Tips for Better Dish Duty

10/18/2021

It. Was. Bad.

Y'all I was the WORST when it came to dishes duty. Like I'm honestly embarrassed at how I let our mess get so big and disgusting. I think a turning point was when I had my teenage nephew over and apologized for my mess. The reality hit me...do I want to always be OK with a sink overflowing with gross dirty dishes.
I had always just excused my "method" for my style. I mean I would wait until I could fill the dishwasher. I was saving electricity or water or something....right?

That day I realized I didn't want that to be my normal. I didn't want to be embarrassed if I had an unexpected guest because my sink and counters were covered in clutter and mess.

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Time For Change

Around the same time, I came across a hashtag on TikTok about something called the #flylady method. I was impressed by the motivation of these ladies so into cleaning with this method. I'll go into my thoughts on it in another post sometime. But my main takeaway immediately was that all these women made a clean clear SHINY sink a huge priority.

I figured. Maybe I could start there and see if I could manage that.
For those of you who are new here, I'm a single mom of two boys (5 and 7) so all major chores around the house are on me.

Here's What I Did

I started by making clearing dishes and loading the dishwasher a priority at night after dinner. Usually after dinner we all get into bedtime routine & lazy mode. Whether I was tired or not, I told myself if I could work on dishes for 10-15 minutes, then I could be done and it's just a short burst of work.

The next habit I tried to implement was putting dishes away in the morning. This happened to be way easier than anticipated. The idea of waking up to do a "chore" so early in the morning doesn't sound welcoming. But I discovered that since my coffee takes a couple minutes to brew, while that's happening I could put away the clean dishes.

These new habits allowed me to have smaller loads to handle, since I was washing and putting away more frequently. Smaller loads are SO MUCH nicer to work on than a sink full!

More Than Dirty Dishes

My next ah-ha moment was realizing that most of my friends over on Instagram agreed that dishes kinda suck. I had to ask myself why we all hate it so much. I found that my sink area wasn't really a space I liked to be. So that led me to ask myself why not? It had to be more than just the dirty dishes right?

My sink area was CLUTTERED. A large white plastic drying rack on my black countertop, piled with dishes, a basked littered with supplement jars, knick knacks, storage canisters, oversized water bottles. I mean there was hardly ANY clear space at all. Visual clutter creates stress. So this is part of the problem!

Some decluttering and re-organizing of the space was long overdue. Here is what I did.
1. Replaced the big white plastic drying rack with an IN SINK stainless steel rack
2. Organized small items on a two tier lazy susan
3. Moved water bottles to another area in a nice woven basket
4. Added a faux plant
5. I keep dish pods and tea out in these glass canisters

Dishes Love!

With countertops more clear, I naturally wanted to keep the area looking good. With maintaining smaller dish loads, dishes have become so much easier. I am no longer overwhelmed with an overflowing sink. My space feels fresh and clean. And I am now in the habit of handling dishes because I actually want to. I've fallen in love with this new system and I hope if dishes have been a pain point for, you, you'll try some of these ideas yourself.

If you want to hear more about how I minimize countertop clutter or keep spaces feeling neat and fresh, go ahead and subscribe to my newsletter and connect with me on Instagram. To shop these items and some others I love, visit My Amazon Shop.

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