DEAR MISS MANNERS: We are empty-nesters who always seem to have a guest stopping by for a night. I love having guests. What I don’t love is stripping and making the beds!
Do I need to provide each guest with a new set of sheets? Is it horribly rude and unsanitary to have two subsequent guests use the same set of sheets? Guests are sometimes cousins, if that makes a difference.
GENTLE READER: Are you asking if being cousins makes your guests less likely to think “Ew!” when they open the bed to used sheets?
Miss Manners doubts that. But being cousins does make a difference in that you are probably on more informal terms with them than you would be with an unrelated, infrequent guest. You can therefore leave a set of fresh sheets in their room the day before they depart and say, “Would you mind changing the bed before you leave?”
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DEAR MISS MANNERS: Some of my (grown-up) family members will pluck loose hairs off their shoulders and clothes, then drop them onto my carpet, without even trying to hide it!
I don’t say anything, but I wonder if I may ask them to put these loose hairs in the garbage can or compost container. I’m pretty grossed out by their behavior. Your thoughts?
GENTLE READER: First, that you need one of those vacuum cleaners that they make for people with hairy pets. Then -- Miss Manners presumes you would prefer to stop the habit -- you could pick up the offending hair and say absently, “Is this yours?”
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(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)
