As you start to plan for your Thanksgiving dinner, you may imagine a huge table that hosts all of your guests and food comfortably. In a perfect world, that would be the ideal setup, however, not everyone has the space for that. But, your event can still be wonderful and you can still host Thanksgiving in a small apartment. You can pull off a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner regardless of your square footage, with whatever furniture and resources you have. Here’s how!
How to host Thanksgiving in a small space
You may be wondering how to host a proper Thanksgiving in a small apartment but fear not, you can! No matter what size apartment you have, you can make Thanksgiving memorable and delicious. Here are 15 tips for hosting Thanksgiving in a small apartment.
1. Plan ahead
Planning and prepping are two of the most important factors in successfully hosting Thanksgiving in a small apartment. And while you might think you’re a celebrity chef in the kitchen on a regular night, Thanksgiving is a whole new beast. Even the world’s top chefs can get beat up by Thanksgiving when there’s no plan. To prevent disaster, you should think about:
- How much oven space do you have?
- What cookware is available to you?
- How many guests can you seat?
- Can you prepare some of the food ahead of time?
- Do you have an adequate amount of refrigerator and freezer space?
- Which ingredients will you need to buy and what do you already have at home?
The list of things you can plan out before Thanksgiving dinner is virtually inexhaustible. This is why planning is so important. You give yourself the time to think about all the details rather than rush through coordinating them at the last minute. Plan every step of the process, down to the finest detail and you’ll ultimately save yourself from the bulk of your holiday hosting stress.
2. Check your inventory
Once you’ve planned your dinner to-do list and schedule, it’s time to check your inventory. Go through your pantry and make a list of everything you already have and what you need to pick up. This will save you time and money at the grocery store. Don’t forget to take a second to count your plates, cups and silverware. There’s nothing worse than realizing you don’t have enough forks right after you ask your niece to set the table.
3. Stick to your timetable
The timing of an important meal like Thanksgiving is stressful for everyone. Making sure everything is ready when guests arrive is something everyone hopes for. And you can make that wish come true if you time your prep work and cooking correctly. Getting everything ready all at once — especially within the limited space of a small apartment — can add an extra layer of difficulty to that stress.
You’ll only have so many hours to cook and prepare the morning of Thanksgiving. To make this less stressful, consider making some dishes ahead of time and reheating them the day of the feast. There are plenty of delicious dishes that reheat perfectly fine. Also, consider making dishes that don’t require cooking. That way, they won’t take up any precious stove or oven space.
This strategy allows you to effectively work in a small kitchen within a small apartment. Be sure to take note of the size of your oven, the number of burners you’ll need and the amount of refrigerator space you have available, as well.
One essential consideration to make as far as your timing is concerned is how long it will take to defrost your turkey. A frozen turkey is large, so you’ll also need enough space in your refrigerator to thaw it out. For every four to five pounds of turkey, you’ll need about 24 hours of defrosting time. That means a 25-pound turkey takes almost a week to defrost. Plan accordingly and use this helpful calculator to get your timing right. If you’re not interested in the whole big bird thing, consider only cooking turkey breasts or legs.
4. Make the guest list and seating arrangements
The guest list comes first before finding a place for everyone to sit. Who you invite is up to you, but be realistic about how many people your apartment can accommodate. Once you have a list, go through it and see who you really want there and consider paring down the list. If you have to cut that one guy from work who overheard your plans for the evening, then so be it. Approach it mathematically, divide your apartment’s square footage by five and you’ll be able to get the number of guests your apartment will hold comfortably. Based on who’s coming, you may want a place at the table with a designated chair for every guest. You may have people coming who don’t mind eating while sitting on the couch but make sure you’re comfortable with how you’re accommodating your guests. Anything you need that you don’t have you can borrow from a friend or rent from a party supply company.
5. Create a place for coats and bags
Once you have the guest list down, make a plan for where you’ll keep your guests’ belongings such as coats and bags. Depending on where you live, most people will arrive in coats and almost all women will have bags. You don’t want these items to take up valuable space in the eating area. Consider using your bedroom as a place to lay coats and bags. Or, set aside a designated place in the dining area for them to set their belongings.
6. Rearrange furniture as needed
When hosting more guests than usual in your home, your apartment becomes more of an event venue than a dwelling. Your small apartment is now a space for entertaining. To adapt to this change, don’t be afraid to arrange furniture in a different variation than your everyday layout.
Create more space by sliding couches back, moving lamps into corners, putting unnecessary decorations away and putting tables together to create the perfect space for Thanksgiving. It might feel a little odd to rearrange furniture for just one dinner, but it can help you create a layout that’s more conducive to entertaining.
As you move stuff around, don’t worry if you end up not being able to seat all your guests together. Small spaces have limitations, and people will mingle and move about, regardless of whether there’s a centralized dining space.
7. Have guests bring extra folding chairs
If you just don’t have that many seats, ask your guests to bring folding chairs if they have them. There’s no shame in asking for help as you’re providing them dinner anyway.
8. Scale your decor to the size of your apartment
If you’re planning to decorate your apartment for the feast don’t forget to keep scale in mind. Don’t take up table and seating space with oversized decorations. Keep centerpieces small and color palettes simple. Put decorative pieces in other areas besides the table to avoid clutter.
Consider fresh flowers in fall colors throughout your apartment to give it that fall feel while keeping things fresh. Small candles in fall hues can also set the mood without taking up a lot of space.
9. Rely on natural light
While bogged down with all the meal planning and decorating for Thanksgiving dinner, don’t forget about the simple ways you can enhance your home. Bringing natural light into a small space is one of the quickest ways to make it feel larger.
Keep the shades open if the sun is up during dinner. Use natural light rather than your lamps to make the space feel roomier during the meal. If the sun isn’t up but you want to add this same effect, hang a few mirrors around the room to catch the overhead light.
10. Guest-proof and clean your apartment
Before the big meal starts, you should guest-proof and deep clean your apartment. This may sound silly, but if Thanksgiving is bringing a larger crowd than you’ve ever had in your apartment, these preparations are necessary.
There’s potential for items to get broken, especially if children are joining you for dinner. Remove anything valuable or personally important that’s low to the ground. Store them somewhere out of the way to keep them safe.
You should also keep in mind that some guests like to snoop. If anything private like medication, mail or other personal items are accessible, consider hiding them away as well.
Once that’s done, it’s time for a real cleaning. You want your guests to enter a clean and comfortable home. Clean up clutter, vacuum, dust and make sure the kitchen and bathroom are tidy. You’ll end up doing all this cleaning again once dinner is over, but it’s worth the hassle nonetheless.
11. Clean as you go
While you want a clean apartment for when the guests arrive you also want one for when they leave. There is nothing worse than realizing at the end of the night that you left a dirty dish mountain in your sink. The best way to avoid this is to clean as you go. When you’re done using a pan, throw it in the dishwasher and be done with it. Throw away the trash as people finish certain plates or make sure there is a garbage can in sight for them. If you don’t want to do dishes, think about using disposable plates and silverware. Just make sure to take out the trash the night of because no one wants to wake up to the smell of day-old turkey coming from the trash.
12. Designate a spot for the children
If some of the friends you invited have children it’s a good idea to create a dedicated spot for them as well. If possible, try finding an area where they can all sit together to play. Or, set aside a spot for them by their parents so they won’t feel so overwhelmed. You may even want to put a movie on for them or have activities to keep them entertained.
13. Change up the menu
Once your turkey goes into the oven, you won’t have much room for anything else to cook in there. Consider changing up your Thanksgiving dinner menu to use the space you do have in your kitchen. Get creative and make a delicious salad with dried cranberries, walnuts and a made-from-scratch dressing. Your oven works overtime on Thanksgiving, so any changes to the menu that take the oven out of the equation can help make meal prep easier. Remember, Thanksgiving can be untraditional and you don’t have to have a turkey to be thankful. If cooking isn’t your thing, why not have an unconventional dinner? Have your guests over for some delicious take-out from your favorite restaurant or make your specialty dish. No matter what’s on the table, you can’t beat a great dinner with close friends and loved ones.
14. Keep food options limited
Just because it’s Thanksgiving doesn’t mean you have to have endless options for everyone. Stick with a smaller list of food that you know you can execute well. This will help bring down your stress knowing you don’t have as much to cook.
15. Ask guests to bring food
Having a Thanksgiving potluck is pretty common these days. If you’re not comfortable doing all the cooking yourself, ask for guests to bring a dish along but stay organized. Make a list of who is bringing what. This way, you won’t have an abundance of one dish. Requesting that guests bring something specific also helps keep the meal more cohesive in the end.
Sit back and relax
What’s important about Thanksgiving is how your guests are feeling when they come away from dinner. “A successful Thanksgiving meal is as much about lively conversation and laughter as it is good food. People gather during the holidays to celebrate family and friends and to enjoy the company of their loved ones,” says Jill Provost from Good Housekeeping. No matter what size apartment you have, you can make this Thanksgiving one to remember. Just focus on what you do have to work with and you’ll have an amazing Thanksgiving.
