Hosting a holiday get-together may be one of your favorite parts of the season, but big groups, lots of laughs, and a little wine often lead to messy mishaps. Fortunately, with a bit of foresight and preparation, you can prevent spills from happening. Of course, we also suggest spill-proofing your home just in case.
How to Prevent Spills
Keep the party fouls and after-party cleanup to a minimum with these tips to keep your guests’ drinks and plates upright:
- Serve drinks in wide-base, stemless glasses. Top-heavy wine glasses are a disaster waiting to happen. Instead, opt for spill-proof wine glasses, an elegant, functional way to keep your carpet and upholstery clean.
- Provide plates. Even if you’re just serving appetizers and finger foods, paper plates help prevent spills compared to using napkins. (But offer napkins as well so guests have something to wipe their fingers on!)
- Serve food and drinks outside if the weather permits. No one cares if wine spills on the grass!
- Keep the music, decorations and ambiance out of any rooms you want guests to avoid. People won’t mingle in the dark, deserted parts of your house.
- Consider restricting drinks to the kitchen and other tiled areas. Spills don’t matter as much here since it’s merely a matter of wiping them up with a paper towel.
- Make coasters available and handy for everyone to use. After all, rings on tabletops from wet glasses can be just as difficult to remove as full-blown spills. Spread coasters out on the table before guests arrive so using them comes naturally.
- Serve red wine in sippy cups as a joke. This might be especially funny if one of your guests had a notable spill at a previous gathering. While everyone’s having a good laugh, you can go about the rest of the evening knowing that spills will be much less likely this time around!
Spill-Proof Your Home
Sometimes accidents happen, even with your best efforts to prevent them. Help make spills easier to clean up with these tips:
- Use plastic tablecloths. These protect your wood tables and minimize the impact of spills. A festive print also adds to the party décor.
- Apply stain repellent. Treat dining room chairs and sofa cushions with a stain repellent. This helps liquids bead up rather than soak into the upholstery.
- Use slipcovers. It’s appropriate to protect your furniture with slipcovers if you’re having a large party, especially one involving kids.
- Keep paper towels on hand. This way, you can clean up spills quickly and prevent them from becoming stains.
- Stock up on upholstery and carpet stain remover. When stains do strike, you may need to do a little scrubbing after your guests head home. Make sure you have the right cleaning products on hand to get the job done.
Schedule Housekeeping Services with Molly Maid
Despite your best efforts to prevent accidents and spill-proof your home, you will still need to perform after-party cleanup. Get some help from Molly Maid so you have more time to spend with family and friends this holiday season! We can help prepare your house for a get-together, clean up afterward, and provide ongoing assistance with household chores.
For a free house cleaning estimate, please contact your local Molly Maid today.
