How to have friends over when you have a super tiny house

parcoeliz

Hello
My DH and I have a very small house, awkward layout, and definitely no open concept. It's about 600 square feet. We have no dining room and barely enough room for a kitchen table! We've been in an apartment that is bigger than this.
We are renovating and restoring a very large home that we hope to be in w/in a year at this point.
My question is....how do we have other couples (and kids) over to entertain/dinner? We need to start taking our turns in hosting instead of depending on other ppl to always have us over. In the summer it's different. We can have an outside BBQ and a bonfire etc. but what about the cold months?
I feel bad bc we have no space.
How do you ladies manage to entertain if you live in a small space?

gymbugmj2k

Summer sounds awesome, and definitely pick up entertaining then.... but in the winter months, I personally wouldn't offer to entertain at your house. Hubby and I have a 1500sqft house and a huge italian family.  I don't even bother offering to host holidays since we can only fit 8 people at our table!  Throughout the house we did manage to fit about 20 for our housewarming, but that was definitely noticeably 'cozy'....thank goodness we had outdoor space.

Crowded rooms (especially with kids) can feel SUPER small really quickly - especially if there are no other rooms to escape to in order to quiet down for a minute or to.  I've been to gatherings in tiny awkward homes and honestly, even though the company was great, i felt uncomfortable and constantly in the way.  I left feeling a lot more unhappy then when I arrived.

If you do want to entertain, perhaps keep it small.  Buffet types of dinners so that people can eat wherever might work.  dual purpose furniture for extra seating in small spaces is helpful too.

moonprincessd

It depends on what your interests are. We have a small house too, big back yard, so summer is our prime time for grilling out and bonfires.

In the winter we're more casual, playing board games, watching movies. I don't know if that's your thing, depends on what your group of friends do. We're more laid back, basically nerds.

cakergirl

Instead of planning your space around the meal/event, try planning the event to fit your meal. ie rather than attempting a dinner party or mea, try having a fondue or appetizer party. You could do "stations" like drinks on in the kitchen counter, snacks in the living room, and desserts/sweets on the kitchen table. You could also try getting some nice flooding TV trays and folding chairs to p Ace in the living room for extra seating. Keep them stowed away until more people start arriving and need a palace to sit