One of our favorite ways to celebrate our kids birthday parties is to have them here at home.
Having them here at home lets us have the freedom to do whatever we want. The past few years we have had parties at home, with the exception of last year, because we wanted to try something different. But we realized that home-based parties are our favorite for many reasons, cost being one of the biggest ones but our kids also LOVE waking up on their birthday to balloons and the house decorated just for them.
With that said, one of the things we don’t look forward to is the after-party cleanup. When you go somewhere you leave the mess behind and come home to a clean home. When it’s your home, there’s no one there to clean everything up except you!
Over the years we’ve gotten pretty good at picking up right after the party and if you have a system in place, it becomes less of a headache for you after the party is over.
Lennon just turned one and we had his birthday party at the house last week. It was so much fun. I cannot believe just how fast a year has gone by. The kids have a ton of cousins that are all around the same age, and when you add in our friends who also have kids around the same age – you get a house full of little ones running around. We had a very memorable first birthday party for him. I will be posting the photos from the party this weekend!
Here are 10 things you can do both during and after the party to make clean-up a little quicker and easier.
DURING PARTY
1. Go disposable – Use disposable for all or most of your dishes that are both serving food and for your guests to eat on. For kids parties we love to use these disposable trays and we are always well stocked on disposable cups!
2. Serve less-mess foods – At first thinking of kids and less-mess foods might seem impossible, but there are a ton of foods you can serve at a party that should take little clean-up. Pizza is a favorite but sometimes can get messy and then you have a ton of boxes to throw. Think about finger foods like pizza bites or mini-sausages on toothpicks.
3. Keep cleaning supplies readily available – Keep them available for all guests to use and will hopefully encourage them to clean up after themselves. Some things to keep on hand are paper towels, a small hand vacuum and a spray bottle with cleaning solution so messes can be cleaned up as soon as they happen.
AFTER PARTY
4. Start clean-up right after the party. I know you’re tired, but the later it gets the later the food and mess will sit out and it will just sit…and sit.
5. Start with the messiest room and go around with large trash bags and throw away all the disposables first.
6. Gather all non-disposable dishes and put them immediately in the dishwasher.
7. Start at one point in the room and work your way around. Throw all trash in the trash bag and throw everything that doesn’t belong in that room in a basket. Use the basket to collect anything that needs to be taken out of the room.
8. Start with surfaces next, you need to spray over any stains or sticky areas and wipe them up. You need to spritz over stains with the cleaning product and wipe them right up.
9. Vacuum – Probably one of the most important things to do after a party. All the crumbs you missed when wiping down tables will surely resurface. We like to use a battery operated, cordless vacuum and go room to room picking up everything we missed.
10. Lastly, if it gets to be too much, don’t hesitate to hire a professional cleaning surface. Sometimes we busy moms need some help! There’s no shame in that, I’ve done it many times!
This all sounds so basic right? It is, but it’s easy to forget in the moments after a party because you are so tired and the mess can seem overwhelming. Having a systematic approach to cleaning your home after a party will help relieve any stresses.
Do you throw your kids parties at home? Are there any tips you have for an easy or quick after party clean up?
