Thankful for Cleanliness: How You Can Make Your Thanksgiving Clean-Up Easy
Thanksgiving is a time for togetherness, thankfulness, and great food. It’s also a day filled with messes requiring heavy duty clean-up. When the feast ends, the kitchen has dirty dishes, half-full pots and pans, and messy counters.
No one wants to spend hours cleaning up when they’re filled with Thanksgiving turkey. The good news is that with careful planning, you won’t have to. Here are a few ideas that can help make your clean-up easier.
Clean as You Go
An easy way to avoid having one giant mess at the end of the night is to clean as you go. Instead of letting the dishes pile up, clean what you can when you can.
Finished with the mixing bowl? Go ahead and wash it while the pie is baking. Silverware starting to build up in the sink? Give them a quick wash while you’re waiting for the turkey timer to pop.
Cleaning as you go helps keep the mess manageable. That way, you’ll have less to do at the end of the night when you’re tired from too much turkey. This will also ensure less time spent cleaning and more time spent with family.
Prep Food the Night Before
Another simple way to rid yourself of the Thanksgiving Day mess is to prep the night before. Items like pies, loaves of bread, dips, deviled eggs, and snacks can often be made ahead of time.
That allows you to divide up the mess and dishes that come along with the cooking into two separate days. Plus, it saves you some cooking time on Thanksgiving, giving you more time with your loved ones.
Create a Thanksgiving Chore List
Sharing is part of the spirit of Thanksgiving, so why not share the cleaning duties? Write up a chore list and give everyone in the household a task.
Dividing up the work will ensure that the stress of clean-up doesn’t fall on just one person. If you have kids, consider ways they can help that are appropriate for their age group.
They can load the dishwasher, help with wiping down counters, or help you sweep or mop. It’ll cut down the cleaning time and make them appreciate the hard work that goes into the holiday.
Cover Your Counters
Kitchen counters and other work surfaces can take a beating during Thanksgiving. Something is always being chopped or spilled on them, which leads to a huge mess as well as a host of germs and bacteria (something we’re ALL trying to avoid).
You can speed up your clean-up and protect your counters by covering them with wax paper. When you’re done with food prep, you can throw the paper in the trash, do a quick counter wipe, and move on to what’s next. Be sure to remember to switch out the paper if you set raw meat on it so that no germs find their way to the other food.
Let the Professionals Handle It
The simplest way by far to make your Thanksgiving clean-up easier is not to do it. At least, not by yourself.
A professional cleaning company can handle the mess for you, leaving you free to enjoy your day. They’ll have your kitchen sparkling without you ever having to lift a finger.
If you live in or around Broome County, NY, Brooms Over Broome can help you eliminate your Thanksgiving mess. We offer basic or thorough cleaning, depending on your unique needs. Kick back, relax, and let someone else handle that mess for you. After all, the leftover turkey is calling.