Eco-Friendly Party Planning Checklist: How to Prioritize Reusables at Your Next Houseparty
Not everyone has a Type A personality quite like mine and even still it’s hard to think about planning an event – months or event weeks in advance.
Tell me if this sounds all-too familiar…
It’s the beginning of October and you’re thinking, maybe this year you’ll host an incredible Halloween party to see all of your friends and family to eat lots of delicious food and event develop a signature cocktail. You’ll even put up some money for nicer decorations or cups that can be reused at a later date (wink face).
Two week goes by and you may have mentioned the party plans to a friend or two but you still haven’t done anything in regards to planning. You think, you’ll officially send out an invite. You create an event on Facebook and share it with all your friends and family, then shoot a text over to those two people who don’t have social media.
But then, a work thing comes up that keeps you occupied. You know have less than a week to get it together – YIKES!
On Friday after work, you rush off to the dollar store to grab some last-minute decorations and cheap candy only to find that half the aisles are EMPTY. As an alternative you decide to grab some paint, markers and poster board because you can hand make some decorations instead.
Next you head over to the grocery store to pick up a plastic platter of fruits, veggies, chips, some red solo cups, paper plates, plastic cutlery and even some pop to make some mixed drinks at the very least (goodbye signature cocktail – saddest face).
Finally you sprint to the LCBO for some bottles of liquor and begin to sweat while huffing and puffing as you wait in the longest line ever..
It’s now Saturday morning, you’re busy tidying up your place, you’ve put up some half-ass decorations onto your walls, you barely have your costume together, you’ve and now everyone’s arrived!
The next morning your place is a disaster and you have 3 – 5 bags of garbage and absolutely filled with guilt.
“HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE CREATED THIS MUCH TRASH WITH JUST ONE PARTY?!” *tears*
Let me tell you, it does not have to be this way. Let’s walk through how I avoid this process and 3 easy tips so you can do the same!
1. MIND MAP IT OUT
First I’ll do a bit of a brain dump to flush out some ideas including theme, place, food and beverage, any decorations needed, gifts, budget etc.
After taking a look at my mind map, I’ll highlight my favourites and go from there.
2. BUDGET!
Set your budget (e.g. $150 or $500) and determine which categories are a priority for you. For example, is it food and beverage or maybe décor or perhaps it’s entertainment? Then, determine a percentage of the budget that you’d like to allocate for each category. Once assigned, multiple the percentage against the dollar amount to find out the dollar amount for each category. See below as an example. Finally, it’s important to STICK TO YOUR BUDGET!
3. Checklist
After completing the first couple of steps, it’s important to follow the eco-friendly party planning checklist below so that you don’t end up in a similar scenario as outlined before!
Simply follow these 3-simple steps and download a copy of the checklist here you should have fewer disasters and far less stress when planning your next party.
