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10 Hospitality Solutions for Easy Entertaining!

10 Hospitality Tips for Easy Entertaining

Do you love to have people over? Or, do you find it a struggle? Many people find it a struggle. But, it does not have to be! In fact, Hospitality can be so very easy when you have the right tools in place. Personally, I love having family and friends over for small dinners, events, or big parties. I enjoy the cooking, the conversations, and of course the recap. The reason I enjoy it so much, is that I have all of the needed tools, easily at hand. It makes decorating, prep work, cooking, and of course serving so much easier.

I am always planning ahead to my next family dinner or party, and I often start by making a list of the tools I will use. That way, I can have them out, on the counter and ready when needed. In fact, I don’t keep any of the tool on this list on my counters, because I just don’t have enough counter space. I keep them all on a bakers rack in my laundry room. A day or two before the party, I pull them out, and prep my kitchen to be ready for easy entertaining. I do love the cooking, and prep work, but I also want to make sure that I will also be able to enjoy the party, and not be rushing around at the last minute.

Typically, I make anything I can the day before, and then reheat it the day of the party. Well, everything except the main protein. I find that if I have prepared the salads, dips, breads, and deserts the day before, I can clean up, and then only make the protein the day of. It really makes for easy entertaining. At the end of this post I have included a few posts with additional hospitality ideas to make your life easy, and your parties awesome.

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Decorate Your Home, Simply

1  Freestanding Chalkboards

First, I love to Set Up Free Standing Chalkboards. I use a few different sizes, so that I can simply share information with my guests. You can write something all inclusive like, “Buffet, Please Help Yourself!”, or something catchy such as “Libation Station”. You can use regular chalk or chalkboard markers. You can also use mini chalkboard signs to share information about each dish on your buffet. This is great if you are serving spicy foods, have guests with allergies, or unusual foods that guests would not know without titles.

2 Quality Table Cloth

I have a good quality table cloth for each season. Because I invested in quality, I don’t have to worry about purchasing a table cloth every time I host a party or dinner. I have Fall, Christmas, Winter, Spring, and Summer. It makes it nice because I never have to think about which Table Cloth I will use. I typically stay away from plain black or white table cloths as they show wear and spills easily. I like to use a printed table cloth that minimizes the look of spills, and adds to the overall decoration of the room and table.

3  Extra Chairs

Have you ever had a party where you had to pull every desk chair, vanity chair, and the piano bench to seat your guests? I have, and that was when I decided to purchase extra chairs so I would have some semblance of uniformity. We have 8 chairs with our dinning room set, but our usual guest list is around 15. It would be very expensive to purchase an additional 8 dinning room chairs, so we have a stash of extra chairs in the garage. I would recommend stacking chairs or folding chairs for easy storage.

Cooking

4- A Large Roaster

I LOVE my Large Oster Roaster. It makes my life so easy! My son gave me one for Christmas one year, and I have been using it ever since. I have used it to cook turkeys, two roasts at a time for pulled pork, 5 racks of ribs, and used it to serve large amounts of spaghetti buffet style. I love that on major holidays it gives me free use of my oven, because the main protein is being cooked in the roaster.

5- Crock-Pots make for Easy Entertaining

I use my Crock-Pot’s (yes plural) all of the time. I have 3 different sizes and use them for regular meal preparation, and also for serving when I have parties. Large Crock-Pots  are perfect for cooking a couple of chickens or keeping a large pasta dinner warm for serving. A medium Crock-Pot is perfect for keeping Spiced Cider Warm, or 20 servings of Mashed Potatoes. And Mini Crock-Pots are perfect for keeping dips, sauces, or gravy warm. You can also get a Mini Tri Crock-Pot that is perfect for keeping multiple multiple items warm, which is perfect for fondue!

10 Hospitality Tips for Easy Entertaining

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6- Stacking Bowls

I have two different sets of stacking bowls that I use constantly while preparing for, and serving at parties. One of the things I love is that they nest easily inside of each other, and can make a bright pop of color to the table. I use them both in preparing for dinner and serving. Mine are plastic, but I also highly recommend getting a glass set as well depending on the age of your family and guests.

Serving

7 The Multi Use server

I love the idea of this, and have it on my Christmas list for this year! I love to have buffet style meals like Taco or Sandwich Bars. Sometimes, there is not enough space to put out bowls or plates with all of the condiments. This solves that problem! You can fill the Multi-Use server with a thin line of ice if you are going to be adding cold items like vegetables for a sandwich bar or salad bar toppings. You can also use it for Taco Toppings, dips, outside BBQ, really anything! And if you have guests coming and going, you can close the lid to keep things fresh and outside, fly free!  I realize I should not be as excited about this product as I am…..but the possibilities are endless!

8 Corning Serving Dishes

This set of Corning Serving Dishes is amazing!!!! Two of the dishes come with glass lids, and several come with plastic lids for easy storage. They for the most part nest inside each other and are so versatile. I use them for cooking, baking, and serving, as well as storage. They truly make the food the showpiece as they provide a white background. They look nice on any tablecloth or backdrop. I love them! The truth is….they belong to my sister. I purchased them for her years ago. She moved back in a few years ago, and I used them constantly. When she left, we traded a few dishes. She left these because she could see I used them so often.

9  Extra Set of Silverware

Have you ever had a party and realized that you didn’t have enough silverware to serve everyone? Yikes! I think having an extra set of Silverware is such a wise investment. First, you won’t have to worry if you have enough, and second you won’t have to waste money on plastic-ware that is thrown out and bad for the environment.

Fun Things to Do

10 Games and Activities

I always love to have a planned activity. When we have a larger group we either play a lawn game in the summer or fall, or play Pictionary on a whiteboard or charades. It makes the event so much more fun, and helps people to mingle and truly get to know each other without having to come up with conversation starters.

10 Hospitality Tips for Easy Entertaining

If you would like more ideas on Hospitality, read my post Fall Chili Bar and 5 Easy Hospitality Tips. And you can check out my Easy Hospitality Ideas.  I hope you have enjoyed this post and will use these tips on Easy Entertaining to make your next family dinner or party fun for your guests, and yourself as well! Feel free to share your Easy Entertaining ideas in the comments below and share this post on social media.

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10 Hospitality Tips for Easy Entertaining