Entertaining with a small kitchen and dining room

[ourbabygirl]

We moved to a smaller house this year. I love it and wanted to move into a smaller place (less to take clean, decorate, and more realistic for our lifestyle, especially once the kids are grown and gone), but I'm wondering how to maximize the kitchen and dining (and living room) spaces for entertaining.
We honestly don't entertain much, so even though our last house was much better for that, it wasn't worth paying for and cleaning into retirement age. But as my parents get older, I'm sure my mom won't want to host holidays anymore, and currently, having 20 of us in one area for the kids' birthday parties (especially in the winter when we're cooped up inside) gets a bit tight. Over time, the kids and their friends and cousins will get older and bigger, and we'll all take up more space. Our kitchen and dining areas are also more compact now, and we have less food storage/ cooking space (in our other house we had double ovens, as well as an extra kitchen area in the downstairs with a full-size fridge).

If you have a smaller kitchen and dining area, how do you maximize your space as far as seating, displaying foods on counters and such, and working with a smaller fridge (and no extra one in the garage or basement) and "just" ;) one oven? Do you have a strategy of having fewer dishes with less storage, keeping dishes out of the sink (ours is in the island and we have an open floor plan), etc.? How about a table situation that serves multiple purposes, maybe? We haven't bought any new furniture since we've been here, but I want to be really smart and intentional about any future furniture, dish, and décor purchases. I don't want everything looking super cluttered, so I'm trying to be more organized, streamlined, and minimal in decorating.

Thanks for your tips! :)

[wencit]

Our house is not terribly big (1850 sq ft), but is fine for our purposes, and we have no plans to move into a bigger home. We do have an open floor plan, so that helps to make it seem a little bigger than it really is. When I entertain, it's usually just a few friends, but once a year, I hold a holiday party for about 20 adults and make all food from scratch. I have many of the limitations you mentioned above - small kitchen, one refrigerator, no basement, little storage, limited counter space, single oven (my biggest complaint). Here are some of the tips I've discovered over the years that work for me.

We don't have a ton of furniture to start with because our house isn't that big, but we move anything extra upstairs just for the evening of the party so there is no clutter. Both my formal dining table and everyday kitchen table extend out, and I also put up one of those cheap plastic folding tables. I cover them all with tablecloth to hide the extensions and put most of my food on them. The open floor plan works well for spacing people fairly evenly around the whole downstairs area, although guests generally tend to congregate around the food, so I try to put it in the biggest, most open area.

As for menu planning, I am careful to make a mix of hot, cold, and room temperature dishes. I also have one of those Breville toaster ovens, so I can heat up smaller dishes in it. I guess I have more like 1.5 ovens. ;) I have a meticulous schedule for when certain dishes go into the oven, down to 5 minute increments. Since most of the food is being heated serially, I keep the earlier dishes warm either on a warming tray or in a disposable chafer. I try to make use of a crockpot or Instant Pot as much as I can since both appliances have "keep warm" functions. While prepping the food earlier in the day, I wash and put away as many dishes as I can. Then, during the last 60-90 minutes of cooking insanity, I throw any dirty dishes/pots/pans into the dishwasher, not necessarily to load it, but just to keep them from being eyesores. I have also been known to throw my big half sheet pans into the garage to keep the kitchen as clutter-free as possible. Again, this is just temporary for the evening of the party. For an event this big, I use disposable plates, napkins, and cutlery so that guests don't have to find a place to put their used dishes.

The week before, I completely clean out my fridge. I throw away old condiments and rotting veggies, and the family eats leftovers so that the fridge is as empty as possible. I also make ahead and freeze any possible dishes (think gougeres or mini meatballs) so some of the food is stored in the freezer, freeing up more valuable fridge space. It's like a Tetris puzzle, trying to fit food for 20 adults into a 16-year-old side-by-side refrigerator, but I somehow manage to do it every year.

It definitely requires more work and creativity to entertain in a small house, but it can be done. And honestly, the people I invite into my home are my cherished family and friends. I don't sweat the small stuff or worry about what they think regarding the cramped quarters. I just make sure they feel loved and welcomed, and in turn, they don't mind that they have to sit in folding chairs. At least, no one has said anything to me. If they do, they certainly won't be invited back next year, LOL!

[jerseygirl07067]

I have a family of 5 living in 1800 square feet. We bought our house before we had kids and if I had to do it all over again, I wish I would have bought about 2500 square feet, but our house is more than half paid off, and my oldest will be in college in 4 years so we decided 3 years ago not to upsize, and to just stay where we are. The home I would want now is more than double what we paid for ours, so not worth it, imo. I decluttered the whole house, after reading the Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy by Marie Kondo. I sold most of our furniture on craigslist and our local buy sell trade pages, and bought nice second hand pieces to make our house feel updated and bigger. I love it, and we get lots of comments that our house looks much bigger than it is.

My most important tip...round (or oval) pedestal tables are awesome. You can fit so many more chairs around them for entertaining. We have two 48 inch round tables with a butterfly leaf that stores in the table itself, one in the kitchen nook and one in the dining room. When opened into an oval, you can fit 8-10 chairs around the table. It's a bit tight, but totally doable. I usually display all of the food in the kitchen and everyone helps themselves then come over to the table. For larger gatherings like Thanksgiving we use two extra folding tables that we keep in the garage as well as a bunch of nice folding chairs I bought on Amazon. For any larger gatherings like our New Years Eve party, or the kids parties, we do that on the patio. Granted I live in Florida, so the weather is conducive to outdoor parties most of the year. I set up tables and bring the food outside, and set up extra chairs and tables as needed for parties as well.


For dinnerware, I have a set of Mikasa Ultima + every day plates in white, that I use for special occasions as well, so only one set of dishes is needed (I have 16 of each piece), but will admit I have a small set of Corelle I like too, since it is lightweight and takes up minimal space. I only keep the pots and casserole dishes that we use, and if there is anything in my kitchen that has not been used in 1-2 years, we don't keep it. I don't have any large appliances on my countertops other than a toaster and a blender which we use very frequently. (We are not coffee drinkers so I have a very small coffeemaker that is stored in my cabinet until holidays and parties). I have a set of really nice Oneida Stainless that we also use everyday, but it is nice enough to be used for special occasions as well.


As much as I would love a bigger house, I love being forced to live more minimalist like. We have really made it work. Owning less stuff = less clutter!


Interestingly in my family room, I got rid of our couch, Barcalounger and accent chair and ottoman and replaced it with a very large sectional with a chaise on one end. It actually makes the room look bigger because it is one big piece as opposed to 4 separate pieces like we had before, and you can fit 9-10 people on the couch very easily. I then use ottoman cubes for extra seating. Then there is more seating at the kitchen table if needed so there is plenty for us!

Of course my kids always say that want more space but we have really made our house work for us. The beauty is not having the expense of a bigger house and when my mom became ill a few months ago, I was able to cut back my work hours and not stress because we have a cheap mortgage. :)

[SnuggleBuggles]

From your posts, it sounds like you moved from a mini mansion to a larger normal sized house. It’s not as small as you think it is and I bet if you start visiting comparable houses you’ll find they’re very adequate for entertaining. :) people won’t mind parties at your smaller house.

One thing that helps is folding tables. Put a nice tablecloth on them. I use one for drinks and another for desserts at our standard party. Now, I do have 2 fridges and find that to be a huge help. Instead of fancy new furniture, some Costco folding tables and a new cheap fridge w freezer would be nice if you can fit it.

Most oven problems are easily solved with planning. I’ve never had double ones and haven’t missed them. Things like crockpots can be used for some situations.

Depending on the size of the party, I sometimes use disposable paper ware. They make some decent options.

I know my party systems are always being fine tuned (I only bought that 2nd folding table 2 years ago) and you’ll also live and learn. People will remember your hospitality (and refreshments:)) most of all. Don’t sweat the house size. It is what it is. It’s still bigger than a lot of people have. I’ve been to great parties in 900sq ft homes before. It’s what you make of it.


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[Jeanne]

I don't have a small space but wanted to add that for me, it's been more about the amount of serving pieces to clean up and store. I have been hosting large family parties for 20 years now. I own a ton of fancy serving pieces that must be stored in various places in the house. It's so high maintenance and way too many things to clean up each year. We were cleaning things for days.

3 years ago I ordered the large version of this piece. PB doesn't sell the large one anymore but I love this thing more than I can say. Best $200 (on sale at the time) I ever spent. It has replaced a table full of fancy tiered serving pieces. The top tiers are for sandwiches and appetizers. I place a smaller tray on the bottom marble base with a dip that requires bread slices and then just place the bread all around the dip tray. The large one is restaurant large. Not sure I could get as much service out of the smaller one with the amount of people I host. As the food depletes, I just place more out. The amount of time and energy this thing has saved me is incredible.

Wasn't sure at first how I was going to use this but I have since tailored all menus to ensure this is the main serving piece. The glass panes can be cleaned in place before the piece breaks down for storage. The arms unscrew from the base so it stores well.

Click on the second picture that shows the displace with glassware.
https://www.potterybarn.com/products/plaza-entertaining-stand-gold/?pkey=ccake-tiered-stands&isx=0.0.2760

[smiles33]

We moved from a house with a huge kitchen that had tons of counter space, double ovens, etc. to a house with a much smaller kitchen and just 3 narrow kitchen counters (one has the microwave on it, one has a dish rack, the corner between the two has coffee/tea stuff, and then one 2' space is for DH to prep veggies--he does all the cooking in our house). Thankfully, after we went to a cooking class in an equally small home kitchen in Asia, DH borrowed an idea we saw in her kitchen of a "flip-up" counter that blocks off the walkway but allows him to add more counter space. It looks like this so it's quite wide (but ours is just a wood butcher block, not fancy stone):

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/48/b2/48/48b248fd4f8b7a35d40b62ebdf7be2de.jpg

He bought the hardware and the wood butcher block off Amazon. This enables us to serve another 4-5 large platters of food in addition to the food that has to be "displayed" on the stove due to such limited counter space. It is very handy as we entertain 25-30 relatives 3/year (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Mother's Day). We put all the food in the kitchen where people serve themselves. Then we have folding tables in the family room and just squeeze people in.

I like the other poster's idea about a tiered serving platter. We use a TON of platters since DH cooks so many courses and it takes 3 dishwasher loads plus lots of handwashing to get it all clean. When I'm lazy (since I do all the cleaning), I use paper plates but MIL hates paper plates so I usually use real plates so I don't annoy her. Sadly, the only people who ever offer to help me clean is my mom, my brother, and DH's aunt (in her 70s!). None of the cousins, in-laws, etc. offer. In my cultural tradition, the young people are supposed to help clean up but none of the ones on DH's side ever offers. Anyhow, I have to shove dirty pots/trays/utensils in the garage as we just don't have the space to leave it in the kitchen. I also usually take out 3-4 bags of garbage as DH is cooking so guests don't have to walk by a full garbage can. I try to do a quick wipe-down and ensure the sink looks presentable before guests are invited into the kitchen to get their food.

Since DH cooks, he has everything on a schedule and no one is allowed in the tiny kitchen to get in his way (other than me emptying the garbage if I ask for permission to enter first!). I'm also not allowed to clean up as he goes, since the kitchen is too small. He sometimes will wash things when he's in-between tasks, but there's so much to do that it's all I can do to try to wipe it up before service. We only have 1 oven here, but DH makes sure to use his Instant Pot, Sous Vide, BBQ grill, smoker, slow cooker, and Breville toaster oven. Typical menus tend to feature food he can spread out amongst the various appliances: salmon on cedar planks (BBQ grill), prime rib (sous vide and then smoker), "baked" beans (which he cooks slowly on the stovetop), homemade mashed potatoes (stovetop), roast turkey (oven), green beans (stovetop), etc. He also does some cold food that can be prepared ahead of time and don't have to be re-heated (e.g., Deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, side salads, etc. that can be placed in our second fridge in the garage).

Hope this helps!

[niccig]

Like others said, you figure out the menu around your cooking options.
I did replace my range with range with double ovens, and it was best decision ever. Only have one fridge. I got rid of our chest freezer but could see getting a small garage fridge/freezer.

As for storage, our detached garage has a wall of cabinets and I used to put extra appliances, baking dishes out there. We’ve since remodeled the kitchen and expanded the size, so now it’s all inside.

I have stacking dishes so it doesn’t take much to store, and I keep the platters etc in buffet. All our furniture has storage - coffee table is chest, sofa table is a long narrow chest for table linens. You find the storage. Plus only keep what you know you’ll use. I never used fondue pot so that was donated.

We have 3 folding tables and chairs in garage for seating. A nice table cloth and they’re fine to use. We need to get a new dining room table and I want one with extra leaf.

I’d like to entertain more, but the cleaning before is always an issue. I end up too busy to enjoy the party.


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[abh5e8]

We have used many of the ideas listed above. I also used to store platters hanging on the wall, some in the kitchen and the rest in the stairway to the (finished) basement. I love the range with a double oven. The second oven feels small, but it's just as powerful, and I just plan meals to include something that is flat to fit in the second oven.

[elbert]

We use a lot of these ideas, too. I load the dishwasher as I go and run it, and once it’s doing its things, all other dirty pots, plates, cooking utensils, etc., we bring up large storage bins and put everything in there and bring it to the basement until we’re ready to clean up. Out of sight so it doesn’t stress me and I can have a semi-clean kitchen and surfaces for service. The challenge in the winter is cleaning out the debris in the bins afterwards, and I’ve been known to leave them outside for a few days until I feel like it’s warm enough to turn on the water outside to clean the bins out.


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