How to host a house party

Be festive by including decorations or even customized banners for House Party.

First, for a house party invite your friends and neighbors (this is especially crucial since they are the ones that can get your party in trouble if you get too loud, inviting them makes them feel like they were included), decide before hand if you want to let friends bring guests or to keep it just to who you invite. Any party can get out of hand if too many people show up.

• While formal paper invitations are great. So are e-services like evite.com or google calendar.

• A great way to keep track of if the people at the party were invited or if they were able to sneak in is with neon paper wrist bands. You know, the type you have to cut them to get them off. Like these:

Second, decide on what people are going to do for food and drinks. It doesn’t matter if its sodas, a keg, or even wine and cocktails as long as your prepared for the quantity needed. For beer or sodas assume everyone will drink about 4 servings. This takes care of those that drink a few sips and then forget about their cups, and those that have one and call it quits.

Third, clean your place and remove anything that is a) valuable, b) breakable, or c) you’d be upset if it was broken; you never know when crazy Dave will accidentally topple over a vase etc. Also have plenty of garbage receptacles around the house, so your guests can help clean up during the event by throwing away garbage instead of leaving it around.

Fifth, having games prepared can also be fun. These can be as simple as bean bag tosses, frisbee, a limbo line or any other easy to plan game. While it might sound lame, having some games ready can help keep a party from loosing its ‘mojo‘.

Some other pointers: Never let anyone drive home who has been drinking, or who hasn’t waited atleast an hour for every alcoholic drink. Find out what your city’s noise regulations are. Be mindful that neighbors might not be on the same schedule as you so be sure to invite or at least inform them (see point 1 above).

Besides all this be safe and have fun, it is after all a party!