5 Tricks to Save Hours of Time When you are Planning an Event

Your event is on Friday and you are starting to plan for having people over. But today is Monday and your boss just gave you a big project to finish this week, the kids have swim lessons on Wednesday, and you still need to shop for your Mom’s birthday before your Amazon shipping window closes. Sound familiar? Life can get hectic and it’s almost guaranteed that the chaos will be the worse when you have plans!

So, to save your sanity and add a little bit of time back into your week, here are 5 tricks to try when planning your event.

Trick #1: Prep and plan the dinner in the week before your event.

Remove the stress of cooking right before people come over and pre-chop and prepare your ingredients, or better yet, splurge the extra few cents to buy the chopped versions if available at the grocery store. I did this with my soup ingredients one time and chopped up my carrots, onions, and celery the day before. Then when it came time to make my soup I could just toss them in, and saved myself the onion tears while I was cooking! Side note, don’t do this for the ingredients that will brown quickly, such as potatoes, apples, and avocados! Time saved: 30 minutes

Trick #2: Set your table and pull out all needed serving trays in the morning

This is an easy one to do with your coffee cup in hand on the morning of your event. Just pull out all the things you will need and stack them on your counter for easy access when you are ready to set your table. What I love about this is you have time to process what you need before it gets too busy. If it will survive the plans you have for the day, and any kids that run around, go ahead and set the table. If not, at least, everything will be pulled down from that high shelf and ready for you!

This idea was a moment of brilliance on Superbowl Sunday when I had ten million appetizers planned for the football fans coming over to my house. I arranged all the bowls and trays on my island in the morning, and set the unopened bags of chips in the bowls and put serving spoons in the empty ones that I needed to serve cold/hot. When everyone started arriving I was able to delegate the chip bags opening to the first person who came, while I pulled things out of the fridge. My set up was done in less than 5 minutes! Time saved: 15 minutes

Trick #3: Prepare all beverages beforehand

This works for both adult beverages and non-alcoholic ones alike. Making sweet tea? Create a concentrated starter so all you have to do is add water to your pitcher! Planning on coffee after dinner? Pour the water in and add the grinds so all you have to do is press start! Serving margaritas? Mix and chill in a pitcher so it’s ready to go over the rocks or into the blender immediately! AND side benefit, if you need to drink a margarita while you are getting last minute details ready for your party, it is already prepared for you. Win, win, friends. Time saved: 30 minutes

Trick #4: Save tupperware or containers for your guests to take leftovers

My mom is the originator of this fun trick. I happen to love leftovers and at Thanksgiving it is always the best thing in the world to be able to load up a tupperware of my favorite dishes to enjoy again the next day. Besides being the best host trick in the book, this saves you tons of time emptying out those casserole dishes. Just invite all your guests to make a ToGo box and they will do all the work for you! Just save those whipped cream containers or get some cheap tupperware for that purpose and you are ready! Time saved: 15 minutes

Trick #5: Use The Fancy Dime’s Sugarcane Plates for a guilt-free cleanup

Ok… shameless plug, but this is actually a sanity saver! We designed this product for this very moment! After a party, the last thing you want to tackle is a sink full of dishes. And even if you have incredibly kind guests who help load your dishwasher, you would still need to put everything away. Just skip all that and use our eco-friendly disposable plates. You can toss them in the trash without a care in the world and the kitchen is clean of dirty dishes. Time saved: 30 minutes

So there you have it 5 tricks to save your sanity and save you hours of time when you are event planning. Happy hosting and good luck!