What to do with empty bed?

[krisinmi]

I've never really thought about it until recently (as in last weekend, when youngest dd left to go back to college), but what is the best way to deal with empty beds/guest bedrooms?  Do you

--change bedding after the bed has been used, and immediately make it up again with clean stuff, then leave it (possibly for months) made and ready for the next guest?

or

--strip the bed, wash the bedding, and leave bed bare until it is needed again?

or 

--leave the used bedding on the bed until just before the next guest arrives to use it, then strip bed and remake with clean bedding?


I was always taught that guests should have fresh bedding, so have always stripped bed and remade with fresh bedding immediately after the guest left, that way it's ready for the next person.  But now that we're finally pretty much empty nesters and the kids' old beds might go months or more between uses, I'm thinking my fresh bedding is actually accumulating dust before it's used again and might be better (especially for those guests with allergies) if I did not prepare the bed with clean stuff until the day it is to be used again.

[tenbusybees]

I don't currently have a guest room but growing up we would strip the bed after company left and then make the bed back up without the sheets. We would put fresh sheets back on next time company stayed with us.

[Deleted]

Strip, clean and just top mattress with bedspread or covering usually used. Looks made and neat but keeps dust off mattress. How we do our motorhome and our bed when away. Used sheets can cause smells to transfer to mattress....James

[susannah]

We have two guest bedrooms, a futon in the lower level second living room, and LOTS of guests - at least during spring, summer and fall. Since we actually had guests this past weekend, how I do the guest beds is fresh in my mind.

After the guests leave, I wash all the sheets. I put the clean sheets on the beds in the two guest bedrooms. I never thought of the sheets as accumulating dust, though. Both beds have heavy quilts that completely cover the blankets, sheets and pillows - the quilts are each a size larger than the beds they're designed for. When I turned down the sheets for my grandchildren this past weekend, I wasn't aware of the sheets being anything besides clean despite having been on that bed since September. A few minutes ago, I took the clean sheets out of the dryer and remade one of the beds for the next time it gets used - whenever that is, but probably not for a couple of months.

The futon downstairs, well, that's different. After guests leave (and a lot of guests WILL choose the futon over a regular bed due to having a whole floor - complete with bathroom and kitchenette - to themselves), I wash the sheets, then they get packed away in a chest down in that room until needed again. The futon gets pulled back up into a couch rather than a bed, so the bedding for that one is always packed away until the next time a bed is needed.

[Maura]

Make the bed with fresh sheets, clean blankets. Then, cover with a bedspread. The bedspread could be something pretty, but it could be just another sheet.

[spacecase0]

Maura has it correct,
clean it well enough,
then archive the entire room for the eventual return or visit of the person.
if you have visitors, allow them to use the room, but clean it after each visit.
that is unless you get visitors like I do, they don't like sheets...
I eventually replaced the mattress with cardboard... it is not just cats that love sleeping on cardboard