Taking your home's temperature

Hotels succeed in providing superior hospitality services by inspecting and maintaining their spaces regularly. Ultimately, hotels create a backdrop for visits that unfold to perfection because their rooms and infrastructure are immaculately maintained.

Just as hotels pay close attention to hotel health, the Hotels to Home lifestyle cherishes the value of a home’s vibrancy. When is the last time your home had a wellness visit? A dedicated time to review previous wear and tear, as well as designing a plan to ensure future home-life vitality?

Think beyond housekeeping and cleaning focus instead on the structure and infrastructure that protects, supports, and coddles inhabitants. Reframe how you think of your domicile. Think of your home as a separate person in your household – are you taking care of the home like a loved one?

First, design the check- up process.

Did you just move in, set up house, and let things go, assuming that all is well? A reactive, rather than proactive, approach to keeping the home health status quo can work for some. However, all one needs to do is think of plumbing or drains to understand how much simpler life is if adhering to a proactive mindset: it’s simpler to flush the drains regularly than call in the professionals to remove a stubborn clog. Let’s add ease to our homelife by inspecting all aspects of the structure and décor consistently. Take a tour of your home and figure what might be remedied so that you, the inhabitant, can enjoy the spoils of a rich and rewarding homelife. Get ahead of the domicile wellness game by reviewing what needs proper time and attention, prior to the disruption of your home’s “illness” – which might take more time and attention than regular maintenance.

Roam your home room by room, space by space, bottom to top and check that all is in good working order.

How often do you walk through your home and out-of-door areas to ensure everything is in good working order? Why not create a seasonal rotation of wellness inspections to ensure an annual or biannual reminder! Some people create a digital journal, so if a new spot appears on the ceiling (or said spot gets bigger, even though it has previously been fixed), they notice and act. The idea here would be to notice the spot before the leak creates a grab-the-bucket moment.

Maintain regular home inspections.

Some households employ a home inspector every five years to address any potential infrastructure issues that lurk on the horizon. This also ensures they are resale ready if they ever put the home on the market (especially important if you have owned the home for several years, as homes can shift or decay behind the scenes of daily living).

Keep in mind that inspections create a baseline of good health, so being thorough is important. Just checking on paint condition or floor quality do not constitute a thorough check. Look at both the obvious and not so obvious during this inspection time. The beauty of this proactive response is that you choose what is most important to your household and lifestyle happiness BEFORE the issue or symptom becomes a greater problem.

Work together to maintain your home’s health.

Now, with your home in excellent working order, how do you maintain its bill of good hospitality health? Hoteliers are continually checking on standard quality to ensure that each guest receives the expected level of service. Shouldn’t we, the VIP guests in our own home, do the same?

Include the people you live with in your home tour too another perspective only broadens the check-up scope. One family likes to divide and conquer by room, or by “sense.” For example, “you check on anything visual (we need new light bulbs in varying fixtures and the ceiling in the livingroom needs a coat of paint), I’ll check on anything related to temperature (the registers need a clean and polish, the furnace filter must be replaced).” Or go in pairs! It’s always fun to see what each other discovers or finds important. Perhaps your partner thinks more about technology adaptations than you do, so they may mention a Wi-Fi update for better connectivity in work or gaming areas. Something you hadn’t thought of becomes a paramount concern in the home’s livability quotient.

Ensure all your spaces are functioning in harmony with each other.

Do the rooms complement each other in usability and décor, or is one room always avoided? Entryways matter and no closet is ever hidden from the homeowner. Love all your spaces in such a way that enjoyment permeates the entire home, no matter where you are within it.

Many may wonder if housekeeping should be included in home health. Hotels to Home lifestyling likens housekeeping to putting an outfit on your healthy body and while it compliments this essay, it can be an entire scheme in and of itself. The icing on the home maintenance cake! However, like home health, keeping a home neat and organized (as defined by the inhabitants) is also best served by a process and includes a consistent approach so you are never left unawares and in a quandary of where to gain a clear and/or conducive space, be it for cooking, working or entertaining.

Give your home a “check-up” today and plan future wellness visits so you and your family can live against the backdrop of stability and comfort. Own your home’s vitality as you would your own.