Entertaining in Smaller Spaces
My home is not what I would consider "small," but my house is a split-level which makes entertaining on one level very difficult to do. I have discovered that it takes a lot of thought and preparation, when we are hosting large groups, to make my house flow in the way that it should for our guests.
Every month I play in a Bunco league with some really fabulous women and we do a theme each month for our game. We have done everything from Chinese New Year, to Here Comes the Bride, and everything in between. The host for each event gets to pick our theme and provides the food for the occasion.
April was my month to host and I had been thinking a lot about how I was going to execute our night on a budget and in my smaller home. Since I am a frugal gal, I picked a Retro Housewife theme because it fit so well with my personality and the things that I already had. Retro food is much cheaper to make then the fancy stuff and I kept it simple with cheap eats that we all could enjoy. This little endeavor also gave me the opportunity to break out my great apron collection, which is something I just love to do.
One of the most important ways, I have found, to make the most of your space is to clear the clutter as much as you can. Shoes, coats, purses, and bags were all removed to clear the entryway for our guests. I also removed anything that would take up any counter space or anything that would occupy valuable space we might need. Some of these items were just put away, others were stored in a basket until the event was over. Anything that could be an obstacle (like soda sitting next to the fridge, for example) had to be removed so that people could maneuver the space a little easier.
Extra seating was created with narrow benches, that would not occupy as much space as large chairs, and they were easy to move to wherever we might need them.
I saved fridge space and skipped the cooler in favor of filling our sink with ice. I even attached the bottle opener around the sink so that our guests could find it. I have found that the easier I make things for everyone else, the easier it is on the host!
These steps might seem small, but when you add up all of the little things, it frees up a lot of space in a small space. My evening came together beautifully and I was so happy to have everyone there. I learned that with careful planning and thoughtful execution, I can pull off hosting a bigger group in my smaller space.
Sound Off: Do you struggle with the space issue when you are entertaining? Have you come up with any tips or tricks for making your space feel bigger or how to make the most of what you have? Please share!
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6 Responses to “Entertaining in Smaller Spaces”
April 29th, 2008 at 7:45 am
We recently moved into a smaller house with more yard. We’re a family of 5 living in about 900 square feet. The size is just right for us, but a little tiny when we have people over. We use our large deck to compensate for the smaller interior space, and plan to do more entertaining in the summer than in the winter.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Ooops, I accidentally linked to Frugal Hacks in my previous comment! Sorry for the confusion.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:48 am
When I hosted a party last fall, I put a blanket on top of the chest freezer in my family room, and used it as a “serving table” to put the cheese, crackers, plates, cups and apple juice on.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
We also have a small house.
We try to keep our turns at hosting larger gatherings in the summer months, when we can park our two cars on the street and set up the tables and chairs in the garage and driveway.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
We live in the Southwest, and for big family Holiday gatherings, we set up borrowed banquet tables and chairs in our garage (cars were parked outside), kept the doors down during the meal to keep out the wind and cold, and tacked white sheets up over our floor to ceiling garage shelving to hide everything for the inevitable pictures. I hung giant snowflakes and cheap bulbs from the ceiling, and we had candles in glass canning jars on each table with colored glass marbles inside. everything looked very festive, and spills were easy to hose out of the garage that evening. This worked great as we had 28 people over for Christmas. The food was kept hot in our kitchen, and was set out around the counter buffet style, and there was plenty of room for folks to slip out of the garage for refills.
We then took the party back into our living/dining area for gift opening time, and had people sit wherever they could. THe kids and teens usually sit on the floor, while the adults got the chairs. Works great for us!
April 30th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Our house isn’t tiny, about 1800 square feet and a 1/3 of an acre of land. However, almost a third of the space is taken up by our den which is being renovated into both a kitchen and dining area (renovations that won’t be done now for some time), and our foyer which is also split into a storage area by some book cases acting as a wall.
That leaves us a small living room and adjacent kitchen area for entertaining, without so much as a dining area. In the living room we have a two-seater couch and my chair, so it’s pretty tight when we have more than one guest.
Our solution is to make good use of collapsible chairs, indoors and out, and just use the coffee table and end tables to eat off of. It’s not perfect, but it works.
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