What are some of the ways you can tell when guests are finished with their meal and dishes should be cleared?

Definitely you could make three dishes, and the last has to be the desert, regularly the desert is eaten quickly.

But never you must start to clean any dish if the guest still in your house, you would ask between meals, For example:

Would you like yo try the desert? I made a cheesecake.

But you have to do a good conversation to make your visitors feel comfortable

If our guests ate the three dishes successfully, and they left your house, you can start to clean the dishes.