Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to establish a household rule that nothing stays
Speaker 1: in the sink. People spend a lot of time in
Speaker 1: the kitchen, and keeping the kitchen from descending into chaos
Speaker 1: can go a long way toward making the house as
Speaker 1: a whole feel more orderly. So if your household is
Speaker 1: like mine, you have probably noticed something. Clutter attracts clutter.
Speaker 1: If one piece of mail is left on the counter,
Speaker 1: it becomes a magnet for others. People just drop the
Speaker 1: junk mail there without throwing it out, whereas if the
Speaker 1: counter is clear most of the time won't be the
Speaker 1: first one to leave something there. Same with communal spaces
Speaker 1: such as a hallway. A few years ago we had
Speaker 1: boxes from moving in the hallway upstairs, and these boxes
Speaker 1: attracted all sorts of random objects getting piled on top
Speaker 1: of them. I got rid of the boxes, and now
Speaker 1: the hallway has stayed clear for years. I didn't get
Speaker 1: different family members. It's just that now a single item
Speaker 1: left in the hallway will attract attention. What is that
Speaker 1: doing here? There is accountability for it. So in general
Speaker 1: people don't do it. This definitely applies to the sink
Speaker 1: and my house. Dishes get dirty at three different meals
Speaker 1: during the day, to say nothing of snacks. But as
Speaker 1: much as possible, we try to establish a routine that
Speaker 1: nothing stays in the sink. If anyone leaves a dirty
Speaker 1: dish in the sink, it becomes a free for all.
Speaker 1: Soon the dishes are stacked up and no one feels
Speaker 1: accountable for any of it. Better to keep the sink
Speaker 1: clear and not have the pile up happen. This is
Speaker 1: accomplished by a few things. First, the dishwasher runs late
Speaker 1: at night, after people are most likely done with creating
Speaker 1: dirty dishes. The dishwasher is then emptied first thing in
Speaker 1: the morning. That means that when people are creating dirty dishes,
Speaker 1: there is space in the dishwasher for them to go. Next,
Speaker 1: anyone leaving dishes in the sink is called out on it.
Speaker 1: A child who leaves a dish in the sink is
Speaker 1: called back to put it where it is supposed to go,
Speaker 1: namely in the dishwasher, if the child has left the house.
Speaker 1: I tend to just do it, because even one dish
Speaker 1: left in the sink tends to introduce a permission structure
Speaker 1: where if people think, oh, the dishwasher must be clean,
Speaker 1: or that no one will notice, so better to get
Speaker 1: the one dish put away rather than wait for that
Speaker 1: person to come back. The guilty party can be reminded
Speaker 1: at another point and chastise. Then likewise, pots and pans
Speaker 1: need to be cleaned immediately after. Use a scrubbrush and
Speaker 1: dish washing soap that can be sprayed onto pots and
Speaker 1: pans means it is possible to do a small number
Speaker 1: of items, or even just one at a time. If
Speaker 1: there is only one dirty dish, no need to fill
Speaker 1: the sink with water and make SuDS, a practice that
Speaker 1: would seem to make it more efficient to allow the
Speaker 1: dishes to build up. Now, I understand the concept of
Speaker 1: letting something soak, but this can be done while other
Speaker 1: dishes are being done. So if you have four pans
Speaker 1: to scrub, put the one that needs to soak in
Speaker 1: the sink first with some dish soap, and then wash
Speaker 1: the others. By the time you finish the others, the
Speaker 1: grime will have partly dislodged on the first pan, and
Speaker 1: then it can be dealt with, leaving it to soak
Speaker 1: for hours means more dishes will get left in the sink,
Speaker 1: and then we are back to chaos. By having systems
Speaker 1: in place, it turns out that there is no benefit
Speaker 1: to batching the dishes, and so they don't build up.
Speaker 1: This means any time doing the dishes only has to
Speaker 1: take a minute or so the sink stays clear, the
Speaker 1: kitchen stays under control. In any case, if you haven't
Speaker 1: set a family policy that nothing stays in the sink,
Speaker 1: you might consider it. A giant pile of dirty dishes
Speaker 1: makes a kitchen feel out of control. An empty sink
Speaker 1: makes it look reasonably clean. It is not that hard
Speaker 1: to keep the sink clean as long as the dishwasher
Speaker 1: is run and emptied on the right schedule. Then it
Speaker 1: is no harder to put a fork in the dishwasher
Speaker 1: than to place it in the sink. But one makes
Speaker 1: the kitchen feel a lot cleaner than the other. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to before breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot
Speaker 1: com Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more
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