How to Throw a Big Party in a Small Flat
Throughout the majority of my adult life, apart from a couple of years in a house-share with seven other overexuberant students, I have been living in either a self-contained studio or one-bedroom flat. While this has mostly been due to the excessive rents charged in the city of Brighton and Hove, I must also confess that I have always struggled to get on top of the domestic chores required when running a household by myself.
As someone who enjoys hosting parties and shindigs that more often than not ending up more than a little raucous, I have managed to develop the ability to host a big party in a confined space and ensure that a good time is had by all.
It is all about ensuring that you are making the best use of your space and utilising the right sort of furniture to take advantage of this; with that in mind, check out my top tips for hosting an awesome party over the Christmas and New Year!
Use your Space Wisely
Make sure that you are making the best use possible of your space, this means using every single room in your flat.
Yes, that even includes the bedroom and the bathroom!
How many parties have you graced with your presence and been crammed into a room like a tin of sardines? Make sure that you are encouraging your guest to spread out in the flat, a good way of doing this is to invest in some decent quality portable USB speakers and have different styles of music in each room – this will encourage people to spend time in different rooms.
This follows onto my next one quite nicely…
Crowdsource Some Bangers
Ahead of the party use a music app like Spotify that allows your guests to get their favourite tunes added to a variety of different playlists, ideally one for each room. This will ensure that everyone is able to enjoy their favourites tunes and move onto a different room when the inevitable Garage classics start being banged out in the early hours.
Get the Right Furniture
Investing in the right kind of furniture can provide you with so many benefits and allow you to be flexible with the space that you have. Investing in collapsible trestle tables and folding chairs allows you to be more flexible with your space, especially if you are planning on serving food or nibbles at your party.
This has been especially beneficial for those times when I have tried to a touch more sophisticated and been hosting a dinner party before switching the focus onto drinking and mingling. Foldable or collapsible furniture is perfect for storing away and can be reused time and time again in the future, not just for parties.
With that in mind though, it is important that you don’t focus on the seating and furniture arrangements too much. Ensure that there is space available for your guests to congregate and speak with one another, we all know that when you’re socialising and having a few drinks, it can be much better to stand and interact with several different people at once.
Get Creative with BYOB
Bringing your own booze is a key component of any house party, but it often ends up with half-empty bottles and cans littered around the flat. This is where getting organised and thinking ahead can pay dividends and ensure that you’re not left with shedloads of recycling to take care of the next day.
Get hold of a decent cocktail book and see what spirits you need to make cocktails that are going to appeal to everyone. This way you can encourage your guests to bring specific bottles of spirts and/or mixers and make larger batches of cocktails and various punches. This is a good way of ensuring that there are not loads of glass bottles and cups around the place, especially if you buy reusable plastic cups – it’s not ethical but it definitely cuts down on the number of trips you’ll have to make to the recycling bin the day after.
A top of mine though, make sure that you get a few felt pens around the place so people can mark, which cup is theirs, it will also help ensure people aren’t getting a new cup for each drink.
Make Sure You Actually Enjoy Yourself
When you have all of these people in your flat it’s easy to get overly-stressed and worry that damage is going to occur, or that you’re going to end up with a knock at the door from the ‘old bill’.
Get those thoughts out of your head.
You’ve got your best friends around you, a selection of enviable cocktails for you to sample, endless music, and people up for a good time. Just take the time to appreciate that and make sure that you’re a guest at your own party, rather than a stressed-out host going around double-checking everything.
Make sure you enjoy yourself and have a great time this Christmas!
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