How to Host Thanksgiving in Your For-Sale Home

Hosting Thanksgiving is always stressful, but it’s particularly challenging if you’re preparing dinner for the holiday while your home is for sale. You’ll want your guests to have a wonderful time, of course, but you don’t want your hosting duties to have a negative effect when potential buyers visit your home.

Fortunately, there are things you can do that will result in a wonderful celebration while keeping your house stage-ready.

Don’t Over-Shop:
Thanksgiving means giving thanks, of course, but it also means food. Lots and lots of food. That can lead to pantries and a fridge that are as stuffed as your turkey. Keep your shopping to minimum in the weeks leading up to the big day and clear your pantry of old items you’ll never use. Keep everything clean and organized so that people see a well-kept kitchen when they visit your home.

Delegate Responsibility:
Explain to your guests that while you’re happy to have them over for Thanksgiving, you’ll need some help with the cooking. Have people bring side dishes, wine and desserts.

Use Throw-Away Supplies:
Instead of using your best china, make cleanup easy by dining with disposable plates, cups and silverware. This doesn’t mean things won’t look nice—there are high-quality products available that are decorative and sturdy enough to handle the big amounts of food people will be enjoying. You can even cook your turkey in a disposable pan.

Consider Catering:
Sure, a home-cooked meal is wonderful, but you can buy delicious food from a local caterer for Thanksgiving. Many supermarkets also offer a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. Or, you can even order different types of food so that people who don’t like turkey will enjoy their meal. If you really want to cook, make dessert easy by purchasing pies from a local bakery or farm stand.

Give Guests Food to Bring Home:
Leftovers are a Thanksgiving tradition, but instead of filling your fridge with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, give your guests everything they need to make their own post-Thanksgiving sandwich at home.

Then, when potential buyers visit your home on the weekend after Thanksgiving, they’ll never know you hosted.