Whether it’s a summer potluck, a kid’s birthday party or a sophisticated dinner party, planning in small spaces can pose some challenges.
Manufactured homes also have unique floor plans and layouts, which can have their own list of obstacles when party planning in a small space. However, instead of trying to fight it, sometimes embracing the layout and the coziness while including it in the fun can make a world of difference.
Here are some simple tips!
Preparation and Planning
The more you have prepped and prepared ahead of time the better. Since space is limited in the kitchen. So, it’s ideal to have everything you can prepared before your guests arrive.
While a sit-down dinner might sound fancy, you can achieve this with well-made heavy appetizers displayed throughout the home. Presentation is everything when it comes to setting a tone. With appetizers, you also can do all of the prep ahead of time, simply warming the tasty morsels through the night. To get you started, here is a list of super simple recipes from Good Housing Keeping!
If you are prepping a lot of warm food options or serving food something that should stay warm, portable butane burners can be a lifesaver.
There is a reason the professional catering companies are well stocked with these bad boys.
Raise Your Glass!
Drinks are always an issue. In theory, you would set up one bar or bar area for beverages.
But, another option would be to consider pre-batching your drinks of choice. Not only is this something you can do easily ahead of time, it also makes refilling and replenishing is a breeze. And you don’t waste the space of setting up a full bar with multiple bottles.
(Check out these simple and delicious pre-batched punches!)
Spread The Love
Often when planning a party we think of a central gathering space. But with manufactured homes, your living area or dining area might not be big enough to comfortably house all of your guests.
We all know well the age-old saying “the party is always in the kitchen”. Well, often times that’s because people will mingle where the food and drinks are. So a way to use your whole space? Set up multiple places for hors-d’oeuvres and drink stations in different areas of the home. Plus as each dish runs out you can clean them as you go! Each space should provide a pairing of small bites and sips that encourage your guests to get up and mingle!
Setting up multiple areas eliminates the problem of people standing in line or bottlenecking around the food.
For kids parties (or let’s face it, grown-ups too!) another fun way to implement this is setting up game stations in each room.
Little Help From Your Friends
While there are some cool points to planning and executing a party on your own, clean up is always a buzz kill. Even just asking one of your friends to help you with set-up and clean-up can make a world of difference. Friends often like to help, too, since they get the left-overs. Another obvious solution to wanting an extra set of hands is throwing a little money at it. Hiring a neighborhood student, or reliable acquaintance to help set-up and clean-up might be worth its weight in gold. You want to be able to enjoy your party! Having your hired assistant refresh drinks and clean up platters throughout the night will cut back on your stress, keep the place tidy, and allow you to more time to schmooze.
Hopefully, these little tips will help for all of your party planning in small spaces So wear a smile and have fun!
