I may have a well-organized kitchen, but I’m a pretty messy cook. When I’m in the kitchen, ingredients hit the floor, liquids splatter on recipes, and flour ends up on my face.
Even though I’m a little messy, my organizing-minded brain still works hard to streamline the cooking process. This is especially critical when preparing a huge meal on Thanksgiving and I don't want to spend hours afterwards cleaning when I should be spending time with friends and family.
So, over the years, I have perfected several tips to simplify Thanksgiving clean-up by maintaining a kitchen as I go, and now it's a hosting holiday I look forward to, rather than dread.
How to keep a tidy kitchen while cooking Thanksgiving
Don’t fret if you are also messy in the kitchen. I'm a professional organizer and founder of The Simplified Island, and there are lots of ways to organize your kitchen in readiness for entertaining to contain the mess.
My top five tips will ensure you keep a tidy kitchen while cooking on Thanksgiving Day.
1. Create a menu and timeline
A major part of getting your kitchen ready for Thanksgiving guests is planning your menu and timeline as your to-do list. Your menu tells you what you are cooking, and your timeline tells you when. Having both lists will allow you to focus on essential tasks one at a time rather than shuffling too many ingredients and ending up overwhelmed.
Create a menu of what you will serve. Include hors d’oeuvres, beverages, the main dish, side dishes, and desserts. Every food served should be on the list.
Once you set the menu, create a timeline for preparing the dishes. You can prepare some dishes weeks in advance and freeze them, while others should be prepared on Thanksgiving Day.
Break down your timeline even further by noting individual steps such as bringing butter to room temperature, chopping ingredients, bringing the turkey, etc. This should also help to highlight any periods of downtime you might have while waiting for items to cook when you can socialize, or wash dishes to keep your kitchen clean.
Having a clear plan is a huge step toward keeping kitchen counters clear while cooking.
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2. Prepare and cook in advance
There are plenty of dishes that can be prepared and cooked in advance. Determine what dishes can be prepared and frozen for future use, especially if you already have meal prep kitchen essentials to hand, and plan to do that a week or two before Thanksgiving.
Make a note in your timeline of when it needs to be thawed so you don’t forget it on Thanksgiving Day.
Even for things I don’t cook in advance, I love to prepare the ingredients beforehand, so I’ve already measured, chopped, etc. I use glass bowls with lids, at Amazon, to stack the prepped, pre-measured ingredients in my best refrigerator.
Investing in quality glass food storage containers that are safe for the freezer, microwave, and oven is a must for meal prep, making it easy to store and reheat food without making extra washing up
3. Stock up on cleaning essentials before hand
Remember how I said I am a fairly messy cook? Keeping a trash bowl, stick vac, and wipe rag handy helps so much! Our trashcan is under our sink, so it’s inconvenient for large cooking occasions. I keep a disposable grocery bag or large bowl on the counter so I can toss in scraps and crumbs without opening the trashcan cabinet each time.
Cordless vacuum cleaners are fabulous for quickly cleaning up floor crumbs so you don’t accidentally track them through the kitchen. I also keep a damp cloth handy for wiping the counter between recipes.
Make your home smell like fall for Thanksgiving guests and make keeping a kitchen clean as you work easier by stocking up on these gingerbread-scented cleaning essentials
A good handheld vacuum cleaner is a great investment to quickly clean up kitchen crumbs from floors and counters as you work
Microfiber cloths are essential in a kitchen. They make wiping up spills and catching crumbs as you cook a breeze. Just shake ut the crumbs into the trash and wash microfiber cloths between uses to keep your kitchen hygienic
4. Use as few dishes as possible
I’ve used this strategy when cooking for about a year, and I like it. Instead of using a clean dish, see if there is one you can wash or rinse quickly to use for the following recipe. For example, if you are mixing cake batter in a large bowl, and your following recipe is stuffing, then wash the cake batter bowl quickly and use it for the stuffing. Don’t get a new bowl out for the stuffing.
I do this all the time with measuring cups. I try to measure the dry ingredients first so they fall right out, and then all the wet ingredients. If you measure the wet ingredients first, then the dry ingredients stick to the cup.
Similarly, unless you are baking, you can probably use a tablespoon or a one-cup measuring cup for measuring almost anything – simply 'eyeball' whether you have filled it to 1/3 cup, ¼ cup, etc. There is no need for all of the different measuring devices.
This is helpful for two reasons. Firstly, it reduces visual clutter in the kitchen, making the space less overwhelming as you cook. Secondly, it reduces how many dishes you have to wash at the end of the evening, so you can relax more quickly after the meal. Pair this approach with some kitchen sink organizing rules and a clean dishwasher, and clean-up will be a breeze.
5. Wash as you go
Wash as you go is a classic cooking tip. If you are reusing dishes, as I described above, you are naturally washing as you go and reducing the number of dishes, which is a win-win.
For other items, I try to put them straight into the best dishwasher rather than let them pile up in the sink. I wash larger items that need to be hand-washed between recipes or when waiting for the last thing to cook.
Having a good-sized dish drying rack, such as this best-selling option on Amazon, makes it easier to hand wash dishes as small piles collect up, so you don't have to wait to build up a full dishwasher load every time.
A common Thanksgiving mistake that makes your holiday hosting harder is forgetting that guests often want to be helpful! They may not know exactly how to cook something, but they can certainly wash some dishes! Let them help you, or at least split chores with a partner to take the stress off of just one person.
Thanksgiving is a time to eat good food and be with family and friends. Don’t stress over all of the details. Take it step-by-step, ask for help, and enjoy the day. You can always close the evening with a closing shift routine to restore some order when guests have left and you are more relaxed.
