How to make sure cleaning up isn’t your only holiday activity

(BPT) - The holidays are upon us. It’s time for friends and family to gather, houseguests to move in, and marathon cooking and baking sessions to begin. Before any of these activities can start, and certainly once all of them are finished, there’s plenty of cleaning up to do.

No one likes to clean, but it’s an eventuality of the season. So how do you spend more of your holiday celebrating and less of it cleaning up before and after each get-together? It’s easier than you may think with these tips.

* Simplify your cooking cleanup. Casseroles and slow cooker recipes are as synonymous with the season as a turkey. Spray your pans and slow cooker with PAM Cooking Spray before adding the ingredients to prevent your food from sticking to the sides. This handy tip can also be applied to your a saucepans and stock pots, ensuring your famous gravy, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce come out clean.

* Clean the spaces where people will be. Your houseguests or visitors won’t occupy your entire house while they’re staying with you; so clean the areas where they will spend the most time. This means picking up the living room, organizing guest bedrooms and ensuring the bathroom they will use is clean and ready to go. You can save time by simply shutting the doors to rooms they won’t need and save those cleaning projects for another day.

* Make baking a breeze. Whether it’s pies, loafs, cookies or cakes, dessert is one of the best parts of a holiday meal. Applying PAM Baking Spray to your dishes, sheets and tins will prevent your baked goods from sticking and ensure a more beautiful final product (no deformed desserts, here!). PAM Cooking Spray leaves 99 percent (see editor note below) less residue than leading brands of margarine or bargain-brand sprays, ensuring a much easier cleanup so you can get on with your holiday preparations and celebrations.

* Make it a family affair. Who says you have to do all the cleaning by yourself? You can clean your home more quickly and effectively if you enlist everyone to help. Smaller children can handle taking out the trash or picking up their toys and clothes; older children can vacuum or dust. In the kitchen, ask the kids to help bake by spraying the cookie cutters with PAM Baking before cutting. You’ll then have better shaped dough that doesn’t stick and will be easier to clean up. Make it a family affair and you’ll be finished in no time.

* Take care of that Christmas tree. Nothing defines the season like a fully decorated, aromatic Christmas tree. Minimize needle cleanup by placing a tree-disposal bag under the base when you set up the tree. When it’s time to take it down, simply encompass the tree with the bag and haul it outside.

The holidays are an exciting, memorable time, so employ the tips above to spend more time making memories instead of cleaning up after them. For more ways to simplify your holidays, visit PAM Cooking Spray on Facebook.

Editor's note: Versus a leading brand of margarine, leading bargain brand of canola-oil cooking spray, and vegetable-oil cooking spray, after baked at 400 F for 30 minutes, cooled, and washed in one regular dishwasher cycle.