Clean as you Go!

The experiences we have throughout our lives shape who we are and who we become, day after day, year after year. I know what I am going to write today might be a little extreme for some of you, but it works for me.  When I got married (33 years ago this week!) I learned immediately that I preferred to keep my kitchen clean as I cooked.  My entire life, I hated doing dishes.  I grew up without a dishwasher. We were rotated nights on dish duty. My mom always kept a clean house but one thing I hated was having to wash all the dishes from dinner as well as the pots and pans mom had cooked with.  I HATED WHEN I HAD DISH DUTY!  There was always more than one of us on dish duty and I remember as a young girl trying to find an excuse not to help!  I would go to the bathroom to 'wash my hands'.  I really did wash my hands.  I would stand in the bathroom, get soap on them and wash them for about 15 minutes.  I made sure I gave them time to get the bulk of the dishes done! Well, it didn't take long for my family to catch on...I was the baby and they were all older and wiser than I gave them credit for!

Fast forward to me as a newlywed and being in charge of the kitchen.  I quickly learned that if I loaded the dishwasher as I finished with a dish, that when we sat down to dinner the entire kitchen was clean and it made for a pleasant meal experience!  I still do that to this day.  It is a habit I developed and loved the results.  Some might think it is a little too much, but it is a wonderful feeling! Plus, when the meal is over, no one EVER dreads having to take care of the pots and pans that were used to prepare the meal...they are already either in the dishwasher or they are washed, dried and put away.

I can't eat in a kitchen like this!  Heck, I can't cook in a kitchen like this!

Let me show you what my kitchen looks like when we sit down to a meal.

To be honest, there have been two times in the 33 years of marriage that I have gotten up and left the table, thinking I would do the dishes later.  I remember the exact scenario of both times because the dread of cleaning up later was overwhelming to me!

Here are a couple of tips:

1.  Organize your ingredients and dishes before you get started, and put them away as soon as you are done using them.  

2.  While something is simmering or in the microwave (or whatever), use the down time to wipe down the counters and clean further.  Also, use this time to set the table.

3.  Enlist the help of your family is preparation and clean up!

4.  If everything is put away and you sit down to a meal in a clean kitchen, everyone is happier and the meal is pleasant!

5.  This last tip is one I think is SUPER important.  After dinner, everyone takes their own dishes and rinses them and loads them in the dishwasher.  Then, everyone cleans up the rest of the table together.  No one leaves until everything is finished.  We have done this for 33 years and it works!