Most people enjoy a good party but if you’re the host it involves a lot of work both before and afterwards. There’s the food and drink to buy and plan for, you need to make sure your home is ready to receive your guests and you need to think about the music too. Of course it’s all worth it when the party gets underway and the guests start arriving – providing everyone has a good time of course!

Unfortunately the partygoers will have a better time than the hosts, especially once the party is over. They get to thank the hosts and then disappear back home, leaving the party venue looking more like a disaster zone than a home. If you’ve ever hosted a party before you’ll know what this feels like and you’ll know how much work is involved to get things back to normal.

That’s why it makes sense to focus on this ahead of time to make the task easier. For example, make sure you have emptied all your bins prior to the party, so people can use them when they have rubbish to get rid of. You might actually want to double-bag them in case any food or half-filled cans of drink end up going in there. While we’re on the subject of bin bags make sure you have a good supply of them in place before the party. Some kind souls might actually stay back and help clear up – it does happen! If you’ve got a healthy supply of bin bags to hand out it makes the job easier and faster.

It might also be prudent to check you have a good supply of cleaning products. Think of antibacterial spray for the kitchen worktops, polish for your furniture and perhaps some spot cleaner just in case anyone spills anything on the carpet or sofa. The better prepared you are to handle anything you come up against either during or after the party, the easier it will be to get things back to normal again.

Finally if you really can’t face the clear-up process but you still want to host a great party, you could always outsource the cleaning beforehand. It certainly takes the load off if you want your house back to normal again as quickly as possible with as little hard work as required.