i love this idea.

Such a great idea - tempted to do this for myself!

You really have people over to your house whose names you don't know or who aren't even memorable? Unless you're regularly having huge house parties I don't see how it would be a problem to remember who you have over.

the people who come over to our house are close friends who we tend to see on a regular basis. It would feel silly to ask them to sign a guest book.

We only have people sign it who are staying with us as out of town guests. We have relocated several times over the last few years so most people are flying in from all over to visit. And yes, unfortunately we have had so many guests that the months have been blurred on when they were here. Maybe I can blame it on my pregnancy brain! Also, we might have the occasional house guest who stays at our house while we are out of town. All good reasons to try and preserve a few nice words from the people you love!

I think it is a wonderful idea!

One of my very good friends goes one better on the guestbook idea. She has a large blank canvase hanging on her entryway wall just behind where the front door opens. Every guest signs it the first time they come over to the house. It's a great visual piece and over the years she has all sorts of different signatures with personal notes, drawings and the like. She even had a pizza delivery boy think it was so neat, he wanted to sign it, and she let him! Several of the people have passed on and it makes for a special keepsake. Once it is filled she can simply cover it with a protective coating and hang a new one!

We did this last year because living in Manhattan, we get a lot of guests. The only problem was, I just wanted guests to date it and sign their name and my roommate pressured people into writing lengthy entries. It resulted in people feeling like they had to write us epic thank you notes in the book instead of just a quick and fun way to preserve a memory. When the roommate moved out, I trashed the guest book idea because it made both me AND my guests uncomfortable.

I did this with an old typewriter. It sits by the doorway, and when friends/family come over they type a little note.

I know of someone who takes a picture of every one who visits her home, and hangs all the pictures together in a prominent place. I think it's so dear.

My parents bought a lakehouse when I was small and they received a guest book like this as a gift. Since it was a sort of vacation home, they would allow friends to use it when we didn't...needless to say, the book filled up with warm fuzzy messages and funny stories...it's truly a treasure, especially now that the lakehouse has been sold!

@nwatrous - The author said they wanted to remember dates and events, not that they couldn't remember the people.

Personally, I have the memory of a goldfish and photos, journals and - sadly enough- Facebook posts are things that help me remember when I otherwise would not. I can remember a friend coming, I can remember things we did, but six months to a year later, I couldn't tell you what week they were there.

I can completely understand the appeal of this for someone like me or someone who lives in a great city where out of town friends frequent or host a lot of couch surfers.

Not for me. I like to make sure my guests feel like they are home. You don't sign guestbooks at home. Maybe for a special event party or something, but not for general visitors or my occasional overnight guests. (I don't care if I can't remember details like dates. I'm not somebody's alibi!)

Loving kbizzle's typewriter idea!!!

Yeah, I dunno. I think it's kind of weird. If someone asked me to sign their guestbook at their personal home, I'd think they were a little off. Maybe if you were renting out your home or doing a home exchange or something but not for a regular private home.

It's just too odd and awkward to me.

I think it depends on who you are and what type of friends/family you have! I know that I wish I would have had something like this growing up at my house for family gatherings.. many of my family have passed on, but i KNOW they would have written something fun, sweet, special in the book. I think it is determined on what type of person you are. I dont think family and friends would think it was weird if I had one.

I think the problem is that as a guest, you would feel obligated to sign the book (especially if the host makes the effort to point it out) and guests shouldn't ever feel obligated to do something or put in an awkward position that might make them feel uncomfortable.

Maybe if it was something really wacky and that was your personality, it would work, like signing the wall or something (though to me that's reminiscent of a tacky slummy bar than a home).

I have to say, this strikes me as a bit pretentious...unless you run a bed and breakfast out of your home.

Most overnight guests are visiting for an event --a football game, a holiday, a wedding, a new baby, a graduation, a concert. When you have friends and family from all over the world and they visit it is fun to mark the date and go back and remember later -- same as you do with a photo album, except I can never get my pics printed let alone into an album. We usually write something together with the date and a sketch or saying that will instantly help us recall the fun of time spent with good friends and family. What could be weird about that?

I think it depends who you are. My friends wouldn't think this was pretentious because they know I'm a bit soppy and a total archivist. They're probably surprised I don't have one already.

anthropos, I'm with you. I think this is a little weird. What does the host expect the person to say in the guest book? "OMG, you are SO WONDERFUL. YOU are fabulous. THANK YOU for letting me stay here. THANK YOU THANK YOU." Umm, just fishing for compliments or what's the point of the guest book? Don't worry, I'll send a thank-you card and flowers. No need to force a guestbook on me.

@ArchDaring EXACTLY! How could you possibly not feel awkward? It's like serving someone a piece of your homemade cake and then hovering over them expectantly with your eyebrows raised as if to say, "Well? Isn't it GREAT? Tell me how great it is!"

this is a good idea :)

I wouldn't do this because storing the old books would be a pain. Also, unless the guests wrote something really special, I wouldn't go back and just want to reread their names and when they were at my house. My husband and I decided not to have a guest book at our wedding for these reasons. If anything, I just save the thank you note if it contains a really moving message.

I like the idea. My best friend's mother gave us a guest book when we bought our house, and I thought it was such a cute idea. I just keep it in the guest room, so if someone wants to sign it, they can. Why would you force them to?