Despite the fact that we’re well into November at this point, I have yet to do a single thing to get my kitchen ready for the rapidly approaching holidays. If you haven’t either, then at least we’re in good company, and it isn’t to late to get ready either!
In fact, I’ve broken it down into a handful of the most important tasks. Tackle one task at a time, and soon enough, your kitchen will be in tip-top shape for the holidays, regardless of how grand or intimate your gatherings will be.
11 Tips To Get Your Kitchen Ready For The Holidays
1. Clear Out Old Food
Clear out any old food items (especially anything past its best-by date) from your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Not only will you get rid of all those expired or unwanted things that are taking up valuable shelf space, but you’ll free up room for incoming ingredients and future culinary creations.
Be sure to clean up any sticky messes if your fridge or on your shelves if you happen to have any. (This isn’t strictly related to holiday prep, but you’re already moving things around so it’s a good opportunity to take care of those messes!)
If you’re freezer’s feeling crowded, take things out of their bulky packaging to free up more space. Discard foods that show signs of freezer burn. If you have an older freezer that needs to be defrosted on occasion, you can probably gain some valuable storage space by defrosting it now.
2. Check Your Spice Cupboard
Go through your spice cupboard and check the best-by dates on everything you know you’ll use for your holiday dishes. When in doubt, spices that are over a year old could probably use replacing, as well as any that don’t smell like much of anything when you open them.
Here are some spices commonly used during holiday cooking to look for and restock as necessary:
- Poultry seasoning
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Parsley
- Garlic
- Nutmeg
- Cinnamon
- Ginger
- Vanilla extract
3. Clean Your Oven And Dishwasher
Your oven and dishwasher are likely to get a workout in the coming weeks, so you want to make sure they’re relatively clean and in good working order for the holidays. If your oven or dishwasher is looking particularly grimy, check out my tutorials detailing how to clean each here:
4. Inventory Your Cookware
Making sure you have all the cookware you need (and that you know where it all is) can go a long way toward making your holiday meals more efficient. Start by taking an inventory of your pots and pans—do you know where your roaster is, and where all the lids to your pots are?
Another good thing to do is check out your cookware for cracks, chips, or broken pieces so you know what needs replacing.
5. Wash Your Tableware And Linens
Since a lot of our holiday pieces only comes out once or twice a year, they might be a bit dusty. It’s a good idea to pull out any special dishes, glassware, flatware and serving pieces and give them a good wash—doing it ahead of time will ensure you’re not trying to wash a bunch of large dishes during the hustle and bustle of food prep.
Take the time to wash and iron your tablecloths and napkins too. If you like to use candles on your holiday table, make sure you have enough on hand and a lighter or matches to light them with.
6. Get Rid Of Clutter
If you’re anything like me, once the cooking begins in earnest, you need all the counter space you can get! To help free up more workspace, go through your kitchen and remove extra items from countertops, tables and shelves to declutter.
Put all these things into a storage bin or closet so you can get them back out and replace them after the holidays. With your temporarily pared-down kitchen, you’ll have the room you need to cook and bake your holiday meals to perfection.
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7. Sharpen Your Knives
Don’t settle for hacking up your turkey with a dull carving knife—take the time to sharpen it beforehand, along with your other go-to kitchen knives. Use either a sharpening steel, a knife sharpener, or take your knives to a local knife shop and get them sharpened by a professional.
8. Stock Up On The Basics
I find that if I’m going to forget about something, it’s not usually the ingredients or the table settings—it’s those everyday housewares that I didn’t think to check on! Save yourself some time and stress by making sure you have plenty of those everyday necessities. (For instance, you don’t want to finish up a big holiday meal and realize you’re out of dishwasher detergent!)
Not everyone will need all of these things, but here’s a general list of household basics you can check your stock of:
- Trash bags
- Kitchen string
- Aluminum foil
- Plastic wrap
- Ziplock bags
- Cheesecloth
- Dish soap
- Dishwasher detergent
- Toothpicks
- Batteries
- Coffee filters
- Paper towels
- Napkins
9. Give Your Kitchen A Safety Inspection
Whether or not you’ll be expecting little ones in your home for the holidays, making sure your kitchen is safe is a smart move! But if you are expecting little ones over, you’ll want to ensure they can’t get a hold of any potentially harmful objects, such as matches, lighters, sharp utensils and household cleaners, by storing them cupboards with safety latches.
And everyone should make sure they have a functional fire extinguisher and smoke detector in their kitchen. And speaking of smoke detectors, take the time to test all the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in your house to make sure they’re working correctly. Better safe than sorry!
10. Give Your Appliances A Checkup
Check each appliance you plan to use, including your microwave, stove, oven, refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, crockpots, food processor, mixer and blender, to make sure they’re working and ready for action. As you assess each appliance, clean anything that could use it.
It’s also worth checking your oven temperature to make sure it’s heating up to the correct temperature. Learn more about calibrating and adjusting your oven at the link below.
Read More: How To Calibrate Your Oven For Better Baking
11. Consider Setting Up A Drinks Station
One thing I find helpful during holiday dinners is setting up water, sodas, and any other beverages out of the main kitchen area. That way, people can help themselves to drinks without creating a traffic jam for those of us who are working in the kitchen.
You can do this for the duration of the season, which may be especially useful if you’ll have guests staying with you for the holidays. Set up an easily accessible beverage station with your coffee maker and coffee, water kettle and tea, and all the add-ins too. Put it in your living room, dining room, or wherever makes the most sense in your house so that guests can help themselves without crowding the kitchen.
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Do you do anything special to get your home ready for the holidays?
I always create a menu two weeks ahead, prep the day before, have a glass of wine while cooking, and enlist all willing hands to help. It’s always a family affair!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Prep everything possible ahead of time. Slice, dice, chop and label all the bits you can. Keep it simple. Thanksgiving is about family so don’t spend all your time in kitchen.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have a little simmer pot I use to scent the house. I add whole cloves and orange peels to the water. Doesn’t take long till the whole house is scented.
I actually haven’t hosted the meal for several years now which is good in a way. It’s just too much for me these days both financially and energy wise since being on SSDS. I do however bring a large beautiful salad to whomever is hosting. It’s always a hit since it is chock full of goodies like yellow & red bell pepper, Jerusalem artichokes, celery, jicama, finally chopped cauliflower, broccoli & home grown alfalfa sprouts. My budget is able to handle this due to the wonderful farmers market in my city. They have super low prices & I love helping the local farmers. Some of them travel as much as 3 hours to get there. I am so thankful to them. They are a real blessings.
A very Happy Thanksgiving to you & your family Jillee.
I am thankful to you for all the great tips you have been providing ! :-)
Blessings,
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Liliane
My tip is to divide up making the meal between family members. My brothers (all grown with our own families) and I each claim what we will be contributing to the meal, that way no one person has to feel overwhelmed making everything. It also took all the pressure off my parents so they could enjoy the grandkids.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Keep it simple. Have foods made in advance. Use crock pots. Sometimes a full blown meal is too much if families are going to different families that day. Dips and finger foods are great to have for people coming and going. Time spent with others is precious, that is what should be important, not the crazy details or perfect meal.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks for all your tips, I smiled as I read your post as I just cleaned my oven yesterday and plan to clean out the fridge today. I would love to have your gift certificate to replace some of my flatware
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We do a planned shared dinner so we are only bringing the potatoes for 35 people…well, along with 2 pies, table decorations, paper plates, etc.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.set the table the night before!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Prep and cook some of your vegetables days ahead, to save you some time!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Relax and accept help!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I buy the premade large boxes of appetizers at my local Sam’s club.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.A great tip is to take a little time for yourself to. Go read or take a bath. A great stress reliever which is needed to help you focus on your task.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My tip is to use lots of lists. It is so satisfying to mark items off! Almost as satisfying as having a clean home and all the food prepped! LOL!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.These are some great tips!! Thanks :) One thing I like to do is to purchase, or better yet, create a game for the children to play. This helps give the adults time to visit, cook, ect. You can create a scavenger hunt in the yard for the older kids and buy a little $5 game at walmart for the little ones. The game they really seem to like is that elephant one where the little butterflies fly out of the trunk and the kids catch them. If you are in a crafty mood you could make a stand with a scenery background and make a bunch of felt props and people for the little ones to stick to the board and create a sort of puppet show. Just some ideas to keep the kids entertained without having to stick them in front of the T.V.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Remember to charge your camera batteries and movie taking devices the day before Thanksgiving! Never miss a moment!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.When my husband and I were first married, I accidentally cooked the turkey upside down. Now I do it intentionally because it makes the white meat so tender. :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We are hosting Christmas, and we have a big house we are renting… SO we have room for all. However, because this is not our permanent home, there are several things that won’t look so “homey.” Regardless, we will set up a long table to eat at, family will bring side dishes, grandma will brings center pieces and table cloths, and the day before I will be taking a detox bath courtesy of Jillee’s home made recipe that I have been using for about a year now.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My tip for those in warmer climes is to take the celebrations outdoors!! I live in Northern AZ and while we can get snow in Nov… last year it was perfectly beautiful and we took our Thanksgiving to the Lake and enjoyed grilling our pre-cooked turkey legs and prepped veggies outdoors. We played card games, took a hike, paddled our kayaks, played badminton and ate and ate and ate! AND no one’s home had to be cleaned and then trashed by a bunch of guests, and on top of all that we had the lake to ourselves of course so it was pretty special and fantastic all the way around. We plan for a repeat performance this year if the weather cooperates!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.In my family, we always try to take a final look at the menu and cut it down by a couple of dishes. There is always too much food anyway, and even cutting the menu by 1-3 things can be a big help on stress level and enjoyment. Happy Holidays!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I make a list for the day before and the day of thanksgiving …makes the days go much smoother.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Plan a list of things to do for each day leading up to the event. Getting a little done at a time will keep you from feeling stressed.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Prep as much as you can ahead of time! Pot luck is fabulous.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I do some of the prep up to a week before. I always keep chopped onions and bell peppers in the freezer since I put some in almost everything I cook. I replenish my stocks before major events. Pie crusts can also be made and frozen a week in advance.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Send the kids out with my husband for a few hours on Thanksgiving morning. Gives me time to get everything in the kitchen started so we can all sit and watch the parade together when they get back.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Make anything you can early; one less thing to do the day of!
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