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Thanksgiving is a big deal in our home. The food, the family… the football game. All of it. I love baking and cooking up a huge feast, but nobody loves the mess that comes with it. Especially Pete, because he always offers to do the cleanup… but he’d much rather be watching the big game. Thankfully (pun intended) this year we have a game plan (haha, I’m full of puns today) on “How To Save Yourself From The Dreaded Turkeypocalypse!” Thanks to our friends at P&G for sponsoring this post.
So there is going to be a mess. You can’t avoid that. From cooking and baking to all the entertaining… it’s going to happen. But this year, don’t dread the post-Thanksgiving clean up.
Prepare for it. Conquer it. Get back to the game sooner.
These are the magic words you need to hear, and this is how it’s going to happen.
Each year we set off with good intentions, but Pete still ends up missing part of the game because we just start cleaning up without a plan or the right tools. Not this year! This time we have products that are going to help us get back to the game quickly with a sparkling kitchen behind us.
Pete went and stocked up on supplies…
This is how it will go down:
- Plug in the Febreze Pumpkin Bliss before the party. Febreze Air Effects instantly takes care of the odors in your air. It gets chilly in November so open windows isn’t always an option. Odors won’t be an issue for us this year.
- Put away all the food. Separate any food that will be going home with guests right away and refrigerate.
- Soak any non-dishwasher safe items in Dawn Ultra right away. Leverage the “2X more everyday grease cleaning power per drop*” *Based on cleaning ingredients vs. non-ultra Joy®. Work less and let Dawn take care of the mess.
- Load the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher. Let Cascade Platinum clean your toughest Thanksgiving messes.
- Wipe down the counters with Bounty paper towels. Bounty is two times more absorbent, so the roll can last longer. It’s great for spills during the party too!
- Do a final floor clean up with Swiffer WetJet. It’s an all-in-one mopping system that powers through tough dirt and grime. Get those floors cleaned up and your work here is done.
- Get back to the game! You ate, you cleaned… it’s game time!
Ugh, the clean up is the worst! If I cook, though, someone else cleans. Those are the rules.
I almost decided to go the paper plate route this year, I just don’t want to deal with all the dishes LOL! We will be using plates though! Great tips here.
We cleanup the same way we eat – as a family. We all eat together, and then we all cleanup. The kids want to help, but we just let them play. They’d make an even bigger mess.
I always go to my nanny’s house and since my uncles always come late I am one of the first ones to leave! So I avoid the mess all together 🙂 (Don’t worry my nanny isn’t forced to clean, we let my uncles take care of it)
I hate to admit, but cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner is one of the least favorite tasks in the house. But then again, I tell myself, more dishes to clean means we had a lot of things we must be thankful for.
I have to deal with it all on my own, while everyone else watches football and the parade! lol
Bounty is essential for every Holiday party!! Having a new puppy in the house we have gone through a TON!
Um, so random and completely off topic from Thanksgiving. But I’m pretty your kitchen is what all my kitchen-dreams are made of.
Eating all the goodies is the fun part and cleaning is the part that everyone avoids. Lol. But with the right tools, agree that it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
I tend to clean as I go so that the post meal clean up isnt awful! But you can bet this will be one of the few times I do have paper towels in the house! LOL!
I love hosting parties; it’s the clean up that I hate, so I make sure I get plenty of help.
I think you are prepared for the upcoming thanksgiving day. It’s nice to know that families are having a good time even when you are cleaning after the party. Keep it up!
We go through so many paper towels at Thanksgiving. The food is so good but it is messy!
great tips! I’ll be hosting thanksgiving for the first time so I’ll definitely take your advice!
Bounty is the only brand we buy for paper towels. Thanks for these tips.
Thank you for the tips. My SIL is always the hostess every Thanksgiving, but I’ll remember your tips and perhaps share them with her too. 🙂
Cleanup supplies are always a must after the big turkey dinner. The worst is not being prepared for the cleanup or in our case running out of paper towels!
I’m loving your plan of action. I may have to copy some of those details. I can’t believe that poor guy in the video missed that play!
I always use Febreeze before guests show up. I love the scents that they have, and that you can use the various Febreeze products in the air or right on furniture, clothing, etc. It’s perfect for the winter, especially, when you just can’t open the windows to air the house out.
I hate cleaning up after big meals! I have been begging my mom to use nice paper plates for years now but she still insists on breaking out her special gold trimmed holiday dishes. I think your tips are wonderful!
I’m hoping to con some of my family into staying a little later than normal and helping clean up after Thanksgiving at my house.
In recent years, I have taken a more casual approach to Thanksgiving and have been using paper products. This year we are traveling and I don’t have to cook at all!
Soaking the dishes is so important. It makes things so much easier. I put one load i the dishwasher and then hand wash everything else. I am going to someone else’s house this year, so I plan on helping them. I think it is very important to help when you are the guest.
This is fantastic, thanks for the tips. I am cooking at my house this year just for the trio and my boyfriend probably. we are going to make up a feast here in the house I have been renting since July because the kids voted to stay here and do that. I will have a MESS to deal with 😉
Cleaning up as a family is the way to go! Sharing the load always works better.
Some great suggestions. Believe it or not we still aren’t sure of our plans for Thanksgiving… trying to decide if we want to travel or not. Some of the family has to work so might have it another day.
I hate cleaning because I’m not good at it and It takes too much time. I like your game plan it would help me to get done quicker.
Cleaning up right away so you can relax is a must for me. I want to be all done early.
Bounty is essential for every Holiday party! It makes clean up a breeze and stress free.
Yes, Thanksgiving definitely makes a HUGE mess in this house Paper towels are a must
I love calling it turkeypocalypse/ I always used Dawn for cleanup/
This is great tips, I think paper towels must be around your house.
I definitely need paper towels like Bounty in my life during the Thanksgiving season. I dread cleaning up all of the messes and spills that come with the holidays.
A couple of quality paper towel rolls like Bounty certainly would make the cleanup easier. Thanksgiving is a fun holiday for us, and one of your tips will make it even better. It’s the one on separating the “to go home with friends or relatives” right away. We are taking dinners to a few friends/relatives that can’t make it, and I’ll organize theirs the same way.
I want a Pumpkin Bliss Febreze. I haven’t heard of that one yet. 🙂
Thanksgiving is one of our biggest family gatherings and it’s not unusual for us to have 25+ people. It used to take forever to clean up and we didn’t get to spend as much time hanging out and catching up. A few years ago, my mom had the brilliant idea to hire someone to come in and cater thanksgiving and do all the clean-up! It was the best idea ever and we’ve done it every year since!
Don’t I know the feeling! I have my Bounty ready, it won’t be a mess this year.
These are always a must in our home all the The little hands we have Thank you for sharing.