It's that time of year again. Daylight savings is just around the corner, which means a whole lot more sun, barbecues and friends over for dinner to celebrate the warmer weather.
However, if you're an entertainer at heart you probably already know with throwing a good party comes the inevitable clean-up and dealing with the accidents that go hand in hand with a tonne of food and drinks.
So how can you be prepared, and what should you do if a barbecue blunder or cleaning catastrophe occurs?
We've put together a quick list of tips to make sure that all of your warm-weather entertaining goes swimmingly, both before and after the party. Enjoy!
If you know you have guests coming around for a night of entertainment, some of the best work towards keeping your home spick and span happens before your visitors even arrive. Here are a few little entertaining tips and tricks you can put to good use before the party.
There's nothing worse than spending your evening panicking that there are watermark rings being left on your brand new, wooden table top, or that a red wine stain is going to make it's way into the cracks and grooves of your dining room table. A really quick way to make sure you're safe form any table-top mishaps, is to invest in a few tablecloths. Any spills or mishaps are no problem - simply clear away the table cloth and pop it in the washing machine. Easy.
If you're planning on having a few drinks at your shindig, the best piece of advice we can offer is to have bin bags ready and in plain sight for any rubbish, and your recycling bins positioned near by so your guests can easily dispose of their used cans and bottles. If people can see where their rubbish is meant to go, the more likely they'll be respectful and do the right thing, plus, it'll save you a whole lot of time in the morning.
Once upon a time, it was an awesome idea to simply use plastic plates to avoid doing a tonne of dishes after a party. But, these day's if you're looking for a more environmentally friendly approach, all the while saving yourself elbow grease the next day, we'd recommend some dish-washing prep. That means emptying the dishwasher before guests arrive, so they can put their used dishes straight in. Or, alternatively fill your sink or a tub with hot soapy water, and encourage guests to place their used dishes there. You'll avoid stacks of dirty plates, everything will be rinsed and ready for a hand wash.
If you have a nice sunny day on your hands, and enough of an area (maybe a deck or lawn) for entertainment, why not make the most of it? We'd recommend moving as much as you can of your party outdoors. Whether that means creating a makeshift bar on an outdoor table, or moving your seating on to the deck, if it's outdoors you don't have to worry about spills and stains
If you didn't use the table cloth trick we mentioned above and you've now woken up the the next morning to discover that there are water marks on your table from drinks the night before. Don't panic. Grab your non-gel toothpaste and rub it onto the water ring, then buff with a clean cloth. Simple as that, the water ring will disappear.
Sometimes if things get a little wild, accidents do happen. There's nothing more difficult than trying to pick up 100 shards of glass from a carpet so not to accidentally hurt any passers-by. Fortunately, there's a handy trick to get this all done and dusted without a single scratch. Begin by sweeping up as much as you can with a dustpan, then follow up by using a piece of bread to dab up the smaller pieces of glass. Crazy, we know, but it works!
Maybe you were setting the ambience at the dinner table, or maybe you were going for a little mood lighting at your event - if there were candles involved, chances are that a little wax has dripped and hardened where it shouldn't have. Luckily, all you need to do is put a few ice cubes in a plastic bag, then rest the bag on top of the cooled wax. After a few minutes the wax will become brittle and you'll be able to peel it straight off.
If the dreaded occurs and there's a red wine spill on the carpet, don't worry, there is a way to fix it! Grab a bottle of Rug Doctor Spot Remover, an follow the steps below:
If you need a little extra help, check out our video on removing acidic based carpet stains.
No problem! Download your FREE copy of the home maintenance guide and keep your home neat and tidy all year round.