We’ve all been there. We’ve all made plans to host an event, and then… well, life gets in the way. It’s far too easy for something as mundane as event planning to get swept away in the current of what life throws at us: parking tickets, family emergencies, the kids’ doctor’s appointments, stress from work, you name it.
If you’re reading this, you’ve realized two things: one, that you have an event coming up that you’re supposed to host, and two, that you don’t have a lot of time to put it together. Whether that awareness hit you like a lightning bolt out of nowhere and left you wired, or you’ve been dreading the work involved for weeks and have been putting it off, we’re here for you.
Take a deep breath, put all your stress in a little box in the back of your head, and breathe out; you’re in good hands. We’re gonna break down a wide variety of tips for busy moms on the go to throw a memorable event together in minutes – an event that looks like it took weeks and weeks of planning.
Hacking Party Organization 101
Especially if you find yourself with limited time, your first objective is to cut as many corners as possible. You want your dinner party to be entertaining and memorable, not legendary – and that realization will allow you to shove your inner perfectionist in the box described earlier and get to work. The key is to take the fastest path to value without sacrificing quality.
If you’re not sure which corners to cut, try these suggestions:
- Delegate, delegate, delegate. Depending on how much time you have, you can loop in your party goers to contribute to the event themselves. Suggesting that your dinner party will be more of a potluck, enlisting friends in coordinating aspects of the party, and having family members choose entertainment options are all great, low-effort ways to take planning off your plate.
- Avoid preparing complicated snacks/food options. Not only does cooking gourmet meals for your party take a while – it may actually alienate guests who, if they hosted, would provide hot dogs and burgers. Fortunately, there’s a wide variety of low-effort snacks and meals to choose from!
- Don’t go crazy with decorations. You don’t have to deck your home out with decorations that belong in Richie Rich’s manor. Conducting some research into last-minute decorations can be a helpful way to make the event feel unique and special without investing a ton of time and money into decorating.
Remember, the reason your guests are coming to the event is to spend time with you, not evaluate your party-planning acumen. Centering your dinner party around the community, including as many as you can into its organization, and opting for low-effort snacks and decorations are great ways to keep your focus on your guests.
Planning the Dinner and the Cleanup
Now, for the event itself. You’ll have two goals in mind: firstly, that your dinner party combines casual and formal elements to entertain your guests, and secondly, that it isn’t too hard to clean up. Even low-effort dinner parties can quickly become high-effort cleaning days – and you don’t want to spend hours washing dishes, vacuuming, and cleaning up garbage when you could instead relax and recharge.
Your aim, then, is to organize a dinner that’s easy to enjoy and easy to clean up. How do you do this, though? Well, you can try a few of these options:
- Choose the correct dish and glassware, and make sure it winds up in the right place. The right table setting can easily add a sense of sophistication to your meal, but you also want to make sure that doing the dishes does not get overwhelming. When choosing the right wine glasses for your meal, you may want to opt for universal glasses, as they tend to be less expensive. They also complement a wide variety of wines. You should also opt for mid-grade dishwasher-safe table settings. Put dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher while your guests are there. This will help you save time and make sure you do not wake up to too many dirty dishes in the sink.
- Provide the right facilities for your guests, and keep your furniture safe. Having multiple places for guests to store their waste (such as two or more trash cans available) is a nice convenience – that also keeps waste from piling up. Likewise, providing coasters, laying out a tablecloth, and even distributing dinner mats are great ways to keep your furniture protected, even as you give your guests the white-glove service treatment.
- Clean as soon as the guests leave. You don’t have to do everything straight away, but taking out the trash, putting the tablecloths and dining mats in the wash, and briefly sweeping up the kitchen doesn’t take long – and you’ll feel so much better the next morning.
Dinner parties don’t have to be difficult to host; nor do they have to be hard to clean up. With these tips and tricks, you’ll be well on your way to giving your guests a night to remember – and saving yourself headaches before and after the party starts.
