Getting your home ready for a massage

Someone books their first at-home massage for six in the evening and spends the whole morning cleaning. Mopping, dusting, putting away the clothes that had been on the chair for weeks. When we knock, the living room smells of bleach, the coffee table is still dead centre because nobody thought of it as an obstacle, and the person about to be massaged has been on their feet for five hours.

We don't need your home spotless. We need a clear square of floor, and we need you to arrive at your own appointment with some energy left. Here's what actually helps before we get there, and everything you can skip.

The space: two by two, that's it

A portable massage table is about 1.85 m long and 70 cm wide. We need to walk around it, which means roughly 60 cm clear on each side plus room at both ends. Call it a 2 by 2 metre square.

• The floor needs to be firm and level. Wood, tile, concrete or short-pile carpet are fine. A thick, soft rug isn't: the table rocks.
• If it's going to be tight, don't eyeball it. Pace out 2 metres — an adult stride is about 70 cm — and see what fits.
• If nowhere in your home gets to 2 by 2, tell us when you book rather than improvising on the day. There's almost always a way round it, but we'd rather know first.

Which room

The instinctive answer is the bedroom, and it's often the worst one: the bed takes the middle and leaves you 80 cm at the edges. The living room usually wins, especially if the coffee table can go against a wall.

What matters more than the room is what happens around it. Pick the space you can close off, or at least one that isn't the route to the kitchen and the bathroom. If the only workable room holds the family television, give the family some notice.

Move the furniture before we arrive. It's the only heavy job on this list, and doing it calmly two hours ahead is a different experience from doing it with someone waiting at the door.

Temperature, light and noise

Lying still, barely dressed, with oil on your skin, you get cold far faster than you'd expect. A comfortable temperature for receiving a massage is around 23 or 24 °C — warmer than most people keep their homes.

• If you use air conditioning, turn it off about 15 minutes beforehand or raise it. A draught straight onto your back ruins the whole thing.
• If it's cold, heat the room before, not during. Mexico City nights from November to February get genuinely cold and houses here don't hold heat.
• Close the window if it faces the street. It helps with noise and with temperature.

Overhead lighting, on and in your face, is the first thing that breaks the mood. Use a floor or bedside lamp, or a candle well away from anything that can catch. In daylight, closed curtains are enough.

As for noise, the street isn't the problem. Your phone and your doorbell are. Put your phone on true silent — no vibrate, face down — and if you're expecting a delivery, ask someone to handle it or put a note on the door.

Worth having ready

None of this is required, but it all helps:

• Two clean towels, even though we bring linens.
• A glass of water within reach, for afterwards.
• Somewhere to put your clothes: a chair near the table. Hunting for a spot to drop your trousers in your underwear is avoidable.
• A hair tie, if your hair is long.
• Your own music, if you have a playlist that relaxes you. You don't have to use ours.

And if you have a dog or a cat, decide in advance where they'll be. A cat landing on the table mid-session is funny exactly once.

What you don't have to do

This is the part that gives you your morning back.

• Don't clean the house. We're going to see two square metres of floor, not your kitchen.
• Don't buy oils or creams. We bring ours, and mixing products is how skin reactions happen.
• Don't change the bed linen. We won't be using the bed.
• Don't make coffee or food. Really.
• Don't haul heavy furniture on your own ten minutes before. If something big needs moving, we'll help when we arrive.

Your body, the hours before

Eat something light one or two hours ahead. Face down on a full stomach is miserable; on an empty one isn't much better, because a long massage can drop your blood pressure.

Shower beforehand if you can — it feels better and warm muscle is easier to work with. No alcohol before the session. And if you trained hard that day, tell us: it changes how much pressure makes sense.

The most useful thing you can bring isn't physical. Spend thirty seconds working out what hurts, since when, and what makes it worse. "My back" is information. "Right trapezius since I changed desks in July, worse in the afternoons" is much better information.

If you live in an apartment

The table and kit weigh around 15 kg and won't fit in a crowded lift. Tell us when you book:

• Lift or stairs, and how many floors.
• Whether the building wants ID, a signature or advance notice to the administrator.
• Where we can park, or whether a taxi makes more sense.
• Your apartment number and a landmark. Plenty of streets in this city repeat their house numbers.

Five minutes of logistics over WhatsApp saves half an hour of circling the block.

If there's more than one of you

For two or more people in the same home there are two shapes: in parallel, with a table and a room each, or back to back, sharing one table in sequence. The first needs two 2 by 2 spaces; the second needs one, but the visit runs longer.

Agree the order in advance. What doesn't work is the second person finding out fifteen minutes beforehand and still being on a work call when their turn comes.

The thirty minutes afterwards

Almost nobody sets this time aside, and it's what makes the massage last.

Don't schedule anything right after the session. You'll have oil on your skin — don't shower straight away if you can wait a couple of hours — and slightly lower blood pressure, so get up slowly. Drink some water. If you were given stretches or told to apply heat, the moment for that is that evening, not Monday.

Some muscle soreness the next day is normal, much like after exercise, especially after deep work. It usually passes in 24 to 48 hours.

When to move the appointment

Message us and we'll reschedule, no problem, if on the day you have:

• A fever, a cold or any active infection.
• A recent injury that's inflamed or undiagnosed.
• Open skin, sunburn or a rash in the area to be worked on.
• Recent surgery without your doctor's clearance.
• A swollen, hard or painful calf on one side only. That isn't a massage problem; that's a see-a-doctor-today problem.

If you're pregnant, tell us when you book rather than on the day. It changes the position, the bolstering and the type of massage, and that gets prepared before we leave for your home.