If you live in a small house, you might often avoid inviting people over or choose to host parties outdoors. Outdoor parties usually cost more and are less intimate, so no more! following are all the entertaining tips you need to perfectly utilize the small space of your cozy home and arrange a perfect party anyway.
1 Cool the space
The more the people are, the heater it gets. Make sure you pre-cool the space by turning on the air conditioner before guests arrive and use ceiling fans if available to save space. You could also open as much windows and doors as possible to let in the fresh air of the cool night breathe outside.
2 Drink dispensers
Instead of laying bottles and boxes of different drinks and crowding up space, choose one or two signature drinks of yours and make them in large drink dispensers and stack glasses or disposable cups beside it, this will save so much space.
3 Label cups
Make small cute glass labels and encourage guests to use them; each guest, then, sticks to his/her same glass through the whole party. This will save you from suddenly finding piles of used glasses on your table or in your sink and having to keep washing glasses again and again as well. Try to use a water dispenser for the same reasons.
4 Clean Clean
Try to put away any unnecessary decor in the area; put them in cupboards, store them above your wardrobe or under the bed until the party is over. Also any unneeded objects like a vacuum cleaner, large vases or, if you’re in the winter, unneeded stand fans. Also your bathroom should be completely clean from any personal products; put them away in a cabinet or a drawer and only leave the essential things guests will surely need like soaps and towels. Apply this to the kitchen as well; you will need every inch of the counters, so try to remove unnecessary appliances. You can even store some things at your neighbor’s, if you are close enough.
5 Shift furniture
Move your furniture from room to room according to your needs; the kitchen table could be useful in the living room perhaps. You can also line all your table surfaces against the wall at the back of the room and place your drinks and snacks on them in an “open buffet” style; this will save space and prevent having crowded areas in the middle of the rooms. Be careful to line them near the door because people will naturally round up where drinks and food are, so try preventing a bottleneck as the guests arrive.
6 Serve upwards
Use two or three tiered platters or cake stands, just like the concept of using bunk beds for small bedrooms. Layering will save you surface space. These platters are perfect for cakes, fruits, cookies, crackers or mini sandwiches, but may not come in handy with snacks that need cutting.
7 Centerpiece
Having to save space does not mean you will cancel every aspect of decor in the house; use one simple centerpiece in the middle of the dining table for example, like a small flower vase that is packed with different sized and colored flowers, add different heights as well but be careful not to use ones that are too tall so as not to interrupt the conversations across the table. You can also use tree branches or twigsl since they aren’t full, you can use whatever height you prefer. You could also not use any decor at all, but use colorful decorated dishes instead, or printed cups that will give the required cheerful spirit to the table.
8 Hangings decor
An even better way to decorate is avoiding the surfaces completely and depending on hanging decorations; use frames, garlands of draping foliage or the traditional balloons on the ceiling trick (stick them with a double-faced tape or use helium balloons).
9 Combine foods
To avoid using too much plates, try adding similar foods in the same platters together; salty crackers can be paired with cheese and other salty snacks on one tray, and muffins for example could be paired with cream and berries on one cake tray. If the portions are not big enough due to the packed number of items in the same plate, you can just refill them every now and then.
10 Split up snacks
Don’t put all the snacks and drinks on one surface, this will encourage people to crowd up in just one place, try separating them in more than one corner or even in more than one room if you are comfortable with opening your whole house for the party. Encourage people to mix together and make new friends.
11 Strategic menu
If it’s a dinner party, try not to serve all the food at once, Have a space strategy. You can serve the appetizers and salads or soups first then after the guests are done with them, replace those plates with the next course and so on. This tip would be perfect if you have an open kitchen, since moving from the table to the food counter or oven will be easy.
12 Coat rack
Coat racks in everyday life may not seem that important, but try hanging one beside your front door; instead of having guests pile their coats, jackets and bags on the space needed to sit like beds or sofas, they will hang them, saving space and leaving a more tidy area.
13 Extra seating
You will certainly need extra seating since normal homes have 4-6 chaired dining tables. Pro tip: buy a piece of plywood that is a few inches larger than your table then place it on the table and secure it with tape, finally add a nice table cloth and voila! You have a larger dining table at hand whenever you have a party again. You can place the sofa on one side of the table and the diner chairs on the others for more seating as well.
14 Trash cans
Try using one or more large trash cans around the house and make them visible; people will throw the dispensable items easily, instead of piling cups, napkins and paper plates on the needed tables.
15 Tunes
Needles to say, your party is not a party without music, this is your invisible piece of decor. try choosing tracks that go along with the mood, whether light tracks that will not disturb the chatting or more hype ones for dancing. Move the dining table at one point of the party to create a dance floor. Also consider creating a quite zone with soft furniture in a corner or a different room for the guests who want to converse with each other.
16 Lighting
Lighting can surprisingly be the best part of your decor. Use different combinations of lamp stands and scented candles. You can also use colored light bulbs for a jazz effect, or low voltage lamps with small white candles for a soft mood.
Now you are ready to go, become the host of the year. Improvise and do whatever crazy space saving ideas you might get and just make sure your having fun, not over thinking it. After all parties are all about fun. Good luck!