One spoon... Harmless, right?
But if your spoons are anything like the ones in our house - they multiply - very quickly!!
I'm not just talking spoons either. Dirty dishes. They attract one another like magnets:
(Not my kitchen... but some days I feel like it looks this way!) |
One day, Andrew gave me some advice (in a nice way, of course!). You see, his parents' kitchen is always clean! It's like magic! And I know his mom does a lot of cooking, so it should be getting dirty, right? He said that growing up, his parents always cleaned dishes immediately and if any dish could go in the dishwasher, you put it there right away - no time hanging out in the sink!
I put that advice on the back-burner for awhile - after all, surely that would not work for me. I've never been the clean-as-I-go type.
But in the flurry of nesting mode, I decided to give it a go... By golly, it works! The kitchen has been clean for pretty much the last week and a half! Sometimes a few things pile up, especially when I am in the middle of cooking or baking, but I always make sure to clean it up as soon as I can. I don't even let one spoon hang out in the sink because that, my friends, is the beginning of the slippery slope. It's also nice not having to scrape dried food off dishes - who knew it rinses right off if you clean it immediately!
Andrew has even commented that when the kitchen is perfectly clean he feels bad leaving one dish out, so he is also motivated to clean up immediately after himself. Whereas, before if there were already dishes collecting in the sink, what's wrong with adding a few more?
I know I'll have down days, and everything won't always be perfect, but I am really hopeful right now that I'm developing good kitchen habits that are here to stay. My favorite part about having a clean kitchen is I feel like I have more time to do other things - like play with John and keep up with the rest of the house.
If this sounds appealing to you, go ahead and give it a try! =)