Between friends, family, and school, we have a lot of parties that we attend and host. For the small parties that we host at home, we always use the porcelain plates and stainless-steel flatware that we use every day. When we attend bigger parties, there can be a lot of waste. I’ll be honest, the waste overwhelms me! Anyone else?
I want to encourage the practice of tableware sharing for parties among my friends, family, and the kids’ schools. We already do this a lot with other things like folding tables and chairs but I have wanted to get a kid party tableware set to share for a long time. I had heard about reusable party kit networks in the UK and Australia and wanted to start something similar in my own community. When I saw the pastel kid plates, bowls, cups, and utensils at IKEA, I loved the soft colors and decided to finally invest in a set.
I purchased five multicolored sets of six (30 total of each) of the IKEA KALAS plates, bowls, cups, forks, spoons, and knives. There are five settings of each of the six pastel colors: white, light blue, light pink, light green, light yellow, and grey.
Contents of party tableware kit:
- 5 white plates, 5 white bowls, 5 white cups, 5 white forks, 5 white spoons, 5 white knives
- 5 light blue plates, 5 light blue bowls, 5 light blue cups, 5 light blue forks, 5 light blue spoons, 5 light blue knives
- 5 light pink plates, 5 light pink bowls, 5 light pink cups, 5 light pink forks, 5 light pink spoons, 5 light pink knives
- 5 light green plates, 5 light green bowls, 5 light green cups, 5 light green forks, 5 light green spoons, 5 light green knives
- 5 light yellow plates, 5 light yellow bowls, 5 light yellow cups, 5 light yellow forks, 5 light yellow spoons, 5 light yellow knives
- 5 light grey plates, 5 light grey bowls, 5 light grey cups, 5 light grey forks, 5 light grey spoons, 5 light grey knives
For a party with 30 guests you could use the whole set. If you had a party with five kids you could use just one color. Or you could use two colors for 10 kids, etc. I don’t think this tableware is exclusive to kids. I think everything could be used for adults, but the plates in particular would be great for any age for appetizers or desserts.
Whether you want to borrow just five table settings of one color or all of it, send me a message if you’re interested. Everything is dishwasher safe. I’m even happy to throw it all in my dishwasher after your party. For now, I’ve decided not to charge anything. My goal is just to make it easier for people to have slightly more sustainable celebrations. Every little bit helps!
A word about the plastic issue:
I hate plastic. I don’t care for the look or feel of it, the potential health impacts, and ESPECIALLY the environmental impacts. I mean it lasts forever, and not in a good way. I really try to avoid it generally. My hope for this tableware share is that many people in the Tacoma community choose to use these reusable dishes instead of buying a new set of disposable paper plates, plastic cups, and plastic cutlery for each party. I will probably still use our everyday plates and utensils for small home parties, but if I wanted to have a party at a park with 10-20 children as guests, I think it just feels more practical to use the lighter, more durable plastic plates. And if the alternative is disposable, I think going with the plastic plates is more sustainable, especially if the tableware is going to get a ton of uses.
So help me use these as much as possible and please borrow my party kit!
