Stress Be Gone! 10 Tips to Make Entertaining a Breeze This Thanksgiving

Master the art of holiday hosting with these 10 lifesaving hacks.

By: Kamron Sanders

Show: HGTV Happy

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Photo By: Jalynn Baker

Make Room for Success

Half-empty sauce bottles, jellies and pickle jars take up valuable real estate in every fridge. Make way for prepped meals or a marinating turkey by clearing out nonessentials and placing them in a cooler.

Chop, Stock and Rock It

Instead of spending hours on end chopping vegetables and herbs on Thanksgiving Day, spend time relaxing with your family. Chop veggies a few days before and place in them in the fridge. Don’t forget to label and organize by recipe to maximize your time-saving efforts!

Mass A-Peel

Peeling a lot of garlic is incredibly time consuming and often ends with sticky hands and small pieces of peel all over the kitchen. Spend a fraction of the time and effort by microwaving garlic cloves for 20 seconds to allow for easy peeling and less mess.

Eye on the Prize

Follow along with tried-and-true recipes by hanging them at eye level. This keeps them out of the way of spills and easy to reference whenever you need them. If you’re using a tablet for recipes, place it in a zip-top bag to protect it from spills as well. Best of all, the touch screen will still work!

The Starchy Scoop

If you have a lot of potatoes to wash, toss them in the dishwasher on a rinse cycle. Yes, really. Just don’t forget to forgo the detergent! Bonus: The heat and humidity of the rinse cycle makes the potatoes a breeze to peel.

Slow-Key Win

Slow cookers are useful for more than cooking low and slow. Make your mashed potatoes in advance and use the warm setting on your slow cooker to keep them at the perfect temp until time to serve.

Real Estate Tycoon

On Thanksgiving Day, stove eyes are as in demand as a rent-controlled New York City apartment. Maximize your stoves' potential and make room for other dishes by transferring hot gravy to a thermos until dinner is served.

Everything in Its Place

Rather than waiting until mealtime to awkwardly arrange and somehow squeeze every dish onto the table, set the table with labeled serving dishes ahead of time. This allows you to have a place for everything, and when it comes time for the meal, serving is a breeze.

Takeout for All

Avoid the after-meal cleanup by asking guests to bring their own takeout containers with the promise of delicious leftovers. Have a few cardboard ones ready to go so no guest leaves empty-handed and you don't end up eating a whole pie on Black Friday (we've all been there).

Easy, Breezy Batch Cocktails

Pick the tips that are right for you and even think of a few of your own to make this Thanksgiving the easiest yet. If all else fails, be sure to have ready-to-drink batch cocktails, and we bet no one will complain.

Stress Be Gone! 10 Tips to Make Entertaining a Breeze This Thanksgiving

Related To:

Shop This Look

Make Room for Success

Chop, Stock and Rock It

Mass A-Peel

Eye on the Prize

The Starchy Scoop

Slow-Key Win

Real Estate Tycoon

Everything in Its Place

Takeout for All

Easy, Breezy Batch Cocktails

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