Spread out your food offerings on the coffee table, or scatter munchies on end tables and the tops of low bookcases all around the living room. Grab an ice bucket and fill it up, and you can set up bar just about anywhere – though ideally, not right next to the food, unless you want that one area to be the source of a major traffic jam through the entire duration of your festivities.

Formal sit-down meals require a certain amount of space (not to mention a dining table and dining chairs, small luxuries that seems to be absent in a large percentage of twentysomething-inhabited pads). So if you’re planning to invite more than a handful of folks over for dinner, skip the multi-course feast and go with a buffet instead. And if you’re entertaining the masses, forget about the full meal altogether and do an all-appetizer evening instead. Serve neat finger foods, so people aren’t stuck balancing unwieldy plates on their laps.

Of course if worse comes to worst, you can always reserve a handful of tables at your favorite eatery, organize a roller-rink outing, plan a picnic at the park … and entertain out!