So you’ve just moved into your new home and you couldn’t be more excited; every piece of furniture is just where you want it, you’ve finished repainting all the walls and thrown your brand new rugs enthusiastically across the freshly revealed floorboards after you ripped up that horrid green carpet, and you’ve got the garage door of your dreams from Canadian Doors. How best to mark the momentous occasion of your new house being just so? A big housewarming party, of course. 

What do you need to throw a great housewarming party?

One of the biggest challenges of throwing a great party is making sure you’ve got enough drinks for everyone – and not only enough, but of decent quality. It doesn’t need to be $200 a bottle but if you get cheap drinks – especially wine – people will notice and they will remember. Getting good wine from this website will send you on your way to a delicious event, and it’s not a bad idea to sneakily find out what your favorite guests’ drink of choice is so you can make sure you have a few in on the day. 

You also need to make sure you have a great spread of nibbles ready for everyone to pick at during the evening – but we’d recommend against any hot food. Many people consider hot food an essential aspect of any party, but it just adds to stress for the host and often doesn’t get eaten while it’s still hot anyway.

Be prepared for small talk

Whether it’s your colleague recommending the best audit software for the company or your aunt telling you about her new motorbike, you will need to be prepared to engage in an evening full of small talk. It’s not that what they have to say isn’t interesting – it’s just that it does take some stamina to make sure everyone gets your full attention and feels like a valued guest. You don’t need to create a binder full of everyone’s interests and personal histories, but it won’t hurt to run your eyes over your guest list and make sure you’ve got a few solid questions in mind that you can ask everyone. After all – you’ve invited these people because you want to share this life landmark with them, and they care enough to show up – it’s important to make sure they know you’re interested in their lives.

Planning and hosting a housewarming party can be a stressful event, but if you make sure you’ve got a great drinks menu and enough small talk to fuel an army, you can’t go wrong and will always be remembered as the host with the most.