What To Put In A Guest Room (10 Must-Haves)

If you’re over 25, gone are the days when you could throw a blanket and pillow at your friend and they’ll happily crash on your sofa.  

Once you reach full-blown adulthood, a little hospitality and a lot of privacy are the order of the day.

However, creating that sense of privacy and hospitality can leave many of us wondering where to start. Knowing what to put in a guest room makes all the difference.

If you are lucky enough to have a guest bedroom, there’s no doubt you’ll want to use it to its fullest potential.

Here’s how to do it. 

No guest room? No problem. Check out the post “No Guest Room Solutions (4 Ways to Make It Work)“

How To Make Overnight Guests Feel Comfortable

Before we get into a checklist of items for what to put in a guest room, let’s start with the 4 major tenets of modern-day hospitality.

1. Cover all the basics plus a little bit extra.

The easiest way to make sure you’re covering all the basics is to think about a hotel room. Think about everything that is provided for you there and match it.

To give your guest the royal treatment, think about adding a few extra items.

Consider arranging a guest room basket with snacks and toiletries. Or, add a small vase with flowers, or a plush faux fur throw blanket.

2. Make everything accessible.

Anything you want to make available for guests should be accessible. Not only should you make sure everything is within reach, but if it is not provide a step stool so that they can reach it.

Also, if you have childproofed your home, consider temporarily removing locks from guest bathroom drawers and closets.

3. Make Wi-Fi information available.

Connectivity is a necessity these days. Make wi-fi access easy by printing and posting a wifi access card with your network credentials for guests.

An easy way to do this is to print your network name and password and put it in a small picture frame that resides in the guest bedroom.

This makes getting your guests online easy for everyone involved. By placing the framed credentials on a nightstand, guests won’t feel like they’re bothering you by asking for login info in the middle of the night.

A wifi access card should be one of the first things on your checklist of what to put in a guest room.

4. Make ample space in the bedroom, closet, and bathroom.

In general, the longer the stay, the more space you need to make available. This is because your guest will need to bring more with them for a longer stay.

For example, a guest staying overnight may not be planning to wash their hair and therefore may not need a hair dryer, flat iron, rollers, or any of the other products a lady might need for a wash day.

On the other hand, if your guest is planning on staying for a week or more, they may very well need these things.

As a result, they will need extra space to store these things.

The same can be said for clothing options. The longer the stay, the more pairs of shoes and accessories a guest is likely to bring.

Make space by clearing out drawers, decluttering nightstands and dressers, emptying the closet, and providing extra hangers. 

What To Put In a Guest Room

Now let’s get into a checklist of what to put in a guest room.

These will cover all the basic needs of a guest bedroom beyond a fully made bed.

1. Lamps

Lamps are not only helpful for reading in bed, but they’re a necessity for safety. Navigating through strange surroundings in the dark is a recipe for disaster.

Make sure you include a lamp that is within reach of the bed for your guests.

2. Alarm Clock

While your first instinct may be to scoff at this recommendation, remember you may have guests of a certain age that are not attached to their cell phones.

In fact, my dad is one of those rare people who still refuse to get a cell. And guess what, when you don’t have a cell, you need either a watch or an old-school alarm clock to know what time it is.

These seemingly obsolete devices still reside in standard hotel rooms for this exact reason.

Plus, let’s face it, it’s easier to glance across the room to see the time than fish for your cell phone that’s been lost amongst the pillows and blankets in the bed. 

3. Wi-Fi Info

I won’t belabor this point since we talked about this above. Print a wifi access card and post it somewhere convenient for your guests.

4. Curtains (preferably room darkening)

Blackout curtains are not only a great window treatment idea, but they also keep out harsh light when a guest is in dire need of good sleep.

They’re also key to ensuring privacy and help with electricity costs as well. Blackout curtains help to ensure privacy. 

5. Extension cord/power strip

You never know how many devices a guest needs to change. These days they may need to charge a cell phone, smartwatch, earbuds, and tablet.

And that’s only 1 guest!

To plug in all of their devices your guest may need an extension cord or power strip.

Have these on hand and store them in your guest room closet or in one of the nightstand drawers. 

6. Extra Blanket

Number 6 on our list of what to put in a guest room is an extra blanket. Guests aren’t going to get up in the middle of the night and adjust the thermostat in your home (aka fiddle with the dial) if they’re too cold.

Ensure their comfort by having an extra blanket folded across the end of the bed or tucked in the closet.

This is also a good idea for couples who may prefer different sleeping temperatures.

7. Extra Pillow

Likewise, an extra pillow or two will help cover your bases as far as comfortable sleeping goes.

Consider keeping one firm memory foam pillow and one pliable down-filled pillow per guest.

Multiple sleeping pillows are also good for those who like to lounge in bed while reading. It will help prop them up comfortably.

8. Nightstands/Side Table

Nightstands hold and store essentials that need to be within reach.

These include eyewear, jewelry, phone, medication, etc.

You don’t have to get anything bulky, especially if your guest bedroom is small.

You should, however, try to find a nightstand with at least 1 drawer or a lower shelf where you can place a basket for extra storage. 

9. Mattress Protector

A mattress protector is one of those purchases you’ll never regret making.

Protect your mattress from spills and accidents with a waterproof mattress protector.

Choose one that has elastic around the edges to help your protector stay in place.

10. Extra Sheets

Having an extra set of sheets available is another must-have in a guest room. However, if you really want to make your guests feel at ease, put them in a drawer or closet of the guest room where they can access them easily.

If a guest or a small child has an accident in the middle of the night, you want them to be able to swap out their sheets easily and discreetly.

Don’t make them do the walk of shame to your room and tap on your door looking for extra sheets that you hid deep in the linen closet of the master bathroom.

You’d be surprised how many families with small kids and older folks travel with disposable mattress protectors and similar products in an effort to avoid this exact scenario.

So, have extra sheets, just in case.

Conclusion

I hope you found this list of what to put in a guest room helpful. Before your next guests arrive, make sure you have these 10 things and you’ll have all your bases covered.

Here are a few more posts you may like:

• What To Put In a Guest Room Basket
• What To Put In a Guest Bathroom
• Why Is Having Overnight Guests So Stressful?

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