Dinner ends on Thursday, November 26, and three clocks start: the food on the table, the food in the fridge and the trash. This guide puts them on one calendar for a Philadelphia household.
The food wording is Penn State Extension's, from two pages we read on October 31, 2026: "Holiday Leftovers" (updated October 6, 2025) and "Refrigerator Refresher" (updated May 14, 2025). The trash wording and holiday dates are from the City of Philadelphia's holiday page and its own trash-day data feed, read November 1, 2026. Dates counted from the meal are our arithmetic. Prices and checklist lines are from our booking catalog and checklists as of October 31, 2026. We give no food-safety advice of our own.
The short answer
- On the table: "Discard any turkey, stuffing, and gravy left at room temperature longer than two hours."
- In the fridge: "Cooked turkey, side dishes and gravy can be refrigerated for 3 to 4 days." Counted from Thursday dinner, that is Sunday night to Monday night (our counting).
- In the trash: the City lists Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, and Thanksgiving Friday, November 27, as 2026 holidays. Check your collection day with the City; we name no shifted day for this two-holiday week.
- The visit: our sheets list the counters, the fridge front, the floors and the trash cans. The inside of the fridge and the oven are paid add-ons on Standard and Deep. Move lists both, and Dream Home inherits them. No sheet line mentions the curb.
The three clocks, counted from Thursday dinner
| Clock | What the source says | Counted from the meal (ours) |
|---|---|---|
| Food at room temperature | Penn State: "Discard any turkey, stuffing, and gravy left at room temperature longer than two hours." | If the food went on the table at 5 p.m., two hours ends at 7 p.m. |
| Food in the refrigerator | Penn State: "Cooked turkey, side dishes and gravy can be refrigerated for 3 to 4 days." Its fridge page says "no more than four days." | Three days from Thursday is Sunday and four is Monday. Penn State does not say where day one starts, so we count from the meal. |
| Trash and recycling | City of Philadelphia: "Trash and recyclables are not collected on City holidays." "Trash and recycling collection will be one day behind schedule for the rest of the week after a holiday." | The City lists Thanksgiving, November 26, and Thanksgiving Friday, November 27. We do not calculate a collection day for two holidays; check your day with the City. |
Penn State's page adds, in its words: "Divide cooked foods into shallow containers for rapid cooling." "Refrigerators should be 40°F or below, and freezers should be 0°F or lower." "Avoid overfilling the refrigerator." Read the full page for the rest.
Friday to Monday, in order
Food has a clock and surfaces do not, so the food moves first. The order is ours; the food steps are Penn State's.
| When | Do this | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday night | Get the food off the table and into shallow containers. | The two-hour and shallow-container lines are the only ones that run in hours. |
| Friday | Decide what goes to the freezer (Penn State: "Slices or pieces of plain turkey can be frozen for up to 4 months."). Clear the counters and bag the kitchen trash and recycling. | The fridge clock runs in days, so Friday is the day to sort. Check your day with the City's trash-day tool before setting bags out. |
| Saturday | Floors, the bathroom guests used and the guest bed. Standard and Deep do not change bedsheets. | None of it runs on a food clock. |
| Sunday and Monday nights | Sunday night is the three-day mark and Monday night is the four-day mark. | Penn State's range, counted from the meal. |
| Tuesday or later | Wipe the fridge shelves, or book Standard or Deep with the inside-fridge add-on. | A fridge crowded with leftovers is hard to clean inside. |
For the inside of the fridge, the inside-fridge guide sets the 2-hour arrival window against the time food can be out. The Move sheet's line reads "Clean Inside of Refrigerator (must be clear)" and also lists "Clean Interior & Exterior of Oven"; Dream Home inherits both. Inside fridge and oven are add-ons on Standard and Deep. Our add-on card does not say who takes the food out, and we take no side.
If you wipe the shelves yourself, Penn State's "Refrigerator Refresher" page says: "Generally, clean the refrigerator unit with dishwashing liquid or baking soda and water on the inside." It also says: "Once washed and sanitized, air dry shelves and drawers before returning them to the unit." Its sanitizer mix for removable parts is on that page, not ours.
What a visit lists after a big dinner
This table maps the jobs a hosted meal leaves behind to our published sheets. The quoted lines are verbatim. The tier lines are in our tier checklist guide.
| Job after the meal | What our sheets list | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen counters | Standard: "Countertop Disinfected And Wiped Down." Deep adds "Deeply Scrub Countertop Surfaces." | On the sheet |
| Front of the fridge | Standard: "Wipe Down Refrigerator Front." Deep adds "Wipe Down Refrigerator And Cabinet Tops (up to 9ft)." | On the sheet |
| Inside of the fridge | Add-on: Clean Inside Fridge, $35 and 25 minutes, "Top to bottom · shelves + drawers." | Paid add-on on Standard and Deep; Move includes it and Dream Home inherits it |
| Stovetop and kitchen sink | No Standard kitchen line names either. Deep adds "Deeply Scrub & Disinfect Stovetop" and "Deeply Scrub & Disinfect Inside / Outside Sink." | Deep sheet |
| Inside of the oven | Add-on: Clean Inside Oven, $35 and 30 minutes, "Racks, glass, the works." | Paid add-on on Standard and Deep; Move includes it and Dream Home inherits it. See the oven guide |
| Dishes | No tier line names dishes. Add-on: Wash Dishes, $25 and 15 minutes, "One sink full." | Paid add-on on all four tiers |
| Floors under the table | Standard: "Floors Swept / Mopped / Vacuumed" and "Open Carpet Areas Vacuumed." | On the sheet |
| Trash cans | Standard: "Clean and Empty Trash Cans." No line mentions the curb or setting trash out for collection. | Not listed; confirm before the visit |
| Table linens and towels | Laundry add-on: Laundry Wash & Dry (Per Load), $20 and 60 minutes, "We sort + fold." | Paid add-on on Standard, Deep and Move; Dream Home lists "Laundry Wash & Dry (2 Loads)" |
We do not say a cleaner sorts, discards, stores or reheats food, loads or unloads a dishwasher, or washes pots. If you want something that is not listed, ask before the visit.
Philadelphia trash after a holiday
The City's holiday page says: "Trash and recyclables are not collected on City holidays." It also says: "Trash and recycling collection will be one day behind schedule for the rest of the week after a holiday." Its dates load from the City's own trash-day data feed. The City lists Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, and Thanksgiving Friday, November 27, as 2026 City holidays. The page does not say how the two holidays combine to shift collection, so we name no shifted collection day.
Our suggestion, not the City's: bag the kitchen trash on Friday and check your day with the City's trash-day tool or holiday page before you set anything out.
What to book, with prices
These totals use the example home from our hosting guide: 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths in the Spacious band, where Standard is $160 + $40 + $5 + $30 = $235.00 and Deep, on the $285 tier base, is $285 + $40 + $5 + $30 = $360.00. Add-on prices are from our add-on prices in Philadelphia. Totals are before the first-clean discount and tax, and exclude tips. Checkout charges to the cent; whole-dollar figures are budget estimates, not checkout rounding. The booking form checks your ZIP and shows the current total.
| What you book | Arithmetic | Total, before the first-clean discount and tax |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $235.00 | $235 |
| Standard + Clean Inside Fridge | $235.00 + $35.00 | $270 |
| Standard + inside fridge + inside oven | $235.00 + $70.00 | $305 |
| Standard + inside fridge + inside oven + Wash Dishes | $235.00 + $95.00 | $330 |
| Deep | $360.00 | $360 |
| Deep + Clean Inside Fridge | $360.00 + $35.00 | $395 |
| Deep + inside fridge + inside oven | $360.00 + $70.00 | $430 |
Deep adds ten lines to Standard, including the stovetop and sink scrubs above.
An example, invented
This household is invented to show the steps. It is not a customer. Marcus hosted nine people in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath rowhome. Thursday night he moved the turkey into shallow containers and set phone reminders for Sunday night and Monday night, the three-day and four-day marks counted from the meal. On Friday he bagged the trash, checked his collection day with the City's trash-day tool before setting the bags out. The stovetop and sink took the most cooking, so he priced Deep + Clean Inside Fridge at $395.00 before the first-clean discount and tax and picked a day after Monday.
Where to go next
For the part before the meal, see our hosting guide. For the order a visit works through a home, see the room-by-room order. When you are ready, start a booking and the page shows the live total for your home.
Frequently asked questions
How long are Thanksgiving leftovers good?
Penn State Extension says cooked turkey, side dishes and gravy can be refrigerated for 3 to 4 days. Counted from a Thursday dinner, that is Sunday night to Monday night.
Is there trash pickup the day after Thanksgiving in Philadelphia?
The City lists Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, and Thanksgiving Friday, November 27, as 2026 holidays. Its holiday page says trash is not collected on City holidays and collection runs one day behind after a holiday. We do not calculate your day for a two-holiday week; check phila.gov's trash-day tool or holiday page.
Will a Hometress cleaner take out my leftovers or wash the pots?
No sheet line names leftovers, pots or a dishwasher, and we do not say a cleaner sorts or discards food. Wash Dishes is a paid add-on on all four tiers, listed as "One sink full."