How to Make Your Home the Best Place for a Summer Gathering

*Collaborative Post

Summer is approaching quickly, and you may feel like you’re running out of time to get ready. Luckily, you still have time to prepare your home to be a hot spot for gatherings this season. Your home is full of warmth and love, and if you want to share that with other people, you need to get ready for the season. Here are a few ways to prepare that will leave your home the most-desired spot for every get-together.

1. Improve Your Landscaping

It’s summer, and since the weather will be nice, more people will want to spend time outside. Nature has healing properties, in that it can improve your immune system and lower blood pressure levels. To improve your landscaping, consider adding seasonal florals or repainting your porch. You may want to trim any unruly areas and pull up weeds in flower beds. When your home’s exterior looks clean, people will be more likely to spend time out there.

2. Don’t Skip Spring Cleaning

A springtime full of work leads to a summertime full of play. Nobody wants to hang out in a dirty house. Try to scrub it from top to bottom, decluttering along the way. The fewer items you must keep up with, the less you’ll have to clean routinely.

Start out with your living room and kitchen, the main gathering places in your home. Then, you can move on to the bathroom and dining room. Last, tackle any bedrooms that people may see. You should also aim to clean up your lawn if you want to host people outside and don’t plan to do any additional landscaping.

3. Lean Into What Makes Your Home Unique

You might have part of your home that stands out from the rest. Lean into that unique feature and incorporate it as a major part of your gatherings. For example, if you have a Tiki bar outside — or just a bar with a thatched roof — consider making it the focal point of your gatherings by offering mixed drinks, including non-alcoholic ones, to your guests. You can expand that theme further by option for bamboo furniture, which gives off a beachy vibe for the summer. When you work with what you have, you can create an unforgettable experience for guests.

4. Have Entertainment Ready

When you have several people gathering for a party, you need to entertain them somehow. You don’t want everyone to sit around watching television — you want them to spend time with one another. By having entertainment at the ready, you can ensure your guests will be occupied at any point during your gathering.

Some great options for entertainment are as follows:

• Lawn games, like Connect 4 or Tic-Tac-Toe.
• Board games, like Monopoly or Clue.
• Card games, like Apples to Apples or just a plain deck of cards.
• Video games, like Mario Kart or a Jackbox Party Pack.

If you’re creating a schedule for this get-together, you can even make time for tournaments or synchronized playtimes. You can challenge people to become the Tic-Tac-Toe or Mario Kart champion, then gift a small prize to whoever wins.

5. Add Lighting

Some gatherings are bound to stretch out until the sun goes down. LED lights are by far the most energy-efficient option, so you should purchase those bulbs when considering your outdoor lighting. However, since yellow or amber light attracts fewer insects, you may want to alter them to have a warmer glow, especially if you anticipate your guests spending a lot of time outside. The right lighting and light fixtures can bring warmth to your outdoor areas and entice people to spend time in the nice weather. Perfect lighting would also contribute to the comfort of your guests especially if you’re planning to blast some music through the speakers or you could use silent disco headphones to avoid any complaints and disturbances and just dance away until dawn. 

6. Put Out Seasonal Decorations

The holidays aren’t the only time that calls for decoration. Swap out anything in your home that might exude spring, like tea towels or faux flowers. It’s time to lean into summer decoration, which likely entails more green and sunnier spots in your home. Keep your windows open longer and opt for richer colors over the pastels of spring.

However, you may not want to include seasonal disposable items on your checklist. Unless you’re having a specific themed party, neutral plates, napkins and cups are just fine. Alternatively, if you have a smaller gathering, try to use things you already own instead of buying disposable items that will just go to waste. You can still pick out colors that go well with the season.

7. Ensure Your Appliances Are Up-to-Date

If your house is the go-to for gatherings with your loved ones, you need to ensure everything works well. You need your appliances to be tip-top to handle everything a gathering could bring. For example, does your fridge work well enough to chill a grand amount of food for a party with dozens of people? Is your air conditioning working well enough for anyone who wants to come inside and escape the heat?

Don’t wait until something isn’t working to make a chance. You can opt for preventive maintenance, which is a routine maintenance check to ensure everything works as it should. Preventive care can save you money on costly repairs and ensure that your appliances live out their life spans — and that they’ll pull through for you on a big day.

Host the Greatest Gathering This Summer

By getting your house ready and equipping it with everything a successful get-together needs, you’ll host a party that will make memories that will last a lifetime. Depending on the temperature in your area, you may want to have ample indoor and outdoor spaces prepared for the number of people you’re inviting. Summertime should give you several opportunities to spend time with the people you love. Make sure your gatherings are stress-free and full of fun that guests of all ages will enjoy.

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.