Culture Lifestyle

Create an Inviting Home

By: ArabLounge Staff

Making sure you have an inviting and welcoming home isn’t exactly one of those necessities in life, but it sure does make life so much more pleasing and engaging.

After all, when inviting over a love interest or that special someone, having a messy, dilapidated and dark home can really give off the wrong message.

You don’t want to be the person whose home no one ever wants to visit or are scared to visit.

For many Arabs, having a home they can be proud of and inviting people over is a given. Most want to have a place where people enjoy being in, one where you can proudly show to someone without any hesitance.

Here are a few quick tips when trying to make your home as inviting as possible to dates or other love interests:

1) Let there be light: If you’ve got windows, use them to your advantage. There’s nothing as flattering as natural light, and having a light, airy place makes it not only seem bigger but cleaner.

Try not to cover your windows with large furniture or heavy drapes. You can always have blinds to keep out most of the sun, but try to keep them open during the daytime.

2) Throw out the clutter: Have you got two months worth of newspaper piling up in your kitchen? Or who’s ever cleaned out that sorry-looking hookah in the corner?

Having a cluttered place can give off the impression that you’re a pack rat and can never throw anything away. It also shows you don’t take care of your possessions and clean up after yourself—that’s bad if you want to have a real future with this person.

Try to tidy up after yourself and throw out or give away whatever you don’t need or use. Clean up all the areas where food is lying around, and make sure everything is in an organized place.

3) Make sure your house smells nice: There’s nothing worse than stepping into a stinky hole in the ground—otherwise known as your place.

Clean up all old laundry, put away food dishes, throw out any mysterious food in your fridge, and make sure all the rooms are smelling as fresh as a daisy.

There really is nothing worse than being in a place you can’t stand being in, so don’t subject anyone to that by bringing them to your smelly house.

4) Have plenty of food: One key to having a place people always want to be at, is having plenty of delicious food and being a gracious host along with it.

Stock your fridge, cabinets and pantries with lots of snacks, veggies, dips, hummus, sodas, juices, healthy snack mixes, pasta and anything else you can think of.

Make sure to throw out anything expired and to restock when you need to. Offering a person a refreshing drink or a plate of food is sure to make a good impression.

5) Make the guest feel comfortable: Offer them whatever you think you might want when you go to a person’s house. The best thing is to take their coat or jacket first and offer them something to drink.

Even if they insist they’re not hungry, bring out a plate of snacks so they can eat, and offer them whatever else you think appropriate.

Be friendly, offer to show them around, and most importantly, be comfortable. If you seem relaxed, then they know they can be too.