Think Like a Hotel

Our birthday treat at Robert Restaurant

My husband's birthday and mine are a month apart, so every spring we like to celebrate both by treating ourselves to a weekend in New York City. This year's trip, taken a few weeks ago, was especially fun.  

"Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy" and Mindy at Hamilton

One more pic, this was the view from our room, and if you zoom in you can see my husband waving at me from Times Square!

Anyway, back to the point, we stayed at our favorite NYC hotel, the Crowne Plaza Times Square, where I was reminded of a handy tip I share in The House That Cleans Itself. 

The lobby for the Crowne Plaza is on the second floor, accessible by elevator or escalator. To get there, however, you first have to walk down these two ground floor hallways...

Notice anything clever here from a housekeeping standpoint? How about in this pic of a different hotel lobby?

That's right, it's the floor mats! As I say in the book...

"The next time you're at a hotel. pause for a moment near the entrance and take a look at the elaborate system they have set up for getting dirt off of your shoes as you come inside. Chances are good that there won't just be a simple industrial mat inside and out like you'll find at most businesses, but instead they'll have huge, elongated, roughly textured supermats that start well before the door, extend through the entryway, and continue partly into the lobby. This is because they know that the more thoroughly the bottom of your shoes can be scrubbed off on the way in, the less work they will have to do to keep the place clean. This is the kind of fix that does the work for you, a technique you should employ throughout your home."

Makes sense, right? Of course, I don't have 40 feet of floor matting in my house, but I still make a point of keeping an outdoor mat plus an indoor mat at every entrance. I think it really makes a big difference in the cleanliness of our floors and helps our house to clean itself.

So what's the doormat situation in your home?