keep up with the dishes

I moved out since college and lived in all sort of situations. Living alone, with roomates, or with my loved one, one problem that always arises is the congested sink. One day I had a revelation and solved the problem in 3 steps.

1) Don’t go iron chef when you cook. Two things you really need is a) a small non-stick saucepan and b) a non-stick baking sheet. The saucepan can be used for anything from boiling pasta to frying meat. The lid of the saucepan can be used to drain liquid from the sauce pan or to hold cooked food at “intermediate” steps. In addition to cooking in the oven, the baking sheet can be used as a cutting board or organizing.

2) Don’t go iron chef when you serve. Eat your food from the non-stick saucepan with wooden utensils. You can also serve bread and salads the lid of the sauce pan.

If you follow the above, you’d have to wash the utensils and 3 pieces of non-stick cookware, MAX. And you’ll need to clean them anyways the next day you cook. If your other half starts nagging about eating in a “civilized” way, give in a little bit and serve food on plates. ONE plate per person. My girlfriend once served some pasta over a stack of 3 plates to “match the color”. Don’t let them do that unless you have established the following point:

3) NEVER share tasks. whoever cooks also takes care of the dishes.

Because you’re always washing only 3 pieces of ware, you can always do it without touching your roomates/girlfriends’ mess. You will also win the “who can’t stand the mess first” game because you have avoided your need of the sink. They can drop a nuclear bomb in the kitchen and you can still clean your 3 pieces of cookware (maybe in the washroom sink in the extreme case unless you are having another war there).

I have a really bad cycle about the dishes. I will spend a whole day getting them caught up after 2 or 3 weeks of them piling up and then I will keep it up for about 2 days, my record is 5 days. Then I will let one day go by without doing them thinking it will be easy to get caught back up again only to let it go another 2 or 3 weeks, sometimes over a month even. Then the whole process starts over. I want to be able to keep the dishes up to where it doesn’t come to an overwhelming job I must take a whole day to do every few weeks. It is a tiresome cycle and I am ready to break it by KEEPING UP WITH THE DISHES everyday! Hopefully this site will help.

My new rule: If the sink is full, I need to do the dishes. No cheating and putting stuff on other kitchen surfaces. So far, it works!

Still working on this.

I’ve been doing pretty well, but I’m not ready to mark it a success yet.

It does take more work, but I like always having a place to set things down and work.

It didn’t look like this for every second of every day, but it looked like this at least for a few moments each day.

_{picture of my spotless countertops on the way… computer troubles preventing me from uploading it}

Last night I had a long phone conversation with an old friend while I cleaned the kitchen. I took my time and did more than just the dishes, and it was so nice to really talk with someone I am often too busy or distracted to really be present for.

It’s a weeknight, and the kitchen is still spotless—without a dirty dish in sight. But can I keep it up?

I loved the ideas people came up with to make dishwashing more pleasant, even relaxing, even… I know this is hard to believe, but even something meditative and restorative that I look forward to as “me” time. And certainly having a spotless kitchen is its own reward. Not to mention a happy personal chef/sex slave (happy because his request about the dishes has been honored).

I will have to get a better music-playing setup in the kitchen.

While this is clearly impossible, I am nonetheless making an effort to apply my trademark brilliant problem-solving skills in order to improve my performance. At the moment every dish in the house is either clean or in the dishwasher, but it’s weeknights that are the problem. We’ll see what happens.

Maybe the frequency of dishwashing isn’t the problem, it’s the shortage of available counter space, which of course gets even greater when dirty dishes are piled all over. Maybe I could get another counter/cabinet for the kitchen? Or will dirty dishes just expand over whatever available space there is?