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As tedious as preparing and cooking Thanksgiving dinner is, cleaning up afterwards can be just as exhausting. Fortunately, there are various ways to reduce the amount of clean up needed after a large holiday meal. This page on how to cut the post-Thanksgiving clean up in half will show you what steps you can take.
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How To Cut the Post-Thanksgiving Dinner Cleanup in Half
This video provides time saving tips on how to cut post Thanksgiving clean up in half. It provides some of the same ideas that are listed in this guide. Examples to help eliminate big messes includes using plastic wrap or newspaper to cover countertops, greasing measuring cups to prevent substances from sticking to the inside and soaking and washing plates with hot, sudsy water and air drying.
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Introduction
Cleaning up after a Thanksgiving dinner can often be just as stressful as preparing for the holiday. It may seem impossible to tackle the pile of dirty dishes, silverware, spills and leftover food after a relaxing dinner. However, there are numerous steps you can take to prevent and quickly manage the clean up after a Thanksgiving meal. -
Step 1: Eliminate Messes While Cooking
A great way to cut Thanksgiving dinner clean up in half is to prevent big messes in the first place. Clean up spills and excess food as you go before they dry on any hard surfaces. You can also stop messes before they happen. Here are a few unique ways to do so.Plastic Wrap or Newpaper. Before you start preparing food, lay out plastic wrap or newspaper on your countertops. This way, you can wrap up any spills or food and throw them in the garbage.
Aluminum Foil. Place foil over burners on your stove to catch spills. You can also do the same for your oven, placing either aluminum foil or a cookie sheet at the bottom beneath the racks.
Cooking Oil. To prevent food or water from boiling over, spread cooking oil on the inside rims of your pots. You can also use cooking oil inside measuring cups and cheese graters to easier remove sticky substances.
Wax Paper. When preparing your food, line a large bowl with wax paper. Measure or chop your ingredients and place them in the bowl in the reverse order they will be needed. Separate each ingredient with wax paper and lift them out as you go. Rinse the bowl when finished.
Paper Plate. If you use a hand held electric mixer, you can cut a small hole in the middle of a paper plate and stick the beaters through it. This will help prevent any food or liquid from splattering.
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Step 2: Soak It Up
The last thing you want to do after dinner is scrub dried food off of utensils, pots and dishes. After you have finished preparing and cooking any food, rinse off everything immediately or soak pots and dishes in hot, soapy water.You can set up a dish tub filled with hot, soapy water on your counter for all dinner dishes, glasses and utensils. As people complete their meals and get up from the table, you can ask them to eliminate any excess food on their plates and place them in the tub to soak.
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Step 3: Go Disposable
If you (or any other dinner guests) do not mind, you can utilize disposable products to serve make, serve and eat food from. Paper plates can be used, as well as plastic utensils and disposable foil pans for serving.When it comes to beverages, buy bottled or canned drinks instead. Encourage everyone to recycle their empty bottles and cans in a designated bin.
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Step 4: Offer a Buffet Style Meal
Why pull out all of the fancy serving dishes when you can offer a buffet style meal? Instead of passing around dishes for everyone to dig into (or a family style meal), ask everyone if they are willing to go up and choose their food from the dishes they were prepared in. -
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Step 5: Teamwork
Cleaning up after a large meal on your own can become a daunting task. Instead of doing it by yourself, ask people to help you or designate certain people to pitch in (and be thankful if they oblige!). The more people to help clean up, the faster and easier it will go.There are three times where clean-up will be needed after - cooking, dinner and dessert. Before offering any dessert, make sure the dinner dishes and utensils are soaked, washed or placed in a dishwasher. After dinner will also be a good time to store any leftovers or allow people to stock up on left over food they wish to take home. If you make a rule that the dinner must be cleaned up before dessert is served, you may get more volunteers to help with the clean-up!
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Step 6: Have Everything Catered
There is nothing wrong with having a large Thanksgiving meal catered. Not only will it save you time with prepping and cooking food, it will make cleaning up much faster and easier. You will not have to worry about pots and pans or even serving dishes that will be needed in order to cook and serve the meal. -
Resources Powered by Google
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How To Cut the Post-Thanksgiving Dinner Cleanup in Half Video ...
Video: How To Cut the Post-Thanksgiving Dinner Cleanup in Half. Halve the post-turkey clean-up with these time-saving tricks.howcast.com -
Ten Tips For A Happy Stress-Free Thanksgiving Dinner
Thanksgiving dinner fills us with thoughts of delicious turkey, cranberry sauce, candied yams and pumpkin pie. If we're hosting that Thanksgiving dinner, suddenly we get a sinking ...squidoo.com
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