There’s been drinking, dancing and a whole lot of fun, but now the last guests have left, it’s time to reclaim your home. This is our strategic guide.
Party hosts seem to fall into two groups at the end of the night. Either you’re buzzing from a great evening and bouncing off the ceiling from all the excitement; or you’re ready to drop.
The ceiling bouncers may find that simple tidying tasks will be calming enough to bring on a few hours of good quality sleep. And if you just want your bed, try to think of the night-before clean-up as doing your future self a favour.
Either way, in the post-party haze, you might not be as motivated and competent as you usually are; and it’s difficult to do a really good job of cleaning without daylight – so focus on damage limitation, rather than trying to achieve perfection before dawn.
Don’t leave it until morning
Fire away: Seek out candles and extinguish before you go to bed. Also empty ash trays.
An airing: Open doors and windows to clear out the smell of alcohol, sweat, perfume and smoke while you tidy – but remember to secure your home before you go to bed.
Liquid search : Hunt down half-full bottles and cans left behind curtains or propped against the sofa. Seek out spills and mop them. Gather glassware and put it ready for washing in the morning. Don’t try to wash up if you’re a bit the worse for wear.
Grease be gone: Deal with any leftover food. Cover and store, or compost it.
Delicate surfaces: Collect coasters to ensure you don’t leave them sitting in a puddle on a surface that could take damage. Clean work surfaces and tabletops. Acidic spills and leftover lemon wedges can mark marble and limestone surfaces. So wipe down natural stone surfaces before you go to bed. Learn more about caring for marble surfaces at Granite Marble.
Triage stains: Some stains can be left until morning; others will be easier to manage if you get in early.
The Store and Insure guide to party stains
Stains and spills that are best treated the night before
Red wine: Blot at once to absorb the liquid. Using a light-coloured towel will make it easier to see if you’ve blotted up as much as you can. Then treat with soda water, or with a specialised red wine stain remover.
Wet glass rings on wood surfaces: Dry these as soon as you can.
Grease stains from food: Dust grease marks with cornflour and vacuum in the morning.
Vomit: If someone has been sick on your floor or on furniture, this is best dealt with the night before. Clean it up with a spatula, then use a pet stain carpet cleaner. Sprinkle with bicarb and leave overnight.
Stains and spills to treat the morning after
Wax on carpets or upholstery: Harden with an ice cube and then scrape off with a credit card.
Glass rings that you missed last night: Rub water-ringed wood with mayonnaise to correct.
Finish the clean-up in the morning
Once you’ve re-hydrated yourself and eaten some breakfast, try this suggested clean-up plan for the morning after the night before:
- get the doors and windows open again
- take down remaining decorations
- load the dishwasher and wash-up
- sort the recycling and take out the rubbish
- vacuum or sweep (including any stains and spills that you treated with cornflour or bicarb).
- mop hard floors – this is much easier after you’ve swept.
Once you’ve vacuumed, you can decide whether you want to rent a carpet cleaner to complete the job. And you can make decisions about changing and cleaning slipcovers on your furniture. For a more detailed cleaning plan, see our six quick fixes.
It’s also time to return any hired items and visit your storage unit to put away AV equipment, decorations and tableware, and bring back any furniture or fragile items that you put into storage for the duration of the party. Under your Store and Insure policy, these items are protected while you move them in and out of storage, as well as while they are stored; and you only pay for the time they are in storage.
Lessons learned
Take a moment to think about what you’d do differently next time you host a party; whether it’s hiring glassware; being more insistent about coasters or putting some furniture into storage to make space for a dancefloor.
