Home exchange can mean a variety of things.

It can mean flat exchange. House exchange. Mansion exchange. Hut exchange. Or even, boat exchange!

If you’re fortunate enough to own a boat, you can offer it up for home exchange and that way increase your chances of receiving home exchange proposals from people all around the world.

Also, if you are thinking of taking a trip in your boat, but you would also liked to spend some of the holiday on land, you could always arrange a home exchange in a town that has a port where you could rest your boat. Tuscany would be a wonderful example of a city where you might like to make a stop.

Home exchange is not simply restricted to typical conceptions of what a “home” is. You can be as creative as you like, and if it’s a home to you then it’s good enough to get a profile on the website and see if people are interested in exchanging.

In the few days just before setting off for your home exchange, there are some areas that you need to think about preparing for the incoming family. As a big part of home exchange is based upon reciprocity, it’s important to think ahead about how you would like to be treated, and then try to provide that for your exchange partner.

In an exchange, one of the most central aspects is offering a clean home. So before you set off, think not only about leaving your home tidy, but also well cleaned. Little details like cleaning the oven and the microwave really make the world of difference.

If you are precious about your towels, then take a few minutes to consider how many people will be staying, and then find enough towels - that you don’t mind other people using - for them all to have.

You could also think about occassional problems that you might have in your home. For example, if you live somewhere where you have to suffer the intermittent power-cut, think about leaving out some torches or candles for the incoming guests. Alternatively, if you have noisy neighbours, you could suggest to the guests that they bring earplugs with them.

To make our home exchanges the best that they can be (which is pretty darn great!) then allow yourself some time to think about the small touches that could raise the quality of your partners’ stay from good to excellent.

This idea, in turn, will give your own holidays that extra touch of wholesomeness. It’s what home exchange is all about.

So. Compulsive hoarding disorder. Let´s have a little lookie at what Wikipedia has to say about it.

“Compulsive hoarding (or pathological hoarding) is the acquisition of, and failure to use or discard, such a large number of seemingly useless possessions that it causes significant clutter and impairment to basic living activities such as mobility, cooking, cleaning, showering or sleeping. A person who engages in compulsive hoarding is commonly said to be a “pack rat”, in reference to that animal’s apparent fondness for material objects.”

Aha! It´s a recognised condition. I knew it wasn´t just me. This feeling… is a good feeling. (As for the whole “pack rat” thing, that wasn´t so easy on the ears.)

But let´s not get bogged down in aetiology. The more pertinent issue here is how we can deal with this when we do a home exchange. Or - even better - how home exchange can deal with this problem FOR us.

The idea of having someone in your home can work wonders for bringing out in you that religious zeal to make your nest sparkling and neat as a button. It gives us the perfect excuse to do that decade over-due spring-clean.

Seeing your house through the eyes of a visitor often encourages us to put to rights everything that we´ve wanted to get done for the past few months. (Years….decades. However it may be for you. I´m apparently a “pack rat” so I´m not judging anyone here.)

But pack rats or not, there is an element of exposure that comes with doing a home exchange. This is a brilliant way for us to animate ourselves into getting everything into the state we want it to be in. It can imbue within us a greater strive to make our living space, our environment - our HABITAT - look the best it can.

For me this would involve getting rid of the piles of newspapers and the empty water bottles that are taking over my life right now. But for most normal people, it´s a great motivation to finally getting around to doing all the things you´ve been meaning to, but have struggled to find that last push of motivation.

Home exchange. There´s a world of hidden benefits.