Clean Your House by Thanksgiving! Things You Have to Clean Before You Host Thanksgiving

Clean Your House by Thanksgiving! Things You Have to Clean Before You Host Thanksgiving

It’s easy to clean your home in a hurry—the regular cleaning, that is: vacuum, mop, laundry, dishes.

But cleaning your home when you host Thanksgiving is a little different!

You use dishes and linens you only pull out once a year.
You have overnight guests.
You need to use rooms you’ve been using as storage areas or clutter catch-alls.

Things You Need to Clean Before Thanksgiving

  1. Wash and iron tablecloths and cloth napkins.

  • Tablecloths stored all year will smell dusty, and stains you didn’t notice when you stored them are still there! Pretreat, soak, and wash your tablecloths and cloth napkins, and iron them right out of the dryer.
  • Don’t wash them with other items, because tablecloths and napkins attract hair like a magnet.
  • Remember to wash and iron a few extra napkins to line bread baskets and put under pitchers or wine bottles to keep the kitchen counter and tablecloth clean.
  1. Wash all sheets, blankets, and mattress covers.

  • Overnight guests deserve a freshly made bed.
    1. Mattress cover
    2. sheets
    3. blankets

Close the guest room door to keep pets off the bed, and vacuum yourself out of the room.

  • If guests will be using your kids’ beds, go ahead and wash everything today, then re-wash the sheets and blankets a few days before.
  1. Wash all your china, silverware, and stemware.

  • Most holiday dishes and glasses have to be handwashed. Do it now, not on crazy-busy Thanksgiving morning!
  • Dry everything to a shine, and stash it all in an out of the way place, like on a card table in the corner of the dining room. (If you put the dishes on the dining table, you’ll have to move them again when you set the table!) Cover it all with a clean sheet to keep the dust off.
  1. Detail the bathrooms. All of them.

  • Don’t assume guests will only use the guest bathroom—of course you’ll show your guests to another bathroom if there’s a line!
  1. Detail the Kitchen.

  • Clean the faucet covered in months of grime and hard water deposits
  • Clean your oven.  Plus, self-cleaning ovens are notorious for breaking after they run a self-cleaning cycle. If you clean the oven now and it does break, better now when you have time to get it repaired than on Thanksgiving morning.
  • Clean all of your cabinets inside and out—cleaning lower cabinets is a perfect job for kids, detail the stove, clean the outside of the dishwasher, and pull everything off the counters and scrub the nooks and crannies.

Taking the time to clean ahead of time will help you enjoy the cooking and socializing without being stressed or embarrassed about your housekeeping.  Tidy Up Angels has been providing residential cleaning service to the Overland Park area since 2008. Trusting someone to clean your home can be a little unnerving. If this is your first time hiring a cleaning company, we want you to know that you can relax with Tidy Up Angels. Our company is fully insured and bonded; safeguarding your most personal possessions. Honesty, integrity, and good work ethics are the back bone of our company. We aim to meet all your expectations and we hope to exceed them during each service. Let us know how we can help with your house cleaning services in Overland Park and how we can help you get ready for Thanksgiving guests, contact Tidy Up Angels LLC at 913-642-2006.

Cleaning Checklist for Thanksgiving

Cleaning Checklist for Thanksgiving

Not only does Thanksgiving require hours of cooking, you have to clean the house for guests too! You’ll be too busy to clean every corner, closet, and bedroom.  Plan ahead and tackle big projects first, then focus on cleaning the rooms that your guests are going to see and spend time in. Here is our thanksgiving cleaning checklist:

Two Weeks Ahead: Tackle any organizational tasks or things that will stay relatively clean for 2 weeks

  • Clean the refrigerator to make room for Thanksgiving food.
  • Clean out a coat closet if you plan on hanging guest’s coats there
  • Do any outdoor chores: raking leaves, etc.
  • Wash any serving dishes or utensils that haven’t don’t get used regularly
  • If you are using special china or glassware, wash and polish
  • If you have any cluttered areas you don’t want guests to see, organize them now

One-Week Ahead: This is the time to do a really deep cleaning so that the house will be just need a quick touchup the day before

  • Thoroughly dust, paying extra attention to window sills and other places guests might lean and talk
  • Vacuum, and sweep
  • Use a brush attachment on the sofa and other upholstered furniture.
  • Clean windows in dinning room, kitchen, living room and any glass in the front door
  • Wash and iron any tablecloths and napkins that have been stored for a while
  • Deep clean bathrooms guests will be using- sink, toilet, shower, tub, mirrors, and floors.  Don’t forget to dust!
  • Thoroughly clean the oven and stovetop and exhaust fan- you’ll want to have a clean range for all the cooking you’ll be doing

The Day Before Thanksgiving: Touchup Time

  • Touch up the bathrooms- wipe mirrors, the top of the toilet, an the faucet
  • Touch up dusting, vacuuming and sweeping.
  • Run and empty the dishwasher
  • Set the table- if you don’t need to use the dinner table for cooking preparation, set it the day before so it will look nice for arriving guests and you’ll have one less thing to do
  • Put out any candles or decorations

Thanksgiving Day:

  • Put out fresh towels in bathrooms
  • Take out the trash before guests arrive.
  • Wipe down the stove
  • Clear away countertops.

While Thanksgiving is a lot of work, it is also very rewarding to spend time with friends and family in a festive atmosphere.  Taking the time to clean ahead of time will help you enjoy the cooking and socializing without being stressed or embarrassed about your housekeeping.  Tidy Up Angels has been providing residential cleaning service to the Overland Park area since 2008. Trusting someone to clean your home can be a little unnerving. If this is your first time hiring a cleaning company, we want you to know that you can relax with Tidy Up Angels. Our company is fully insured and bonded; safeguarding your most personal possessions. Honesty, integrity, and good work ethics are the back bone of our company. We aim to meet all your expectations and we hope to exceed them during each service. Let us know how we can help with your house cleaning services in Overland Park and how we can help you get ready for Thanksgiving guests, contact Tidy Up Angels LLC at 913-642-2006.