WEBVTT - Nothing stays in the sink

0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:09.320
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:16.840
<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:22.400
<v Speaker 1>tip is to establish a household rule that nothing stays

0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:26.200
<v Speaker 1>in the sink. People spend a lot of time in

0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.360
<v Speaker 1>the kitchen, and keeping the kitchen from descending into chaos

0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:33.600
<v Speaker 1>can go a long way toward making the house as

0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:38.680
<v Speaker 1>a whole feel more orderly. So if your household is

0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:43.720
<v Speaker 1>like mine, you have probably noticed something. Clutter attracts clutter.

0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.479
<v Speaker 1>If one piece of mail is left on the counter,

0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.400
<v Speaker 1>it becomes a magnet for others. People just drop the

0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.960
<v Speaker 1>junk mail there without throwing it out, whereas if the

0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:00.520
<v Speaker 1>counter is clear most of the time won't be the

0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:05.440
<v Speaker 1>first one to leave something there. Same with communal spaces

0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.679
<v Speaker 1>such as a hallway. A few years ago we had

0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.160
<v Speaker 1>boxes from moving in the hallway upstairs, and these boxes

0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.280
<v Speaker 1>attracted all sorts of random objects getting piled on top

0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.280
<v Speaker 1>of them. I got rid of the boxes, and now

0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:25.000
<v Speaker 1>the hallway has stayed clear for years. I didn't get

0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:29.479
<v Speaker 1>different family members. It's just that now a single item

0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.600
<v Speaker 1>left in the hallway will attract attention. What is that

0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:38.320
<v Speaker 1>doing here? There is accountability for it. So in general

0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.080
<v Speaker 1>people don't do it. This definitely applies to the sink

0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.240
<v Speaker 1>and my house. Dishes get dirty at three different meals

0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.040
<v Speaker 1>during the day, to say nothing of snacks. But as

0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.560
<v Speaker 1>much as possible, we try to establish a routine that

0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:56.840
<v Speaker 1>nothing stays in the sink. If anyone leaves a dirty

0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.160
<v Speaker 1>dish in the sink, it becomes a free for all.

0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.720
<v Speaker 1>Soon the dishes are stacked up and no one feels

0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.120
<v Speaker 1>accountable for any of it. Better to keep the sink

0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:12.200
<v Speaker 1>clear and not have the pile up happen. This is

0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:17.200
<v Speaker 1>accomplished by a few things. First, the dishwasher runs late

0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.280
<v Speaker 1>at night, after people are most likely done with creating

0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.680
<v Speaker 1>dirty dishes. The dishwasher is then emptied first thing in

0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.760
<v Speaker 1>the morning. That means that when people are creating dirty dishes,

0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:35.239
<v Speaker 1>there is space in the dishwasher for them to go. Next,

0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.920
<v Speaker 1>anyone leaving dishes in the sink is called out on it.

0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.280
<v Speaker 1>A child who leaves a dish in the sink is

0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:43.919
<v Speaker 1>called back to put it where it is supposed to go,

0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:49.280
<v Speaker 1>namely in the dishwasher, if the child has left the house.

0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.359
<v Speaker 1>I tend to just do it, because even one dish

0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:56.720
<v Speaker 1>left in the sink tends to introduce a permission structure

0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.720
<v Speaker 1>where if people think, oh, the dishwasher must be clean,

0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.240
<v Speaker 1>or that no one will notice, so better to get

0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.040
<v Speaker 1>the one dish put away rather than wait for that

0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.720
<v Speaker 1>person to come back. The guilty party can be reminded

0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.239
<v Speaker 1>at another point and chastise. Then likewise, pots and pans

0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.520
<v Speaker 1>need to be cleaned immediately after. Use a scrubbrush and

0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.240
<v Speaker 1>dish washing soap that can be sprayed onto pots and

0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.840
<v Speaker 1>pans means it is possible to do a small number

0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.440
<v Speaker 1>of items, or even just one at a time. If

0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:33.640
<v Speaker 1>there is only one dirty dish, no need to fill

0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.880
<v Speaker 1>the sink with water and make SuDS, a practice that

0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:38.960
<v Speaker 1>would seem to make it more efficient to allow the

0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.240
<v Speaker 1>dishes to build up. Now, I understand the concept of

0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.640
<v Speaker 1>letting something soak, but this can be done while other

0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:53.280
<v Speaker 1>dishes are being done. So if you have four pans

0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.400
<v Speaker 1>to scrub, put the one that needs to soak in

0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.920
<v Speaker 1>the sink first with some dish soap, and then wash

0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.320
<v Speaker 1>the others. By the time you finish the others, the

0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.080
<v Speaker 1>grime will have partly dislodged on the first pan, and

0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.720
<v Speaker 1>then it can be dealt with, leaving it to soak

0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:16.240
<v Speaker 1>for hours means more dishes will get left in the sink,

0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:22.000
<v Speaker 1>and then we are back to chaos. By having systems

0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.279
<v Speaker 1>in place, it turns out that there is no benefit

0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.160
<v Speaker 1>to batching the dishes, and so they don't build up.

0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.919
<v Speaker 1>This means any time doing the dishes only has to

0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:35.240
<v Speaker 1>take a minute or so the sink stays clear, the

0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:40.200
<v Speaker 1>kitchen stays under control. In any case, if you haven't

0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.039
<v Speaker 1>set a family policy that nothing stays in the sink,

0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.880
<v Speaker 1>you might consider it. A giant pile of dirty dishes

0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.960
<v Speaker 1>makes a kitchen feel out of control. An empty sink

0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:58.200
<v Speaker 1>makes it look reasonably clean. It is not that hard

0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.160
<v Speaker 1>to keep the sink clean as long as the dishwasher

0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.840
<v Speaker 1>is run and emptied on the right schedule. Then it

0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.200
<v Speaker 1>is no harder to put a fork in the dishwasher

0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:11.599
<v Speaker 1>than to place it in the sink. But one makes

0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:17.240
<v Speaker 1>the kitchen feel a lot cleaner than the other. In

0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:22.880
<v Speaker 1>the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:32.920
<v Speaker 1>to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:37.360
<v Speaker 1>to before breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.080
<v Speaker 1>you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot

0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:50.560
<v Speaker 1>com Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more

0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:55.480
<v Speaker 1>podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:07.040
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.