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Do's and Don'ts of house parties
Learn from one SpunOutter's house party experience!
Every young person has to throw a house party at least once in their life when their parents are out. Well, I recently completed this formative experience. I won’t give details, but it involved plenty of alcohol, a Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt, a bottle of Jagermeister, vomit and girls. I’d like to think I’ve learned from the experience, and even though the last thing I want to do is put anyone off having a house party, please heed my advice!
DO: Take anything of value (especially alcohol), and lock it somewhere safe. If you don’t have keys for rooms, GET THEM. I didn’t, and now must replace a bottle of good wine...
DON’T: Take risks. If you think something might get broken or stolen, hide it. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
DO: Lie to your parents about the house party. It won’t be good for anyone, and they won’t trust you until you’re 45.
DON’T: Lie totally. Say you had a few friends up, and it got a bit out of hand, but never say the words “party”, “shindig” or “gathering”.
DO: Get people to bring their own alcohol. And make sure they bring enough. 30 people is a lot to get drunk, but you don’t want it coming out of your pocket do you??
DON’T: Get drunk first. I learned this the hard way. It increases your enjoyment, but makes sure anything can, and will, happen. I was lucky, because my house is off the main road, so no strangers came.
DO: Tell lots of people you know. It will possibly be many people’s first house party, and you don’t want it to be a disappointment, so spread the word!
DON’T: Use the word “house party”. I chose the phrase “a few people up”. This will decrease excitement and expectations in the rowdier group of the invites.
DO: Get some advice from an experienced head. Whether it’s a brother, cousin or even uncle, make sure you know a bit about what you’re getting yourself into.
DON’T: Tell an authority figure, as in an uncool uncle/aunt/neighbour. Luckily, all three of them were cool for me!
DO: Work your ass off to get rid of any evidence. I had three black bags full of bottles, and another of party rubbish. We bagged the bottles up at 5 in the morning, a great idea, because no-one wants to do it at 9!
DON’T: Go to sleep. Seriously. Most of us stayed up the whole night and cleaned the next morning. When you wake up from drunken sleep you just feel way too tired and hung-over.
DO: Force your friends to stay and help. You won’t be able to do it yourself. That said, my three best friends and I just ended up on my spare bed for half an hour at 11 in the morning due to exhaustion and a fit of the giggles.
DON’T: Make casual partygoers stay. They only came for the piss-up and the craic. They’ll be a bigger hindrance than help.
Well, I hope this all helps, but if you do have a house party, just enjoy it, and it’s probably gonna be worth any punishment.
Good luck!
By: Ciarán Leinster
