weekly home hangouts
Inspired by Matt's You should invite people over to your home regularly.
"People can host more" is the new "people don't host enough". You can invite people to your home, apartment, or other living arrangement? Invite them regularly. Whether they can invite people over or not, they can grace your home together with you. Better yet, people who can invite others over to their home may become inspired to do so.
While completely optional:
- Cleaning your house beforehand can show respect for your guests and make it a seamless ritual that signals fun ahead.
- Serving fancy food can transform ordinary hangouts into dinner parties, crowd-sourced potlucks, and even holiday feasts.
- Stating any reason to get together selects for those most interested.
Inviting people to your home is a minimalist practice. Consistent invites downsize planning to condensed timeframes and near zero effort. Ideally, invites can compress into a single group chat message. Monetary costs for hosting events at home stay low compared to events hosted elsewhere. Transportation can be free of charge while food and drinks can be handled by guests or ordered cheaply.
Take as little or as much time out of your day for your home gatherings as you wish. You can also play it by ear: some end early, some end later, some move elsewhere, and others even resume after a break.
Home get-togethers can revolve around so many different activities:
- Video games.
- Visual media including anime, movies, and television shows.
- Co-working.
- Card, board, and tabletop games.
- Arts and crafts.
- Group projects.
- Book reviews.
- Face-to-face discussion.
- Listening to music.
- Sports and outdoor activities where possible.
- Anything else under the sun.
Invite whom you want to socialize with, then be flexible and proactive:
- Hope for everyone and expect nobody.
- Have a tested Plan B in case nobody can make it.
- Ask in advance for people to bring what you need, if anything.
- More is better than less when it comes to food and drinks. Certain surplus items can roll over to the next gathering.
- Accepting or rejecting unexpected or new-to-you guests is your call. You can ask for courtesies like prior notice or meeting them elsewhere first if you wish.
When in doubt, remember that it's your home. You call the shots.
What stops you from hosting more events at home? How can you overcome those barriers to spend more in-person quality time with your people?