Time Me!
April 13, 2007
One of the most frustrating things in the life of a stay-at-home mom, part-time working mom, married woman, career woman, or homeschool mom has got to be the dirty dishes in the kitchen.
Kitchen clean-up is one of those things we do over and over and over, even on our days “off.” A SAHM friend once told me she felt like she was always washing dirty dishes. She said five or six times a day she’d be in the kitchen cleaning up. And from time to time I’ve found myself rinsing dishes and thinking how I’ll never get to “retire” because we’ll always have to eat. (As I look back, there was usually some other issue going on that was overwhelming me, but still.)
So how do we handle this most boringest of chores? For those of us whose kids are still a little too young to rinse heavy stoneware dinner plates (where was my brain when we picked those out?), is there anything we can do to get control?
You betcha.
Make the timer your friend.
We touched on this briefly two weeks ago with our two-minute drill. (How are you doing there, by the way?) And Elizabeth mentioned in the comments section that she sets the timer for fifteen minutes a day while her kids clean their room. She said they’ve understood it’s not a long time, and so they don’t complain.
I happen to know how old Elizabeth’s kids are, and believe me, we’re all a tad bit older than them. So if they can figure out that fifteen minutes isn’t that long, so can we!
Here’s a new routine for you — after each meal, set the timer for fifteen minutes. When it goes off, stop cleaning your kitchen.
Of course, odds are that you’ll be already done or pretty stinkin’ close.
Part of the reason my kitchen falls behind is because after eating dinner, I want to take a break. And too often that break turns into the rest of the day!
Instead, when breakfast is over, set a timer for fifteen minutes. Honestly, it probably won’t take you more than five minutes to clean up, unless you make huge breakfasts from scratch. Which wouldn’t be me. Remember, I’ve timed it, and it usually takes less than two minutes.
So woo-whoo! Breakfast dishes are gone.
Don’t forget to wipe your counter and table. That’s part of it, too. Put away any recipe books you used and make sure trash is thrown away.
Doesn’t your kitchen look gooooooood?
Do the same thing at lunch. Again, for me, fifteen minutes is probably overkill. It might take ten to twelve.
Now dinner might be a different story. That’s the big meal I cook most days. Like Thursday’s dinner. We had salmon, sun-dried tomato alfredo sauce with fettuccine, salad, and croissants. (I impressed myself, too.) That’s dishes for four, a skillet, two sauce pans, salad bowl, croissant plate, and a stone to clean. Actually not that bad — no cutting board, no prep bowls, although I did transfer the fettuccine to a serving bowl.
I set my timer and went to work. I had just finished wiping down my counter when the timer went off.
Now why is cleaning right after a meal so important?
Consider this — you’re not coming to the end of your day with breakfast dishes in the sink with food dried on them like superglue. Lunch dishes aren’t cluttering your counter, and you don’t have to wipe up crumbs just so you can make dinner on your counter and dirty it all up again. You’ve kept up with the task, and so it has become bearable.
That’s the big secret — keeping up with the task. And how do we keep up with any task?
By making it routine.
Yep, it all goes back to those pesky precious little routines!
So make a committment for the next week to spend fifteen minutes cleaning up after each meal. And relax your night away, knowing everything in your kitchen’s under control!
- Next Friday — special guest interview. Did our wedding vows include the vacuum?
- Don’t forget — leave a comment for a chance to win Sharon Dunn’s Death of a Garage Sale Newbie or a free critique from Affordable Novel Critique Service. (In your comment, please specify if you’d like a shot at the critique.)
Comments
10 Responses to “Time Me!”
I LOVE THIS POST!!! Everything you said 100% applies to me. LOL, never retire because we’ll always have to eat. Just wait, soon your kids will be old enough to do the dishes! I do breakfast and lunch, my teen does dinner dishes. Take out anyone?
Ok Sally!
Do you have spy-cam in my kitchen or what?
This is probably my biggest area of weekness when it comes to housekeeping. Espescially in a small kitchen.
Thanks for the encouragement and the ideas for making a good routine.
BTW – when are you passing out the recipes for last nights dinner?!
This is my new way of life Sally. I love it! And you know, it works for a lot of things. Paying bills, writing, when you just don’t want to…15 minutes. But mostly, I love looking at the kitchen now and saying, “That’s ok. 15 minutes is all I’ll take. If it’s not done, I can always walk away. But it’s always done in just a few minutes!”
Oh, this is sooo me. I like to cook so by the time dinner’s over I’ve usually been in the kitchen for a while already. Who wants to go back in and clean it all up? Not me! It’s so much easier though when I’ve done my 2-minute type drills all day. Now about the rest of my house….
Hmm———maybe this will work for me and writing………………………….
Julie, here are the “recipes.” Classico’s jar of sun-dried tomatoes alfredo sauce, fettuccine, salmon cooked in a skillet with some butter, lemon, salt & pepper, lettuce from a bag, and croissants from a can.
I tell you, it about killed me!
I would love to read one of your books. They sound soo good and you sound like a fun person!
Love this, Sally! I hate going back into the kitchen after a meal. But I can do it if I know it’s only for 15 minutes … yaaaay for timers!
I LOVE this idea! Great job! The dishes are one of my least favorite chores and I swear they breed like rabbits when I’m not looking!
I know where the scored “pesky” comes from! How fun!