Ooh, I might have to make the triple-lined trash cans a year round thing too... Would also be helpful if the bag ripped. No cleaning out a gunky trashcan.

RECYCLE THAT FOIL!!

I think you misunderstand, Paw Tucker. I do the triple bag thing, but the point is you only use one bag at a time. When the first bag is full, you take it out, leaving the other two already in place. Thus, you immediately have another clean bag available without taking the time to put it in.

I'll add two more tips:

1) Clean up as you go. The more you clean up before you sit down to eat, the less there is to do afterwards. I always run my dishwasher after breakfast, so it's empty before the meal starts. I also put anything that I've prepared ahead into the serving dishes, so I can run the storage containers through the dishwasher ahead of time.

2) Before you sit down at the table, fill the sink with hot soapy water and put anything that needs soaking into the water. By the time you've eaten the soaking will have made washing up easy.

If you have a dishwasher, load it with as much small stuff as you can and hand wash any larger items that might would have fit otherwise.

run the dishwasher before guests arrive with all the prep dishes in it, so you can start the gathering with an empty dishwasher. (or you could have 2 dishwashers like me)

As someone who stashes two or three bags under the current one, triple bagging was a forehead slapping moment.

This is also a time-saver: prep as much in advance as possible- i.e. make and freeze the soup a week early, the stuffing three days early, and the dessert the night before. You'll have fewer prep dishes to wash on the actual day.

If you have pots and pans that can double as serving dishes, USE THEM. I have enough Le Creuset to serve a small army and can also use it to refrigerate any leftovers after everything has cooled down.

paper plates and disposable utensils will help a lot (you can get eco-friendly disposable dishes in many stores- even many 'regular' grocery stores) and you can probably compost some of them ;)

Bus Bins! I have a small double sink and no dishwasher. I picked up a couple of bus bins at a restaurant supply and when I'm serving a crowd I have them on the counter full of hot soapy water. That way I can dump the dishes, get back to the guests, and clean up in the morning.

Dawn has a hand dishwashing liquid (different from their standard version) - literally everything comes off even if it's baked on after a 5 minute soak - absolute life changer for me after a big holiday dinner. I can't put the silver or china or crystal in the dishwasher so there's a lot of washing dishes by hand after holiday meals. All that lovely stuff is inherited so on occasion I skip it and go the standard white plate route just so I can use the dishwasher!

Rucy -- purists will disagree, but I put our sterling and antique dishes (within reason, not super-delicate pieces) in the dishwasher everyday What's the point of having nice things if you don't enjoy them? (Crystal I'd still hand wash -- if I had any, not practical with a toddler!)

@marfa, thanks but we did that with the china and it negatively impacted the platinum band, I spent a couple years looking for reasonably priced replacement pieces for the damaged ones so I would never put it in the dishwasher again.

My Mom for years used her sterling silver flatware and her good china for major meals such as Thanksgiving.

The china went in the dishwasher no problem, but sterling silver NEVER should go in the dishwasher, the harsh soaps used in many dishwashers can damage the silver, especially if it's silver plate.

And washing silver flatware doesn't take much time and it's dried and put away that night or in the morning if it's put in a clean tray for overnight.

And good flatware with wooden handles should never go in the dishwasher either as the very hot water will damage the finish and dry out the wood, causing it to crack.

But yeah, use the dishwasher as much as possible and at my sister's many of us help clear away the tables and get as much picked up and washed as we can so there isn't so much left for the next morning. I think by the time Mom and I leave, the dishwasher's been run at least twice.

Firefighters regularly cook for as many people as a regular Thanksgiving dinner. They have the assignment of dinner chores down to a science. Dice or cards are often played at the end of dinner to assign chores, but sometimes everyone just gets to work like a well-oiled machine, as on the fireground.

Take a crew of 10, for example. First, there is the cook - the cook (#1) and chief (2) don't do dishes. The washer (3) and rinser (4) clear all dishes out of the double sink. The first side is filled with soapy water. The second side is used to rinse. The remaining eight are a group that evolve over time: first they are table-clearers, who scrape off bits into tupperware/disposal/compost/trash, then stack the dishes on the counter next to the washer. The washer scrubs the plates in the soapy water, then puts them into the rinsing sink. The rinser rinses them off then puts them into the dish rack, where four of the table-clearers (3, 4, 5, and 6) are now dish-dryers, waiting with towels to dry and put away. As the clean dishes start slowing down, two driers (3 and 4) split off to clean the grill and oven while the remaining driers (5 and 6) finish up the rest of the dishes. The other four (7, 8, 9, and 10) wipe down the table and invert the chairs off the floor onto the table, then become the sweeper (7) and mopper (8), trash-taker-outer (9), and laundry man (10) for all those towels used to clean up.

Cleanup after dinner for ten? Done in under ten minutes flat, with no hard feelings. Then everyone heads into the TV room together!

Rucy -- yes, silver or gold decoration on plates = no dishwasher. We use antique blue willow which stands up very well (and is very easily replaced).

Ciddyguy -- as I said, purists will disagree and it shouldn't be done with very old or valuable pieces, but we use our sturdy 20th-century sterling flatware ("sterling" inherently means not "silver plate") every single day and put it in the dishwasher just fine. If you use sterling everyday, you never need to polish it!

I'm a big advocate for sterling, makes every meal nice. We paid (on ebay) just a little more than what high-quality stainless costs and we'll pass it onto our child or could sell it later for probably the same price. Try that with stainless from Macy's!