Thanksgiving is a time to bring the family together, feast on some delicious food, enjoy the football game or some holiday traditions, and have a good time in general. It's a time to look forward too, except for the massive cleanup effort that follows the big meal.

Most Thanksgiving dinners have plenty of courses, from the hors d'oeuvres to the turkey to the pumpkin pie. It's inevitable that you're going to generate a lot of dirty dishes and some other garbage to boot. If you strategize the cleanup, however, it will be easier to complete.

A few steps can be taken in advance of the holiday. You'll want to start with a clean kitchen. Lisa Kaplan Gordon, writing for the National Association of Realtors' home improvement site HouseLogic, says you should remove any clutter from the work spaces and dining areas. You'll also want to make room for leftovers, so rearrange the refrigerator to clear some shelf space and remove any expired food.

Some dishes can be prepared in advance to ease the cleaning burden on Thanksgiving Day. This frees up counter space on the holiday and allows you to take care of dishes that otherwise would have joined the mountain of dirty plates in the sink. The home improvement site RedBeacon says things like pies, appetizers, and cranberry sauce can be frozen or refrigerated before the holiday; stuffing should be made on Thanksgiving, since it has raw eggs and needs to be cooked right away.

Many families do a potluck style dinner, having each guest bring in some element of the meal. Offering up your kitchen to clean these dishes is a friendly gesture, but you can also suggest that your guests take their dish home to wash. This easily divides the cleanup among multiple people.

Unless you want to bring out the good china for the meal, you can also reduce the dish load by using disposable plates and cups. Gordon says one compromise is to use good dishes for the meal but disposable ones for the appetizers.

Even if you decide against using paper plates, you'll still be producing plenty of trash. Line the garbage can with one or two extra bags and you'll be ready to throw more things out as soon as you remove the top bag.

The roasting pan can also be lined with aluminum foil to catch and drippings. Not only will this preserve some material for gravy, it will keep the pan clean. Cooking the turkey in a bag is another option that will leave you without a dish to worry about.

Some foods can be prepared in containers that will have multiple uses. These containers can be used to cook a dish, serve the food, and store leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer.

Figure out who will be responsible for which parts of the cleanup. One easy compromise is that anyone who didn't participate in cooking the meal gets to help clean up while the chefs kick back and relax. RedBeacon says you can also try to make the task as enjoyable as possible by chatting with family members during the work or putting on music.

A few shortcuts will reduce the workload once the dinner is done. Cooking a turkey takes plenty of time, so you can wash any available dishes as you go. The dishwasher will only be able to hold so many things, but washing some of the dishes by hand while the dishwasher is going through a cycle will speed up the cleanup process.

Sarah Aguirre, writing for About, says you shouldn't delay the cleanup. After all, the sooner you start, the sooner you'll be done. However, she says a few of the dishes with the most baked-on gunk can soak for awhile.

Gordon says stains should also be addressed immediately to prevent them from setting. Wipe up spills while they are still wet.

If the tryptophan is setting in, RedBeacon suggests you can leave at least some of the cleanup tasks until Black Friday. The site says you'll be doing plenty of activities on the holiday between the cooking and socializing, so it's important to pace yourself.