Parenting Pointers: 12 Steps to Holiday Party Bliss

Tis the season to party!  Now that December is here, the holiday party season is in full swing. It’s time to pull out all the sparkling decorations, lay out the food, invite the friends, and crank up the music!   However, even the jolliest of hosts can find this time of year to be extremely stressful. You want to celebrate and you want people to visit, but finding the time to get your home ready can be overwhelming and then there is the post-party clean-up!

The local experts with Two Maids & A Mop, a residential cleaning franchise, are ready to make life easier for hosts and hostesses this December.  They have created these 12 Steps to Holiday Party Bliss. 

1. Start cleaning early! Give your entire home a once-over, including the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. Getting a jump on the cleaning should help lower your level of stress as you get closer to the party date.

• Don’t try to do it in one day. Budget your time to clean rooms. Set a timer for 10 minutes, don’t get distracted, clean top to bottom, left to right.
• Save time dusting. Use a pillowcase to dust ceiling fan blades or a paint brush to wipe dust off baseboards or lamp shades.
• Wash dishes as you cook, multi-task, so you can cut down on what you must do after eating.

2. Protect your prized possessions. The last thing you want is for a tipsy neighbor to bump into your china cabinet and break the irreplaceable platter you inherited from your grandmother. Before guests arrive, clear away any fragile or irreplaceable items that could break. Stash them in either a closet or on high shelves.

3. Don’t forget the last-minute touches. Just like hair and makeup, it’s all in the details. In the final hours before your guests arrive, be sure and take this time to give your house a once-over.

• Polish kitchen counters, faucets and sinks with a household cleaner and paper towels.
• Wipe down bathroom surfaces, clean bathroom mirrors, add a splash of toilet bowl cleaner, hang fresh towels.
• Vacuum carpets or use a dust mop on hard-surface flooring.

4. Talkin’ trash. Gossip at a party is a given, but no one wants to see a pile of beer cans, wine bottles and paper plates in the corner. Garbage accumulates quickly during a party. Just to be safe, try either double or triple lining trash cans, so you already have a clean bag in place when a full bag is removed.

5. Be on guard for party fouls. You look over and your crazy uncle is slinging his beer mug around as he relives his Army days. Keep microfiber cloths and paper towels nearby, so you can react quickly to spills and other accidents.

6. Use a special recipe for a red wine disaster. It’s a mess that a wet cloth will not fix. Set out a bottle of vinegar and/or liquid handwashing soap just in case your cousin trips while walking to the kitchen for a refill and splashes cabernet all over your favorite rug.

Blot up as much of the wine as possible.

• Use plain water or mix 1 tablespoon of liquid handwashing soap and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and 2 cups warm water.
• Use a clean white cloth to “sponge” the stain with plain water. Apply slowly, blot frequently with dry cloth untilstain disappears.

7. Everyone loves free food. Cut down on the leftovers you gotta shove in your fridge by putting out food containers so you can hand out the extras to your guests at the end of the night.

8. As soon as the party is over, it is time for you to get moving. Once guests start to clear out, clear off counter space. Most of your mess will be glasses and dishes, make sure you have plenty of room to stack plates as you get ready to clean.

9. Cold water is magical! Nothing is more frustrating than trying to scrape food caked onto a plate. When faced with food stained dishes, use cold water first. Hot water can “cook” the food onto surfaces, making them even harder to scrub.

10. A secret sauce can dissolve mysterious stains. You didn’t notice it during the party, but your nephew managed to smudge a plate of food into your couch and you can’t tell what kind of food is stuck on the fabric. Dab it with a teaspoon of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide mixed with a little cream of tartar or white (non-whitening) toothpaste and rub with a soft cloth. The spot should fade away.

11. Washing away water rings. The party’s over and you spot a sea of glasses on furniture around your house. Under almost every glass is an ugly water ring. You can use a few unlikely products to try and make the rings disappear.

• Mayonnaise: an oldie but goody. Wipe full-fat mayo on a ring, leave it on for about an hour, then buff with a clean, microfiber cloth.
• Olive oil and salt: Mix a teaspoon of salt with a few drops of olive oil, rub the ring until it is gone.

12. Your party rocked, just look at your floors. The celebration is over and you look down to find scuff marks across your beautiful hardwoods. Guess what? An easy fix could be next to your tennis racket.

• Do use a tennis ball to get rid of scuff marks on many hard-surface floors.
• Don’t use just any cleaner to mop up a mess on hardwoods, if possible, look up the manufacturer’s recommendation for how to clean.