You've just served a bunch of people dinner, and you are tired. The thought of washing pots and loading a dishwasher is making you cranky, and yet waking up to smelly, stuck-on food is no picnic, either. Here are the bare minimum tasks we do before we crash to make cleanup the next morning much easier.
1. Put leftover food in the refrigerator. Enough cocktails, and you might forget there's soup in the covered pot on the stovetop. Make sure you wrap up leftovers and put them away or send them home with guests.2. Rinse stuck-on food. We leave dirty dishes in the sink all the time, but we try to give them a rinse or light scrub (so we're not using a jackhammer to pry off dried cheese or tomato sauce the next day). We'll also frequently fill a bowl with soapy water and dump all of the silverware and serving utensils into it.
3. Fill empty pots and pans with a little water. It's great if you have room to put a big dutch oven or casserole dish in the sink and let it soak overnight. But even if you don't, pour some hot water into the pan and set it back on the stovetop or counter. Wherever you have room. Just don't leave a crusty pot to linger overnight. Let the water do some of the work for you.
4. Pour a splash of water into red wine glasses. Wine glasses are the last thing we tackle. And if we leave them out, even a tiny little bit of red wine hardens into a flaky residue that's hard to clean. When we clear the water glasses, we'll pour a bit into the red wine glasses—just enough to keep the residue from settling and drying out.
5. Clear the table. Sounds like a no-brainer, but it's psychological for us: Even if the kitchen looks like a tornado hit, the dining table (or coffee table, wherever you're eating) needs to be clear, wiped down, and tidy (napkins re-folded, chairs pushed in). When we walk into the room in the morning, we like to se something that's orderly.
What are your must-dos before you go to bed? Do you have to clean everything? Or do you leave some of it for the morning?
Related: Cleaning Up: What Do You Not Put in the Dishwasher?
(Image: Leela Cyd Ross)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Monterey Pitcher fr...
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
I actually always clean up after having people over for dinner, no matter how tired I am. (I'm religious about cleaning as I go though, so the mess is never as bad as it could be.) This isn't out of any particular virtue: it's just that I'd much rather push myself to clean for a few extra minutes before going to bed than wake up and face a pile of dirty dishes.
Maybe I'm a bit of a freak, but I can't go to bed until everything is cleaned up, floors included. Last thing I want to do is get up to make coffee and have to walk across the nasty kitchen floor. The only thing I'll leave is the clean pile of serving pieces, that need to be "arranged" (my storage is limited) in order to be stored. I make coffee, relax and recall the wonderful memories of the party, then put the serving pieces away later in the afternoon.
I also can't go to bed unless everything is cleaned up. I make sure to put as much as possible in the dishwasher and start it, and, if I can't fit everything, I either soak or wash everything else. I leave the floors until the next day, but it sure is nice to wake up to a clean house!
I clean up before going to bed.. All but floors, usually. If I've done it correctly, all my prep dishes are already washed, dried and put away before guests arrive. So it's just the final pots and pans, plates, utensils and glasses to clear. Measuring cups, cutting boards etc are already clean. Wipe down the counters and the table and I'm done.
ok i definitely do not clean everything up before going to bed. stacking the cleared off dishes and soaking the utensils is as far as i go before giving up.
I do all 6 of these tasks after a dinner party and I think it is a great method. Sometimes I have a guest that insists on helping with the dishes after a meal. I understand their wanting to help, but I would rather ignore the dishes and linger over an extra glass of wine or dessert and enjoy my guests. I also try to have all of my cooking and prep dishes cleaned before guests arrive, so there is not a backlog of dishes.
I have a saying: The Secret to A Successful Dinner Party is an Empty Dishwasher.
Even if it means doing a light load during the day, I'll make sure that my dishwasher is empty when things get rolling. Going to bed with dishes in the sink is just not an option an having an empty dishwasher that I can quickly/easily load is worth its weight in gold.
i would also add, 6. load and turn on the dishwasher.
then you can start the next load in the morning without wait.
I do all these at least before going to bed. It depends a lot how late the party is - if everyone leaves by 10, I'll stay up the extra hour to clean, but if its a late night I'll deal with it the next day. I'm also someone who prefers not to have guests help clean up. I was raised that starting to clean is a (sort of rude) message to guests to leave. I have friends who routinely do it though, and I know they're not being rude, and I don't mind helping.
This is pretty much the logic I apply whenever I've made a particularly dish-heavy dinner (which seems to happen too often) and have opted to spend the rest of the night doing something other than the dishes, like hanging out with my husband. (And I *always* rinse that little bit of red wine or port out of the bottom of the glass!) If you're putting away any leftover food and rinsing/soaking everything, you really shouldn't have to worry about bugs-- the only time we've ever dealt with roaches was when our upstairs neighbor had a backlog of pizza boxes, which is a skosh different from leaving mostly-clean dishes in the sink overnight.
And I actually find doing dishes first thing in the morning really wakes me up like not much else will, so even if it's daunting to look at, it usually makes for a good start to my day.
I think this depends on um, how much party you had at your party.
My old roommates always insisted on cleaning while they were a little too sloshed, and after each party there would be a big spill during cleaning, or a broken dish, or an otherwise clean dishwasher speckled with fruit from the sangria we made.
But I'm otherwise a fan of at least getting the cleaning underway before heading to bed. And don't forget to check inside the oven or microwave: I'll leave something in there to keep it warm during the party and find it still there the next day. Whoops.
I feel like such a judgmental jerk when friends or family don't clean up after a party -esp when we're spending the night with the hubs' family and I'm the first one up in the morning, but it's such a wretched feeling to walk into a disgusting, food-covered kitchen, SO I usually tackle things after everyone else has gone to bed...we clean everything in our house before relaxing at the end of the night, unless it's something that needs to soak, and the trash has to be emptied and taken out!
I agree with AKAY.
I had my two sisters over once for a boozy dinner & cocktails sleepover. My oldest sister INSISTED on doing the dishes before bed and I begged her not to, as it was quite late and we were all pretty sloshed and tired. Frankly, just taking off my makeup seemed like a huge chore.
Well she went ahead and yay! Instead of collapsing into bed, I instead got to clean up TWO broken cocktail glasses.
We always had this family friend who, without fail, would clean the entire kitchen and all the dishes during any gathering, ever. My mom would always try to get her to stop and tease her saying that she was getting the place cleaner than it had been before the party, but she would always just do it anyway. My mom finally stopped bugging her about it when she realized that was how she would deal with nervous energy at a party, and that she liked contributing that way, and so eventually my mom would just let her go to town and head back into the other room!
I have very nice friends - they always help clean up after a party. Whatever remains gets done the next day after I've enjoyed a nice lie-in!
This always such a huge battle between my wife and I. I completely agree with all of these. I don't mind the dishes on the counter or sink but I cannot stand having the table covered with plates the next morning. My wife is of the "leave it until tomorrow" school.
I try to wash most pots and pans as I go unless I'm serving the final hot product from them. I also always make sure the dishwasher is empty before guests arrive so it can be filled as we go.
Not having a dishwasher has made me extremely lazy in terms of dishes. I'd MUCH rather tackle a pile of dishes after a good nights sleep than take time out from guests and company or snuggling. However, that's mostly due to our almost-no-countertops and one-section sink - if there are two plates out, it looks like there's been a "dinner party".
If I had a larger place, perhaps with a dishwasher, I'd be more motivated to clean up. But "cleaning up" after a decent-sized get-together is now an event of epic proportions.
Better to do that after a cup of coffee. :P
I would add, prep the coffee maker for the morning.
A pile of dishes seems so much more approachable with coffee in-hand.
I second that @asmallcontempt!
I bet some even have TWO dishwashers!
In my household we have two dishwashers and neither of us starts till the next morning after a cup of coffee.
I used to allow smokers to smoke in my house and that was the one thing I could not let go- I had to clean up was anything that had a cig near it (so foul to find bottles with a stubbed out cig that same night but beyond disgusting to find it the next morning when you can see clearer) No smokers allowed to smoke in my house anymore!