With Thanksgiving just around the corner, you may be wondering how in the world to get your house in shape to host a holiday dinner.

We suggest starting early in order to avoid shoving miscellaneous items into boxes at the last minute!

Ways to Start Now

Meal Planning: Even you do the same meal every year, create a menu and a shopping list. Think about seating arrangements: Do you need to borrow chairs or dust them off from storage? Consider any special needs of your guests.  You may wish to write down the times to begin cooking each dish and have this list handy for the day off your meal.

Delegate! What tasks could you delegate? Write them down and contact folks who would enjoy helping.  Find others to do things that you do not enjoy or do not excel at. I find that most people are happy to help given a clear request and advance notice.

Match individual’s strengths with tasks.

For example: I am not a particularly good cook, but I do an excellent job of tidying the house and organizing other details for having guests.  My partner, Scott, enjoys grilling the turkey, and it is a family tradition for our son, Adam, to mash the potatoes. I do a few traditional side dishes (doing most of the prep the day before!) 

Consider inviting a guest to bring one of the following:

  • flowers
  • beverages
  • a side dish
  • a salad
  • a dessert
  • extra chairs

Schedule house cleaning and tidying: Put a date on your calendar to clean or enlist help with the cleaning.

Build in some time to relax (so that you will be an excellent host or hostess!) Schedule some sort of treat for yourself prior to or after the event.

One week before

  • Non-perishable shopping: Do grocery shopping for non-perishables (or have someone else do the shopping using your list!)
  • House cleaning and preparation: Confirm your cleaning and house preparation support and/or begin tidying things up yourself.
  • Remember to be mindful!  Plan for some down time. Even a short walk can make you more productive and gracious!

A day or two before:

  • Shop for perishable items – or have someone else do the shopping using your list 🙂
  • Pull out serving dishes & other things you will need and label them.  If you have already thought through where things go, others can more easily help when serving time comes.

The day of:

  • Refer to your list of times for cooking each dish & gather timers to use as needed.
  • Set the table (great thing to delegate!)
  • Set out ingredients and dishes
  • Put on music and light candles

And during the meal?  Enjoy.  No one is looking at the dust on your bookshelf or the boxes of paper in the corner.

Holiday meals are about friends, family and good feelings! Here’s hoping your special events are memorable and fun.

Warm wishes for a stress-free and enjoyable holiday season!

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