Besides the house you live in for most of the year, do you own a vacation home, perhaps a beach house or a cabin in the country? If so, count yourself a very lucky duck. It must be really nice to be able to count two homes when somebody says something like, "There's no place like home" or "I love to sleep in my own bed." While it must be great having that second home, there comes additional responsibility with that home, right? From arranging for vacation home cleaning while you're away to setting up some expectations for guests who might use your vacation home, here are some ideas that might help you.

A Vacation Home Cleaning Service - Is your vacation home near a town or city? If so, you can probably easily find a service that will come in to clean your second house while you're away. After all, just because you're gone doesn't mean that spiders won't create amazing webs, and it doesn't mean that dust won't stay away. Consider having a vacation home cleaning service, such as Briggs Clean and Shine, go to your vacation house about once a month, just to give it a light cleaning. When you are expecting guests to use the house, or after you leave it yourself, think of setting up additional vacation home cleaning so that your house will be ready for the next people who will stay there. 

Expectations For Guests - If friends or extended family members will use your house every now and then, don't hesitate to set up some cleaning rules. For example, establish the fact that linens should be left in the laundry room and that a second set of linens is available for beds to be made before guests leave the vacation house. Another important thing to do is to make sure that guests don't leave perishable food in the refrigerator or in the pantry.

Are you brave enough to ask guests to leave a certain amount of money for cleaning the vacation house? If that's offensive to you, of course, don't do it. However, remember that your friends and extended family members more than likely truly appreciate getting to use the house and they will probably be very happy to pay a cleaning fee or at least part of a cleaning fee. You could even leave a clever memo that says something like, "The maid appreciates a generous tip."

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