink things other than water outside of the kitchen. When my kids start ‘helping’ me by bringing your half full mugs of coffee, tea, cups of juice, half eaten plates of food… well, it’s creates an even bigger mess. At least leave the dishes in a place where we can easily see them.
We also get the ‘we know you both work and are extremely busy so we’ll help’ bit. Appreciated when you ask what we could use help with. Not appreciated when you reorganize because you don’t like our system. Not appreciated when you use my indoor broom (which has been clearly labeled indoor use only after reoccurring incidents) to sweep the garage or clean up the half eaten rabbit the cat left on the back stoop (we have outdoor brooms for a reason!). Really not appreciated when you ‘weed’ all the small plants I started from seed. Please don’t weed for someone unless you really know your plants!
He had very stinky feet that stunk up the whole room and asked me if I had any Fabreeze for them! I gave him tea tree oil and pointed to the shower. Then when he left he asked if he could keep the oil! Lmao!
Getting sick from over-indulging in alcohol, but not cleaning the toilet. Yuck.
Staying up all night drinking and laughing loudly in the room next to mine when they know I have to be up for work at 5am.
When I was a teenager, my mother had someone staying on our couch for a while. While I was staying with my father for a week they went in to my bedroom and stole my father’s old wedding band, a video camera, and some other things. Needless to say, I was pretty upset!
Ugh. I’ve been the horrible house guest before….
When I was in college, I brought this kitten I had rescued with me to my grandparents house for Thanksgiving. It was used to my small apartment and I was afraid it would get lost in their large house, so I kept her in the bedroom. Well she must have been mad so she peed on the really nice down comforter on the bed! I tried to clean it up, but I’m sure it was obvious.
I walked into my bedroom (door was cracked) to find my 82 year old grandmother making out with her boyfriend. On my bed. Nuff said.
Sleeping on the couch until noon…
Had my MIL and my teenage nephew over for Christmas two years ago. We learned the hard way that with just my husband and I; we needed a lock for our cable pay per view…we never order anything. The next month I got a bill for the 6 movies the walking hormone rented..two of them were not just rated R either.
I don’t think I have any horror stories – but we also never invite people over so that might have something to do with it.
Stay for two weeks and said they would help cover the cost of all the extra meals (3 meals/day plus snacks) for their family of 3. Left me a $20 bill.
Brought their toddler who had ring worm without telling us until over 24 hours into the visit.
While staying with us their dogs chewed up so many of my daughters toys. No pets with guests anymore!
We had an unopened can of Borden’s Eggnog, my mom’s favorite. In the middle of the night, another guest saw it in the fridge, got excited to have some, & after he popped it open realized he didn’t know what to do with the rest of it, so HE DRANK THE ENTIRE THING! An entire quart of eggnog!
I guess we’ve been pretty lucky in our house guests. The worst thing I can think of, my sister broke all the baby locks on our kitchen drawers and seemed to think it was funny, didn’t even offer to replace them.
Left their dirty clothes and towel on the bathroom floor, for housekeeping (me) to pick up.
Flooding the bathroom. Then pretending they didn’t flood the bathroom. YUK.
My mother in law came over for Thanksgiving one year. She was two hours late and gave my, at the time, 1 year old son her purse to play with. I came into the room and found him playing with her pills. Our thanksgiving ended at the emergency room.
After reading these comments, I consider myself extremely lucky! The worst I can think of: my MIL asking me to do their laundry.
Our house is crazy at holiday time!
My sister comes with her three daughters, and my brother comes with three sons. Then my brother-in-law comes with his toddlers twins. (Girl and boy)
The boys sleep in Joseph’s room. (He’s six)
The girls sleep in Allie and Brooke’s room. (2, and 4)
Six little girls all under the age of seven, Five little boys all under the age of seven. Add in one great grandma who makes kids hyper, add my pregnant sister, mix well, and cringe.
When your 3 year old niece decides that we must talk about DORA at the dinner table and we all have no idea what to say
Or
When your pregnant sis has cravings and eats half of the stuff in your fridge.