How to throw a house party
Disclosure: This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
Pick a theme if you want
You don't need to have a theme however it can add to the fun. Your theme can influence decorations, music and the way people dress.
Standard parties are 80s and Togas.
I have also written a list of house party ideas and house party ideas for college students
It's common to have Halloween and Christmas themed parties near or on their dates.
Choose possible party areas
Do you want to host your party in the house, garden or in the garage. You could pick multiple areas if your party is big.
If you're hosting a garden party you might want a backup area in case it rains.
If people with disabilities are coming you may want to read our guide on accessible house parties
Alternatively you can hire a venue if you want to throw a bigger party with more than 20 people. If you know someone with a farm, that might be an additional option.
You may not be able to hold up a party in an AirBnB or hotel. Click here to read information on holding parties in AirBnBs and hotels.
Guest list
How many people do you want at your party? Do you want people to bring guests? These are good questions to ask when planning your guest list.
What mix of genders do you want? Do you want half and half? Do you just want a party with all the same gender as you?
Do you know of people who have attractive friends? Some people may want to consider this.
You might not to invite people who regularly drink too much or start fights. Perhaps you only invite one half of a former couple if they don't get along. Overly loud people could be good to avoid inviting.
It's up to you how strict you want the guest list to be.
Send invitations
It's popular to create a private event on Facebook and invite your Facebook friends. You need to ensure that the event is private if you don't want random people showing up.
Other options for sending invitations include Email, calling/text message, direct message on social media websites, and postal mail.
One advantage that a Facebook event has over the others is it's easy to change details and the Facebook website notifies the guests of the changes. It's important to note some people are not on Facebook constantly so may miss your changes.
Facebook RSVPs can be unreliable. If this is a problem you could say that you need people to RSVP some other way.
You may want to put an end time on your invitations so people know when to leave. Some people also assume that guests will turn up late so they put a start time two hours before they want everyone to arrive.
You need to ensure that people know the location of your party. Most people would include this information on the invites or Facebook event. If your Facebook event is public you may not want your address on the event but you can always message people it.
Other information that you would put on your invites (or Facebook event page) would be the party's theme, whether it bring your own drinks and whether you want people to bring a plate.
Contact others
You might want to contact neighbors to let them know that you're throwing a party. This is just polite.
Contacting people to see if they can be sober attendees might be a good idea to ensure the security of your guests. A bartender might be a good idea to pour guests drinks; even if it is bring your own.
Sort music
You can choose to create a playlist or just listen to the radio or Spotify etc. Creating a playlist could take a few hours.
The music would depend on the party. For example a 80s party would play 80s music. A party of all guys may life rock music. Pop music may be good for a ladies party.
If you're using software to create your playlist don't forget to save occasionally so that you don't lose your work.
If you are hosting parties frequently and don't want to do too many changes to your playlists some services/software have a shuffle feature. This allows you the play the same music in a different order.
We have another article with tips for house party DJs
Buy supplies
You may want to buy decorations, drink and food for your party.
Decorations can be brought once unless your party is a theme you haven't done before.
If it is "bring your own" you may not want to buy alcohol for others. If you're feeling generous you may still want to buy a bottle or two to share. You can do the same with a six pack or two.
You may want to buy food that stays in people's stomach longer to lessen the effect of alcohol. These foods include potatoes, bread, pasta, meat and cheese. You probably wouldn't want overly salty foods as these make people thirsty.
You may want to buy:
If you need a shopping list I have written a separate article on items you need for a house party.
Prepare areas
Put up decorations if you have them.
You may want to remove things from your dance area(s) so people the space to move about.
Ensuring that the pathways are clear and have good lighting will help keep people safe.
You might want to store away valuable or breakable items to keep them safe.
Lock doors
For doors that can be locked, you may want to lock them to limit the rooms your guests can enter.
You can get a door lock at Amazon. Alternatively you could get a door-chain, also at Amazon.
Decide how much you want to drink
It may not be a good look if the host gets totally smashed but of course whether you do so is your decision. If you want to monitor things and be presentable to guests you may want to decide on a reasonable limit.
Ensure guests are monitored
You may want to monitor guests to see if any are causing trouble or getting too wasted. If you don't want to do this yourself you can have some sober attendees do this for you.
Read our article on safe house parties.
Ask how people are getting home
When it's nearly time for the party to end you may want to ask how people are getting home to signal to people that it's time to leave.
Arrange for rides home
An additional step you could take is arranging rides home. You could arrange this with sober attendees or rely on taxis, Lyft and/or Uber.
Thanks for reading
I hope that you have fun throwing a cool house party.
I have an additional article on how to throw a rager or make a boring party fun
There's also an article about the costs of throwing a house party