Cleaning and cooking go hand in hand. If writing were cooking then editing is cleaning. I enjoy both.
It's satisfying to be the one who can jump into action when tired and put the rice on, steam the veggies, and grill up some chicken. In less than half an hour - a hungry house is ready to eat. Clean up follows a similar, practiced approach.
To make clean up easy, I've discovered a system. First, I avoid stacking dirty dishes. Unless it's a large group of people and counter space is required, just bring the dishes to the kitchen and I'll hand wash them quickly using the following method.
First, run some hot water into the sink and have bin of soapy water with a scrubber of some sort. My favorite these days is a bottle brush by OXO that can readily handle glasses and mugs as well as be swirled around plates and bowls.
Once the hot, soapy water is in the bucket, I put all the utensils into the small bucket. Then, I'll rinse food off a plate or fill a bowl with water if the food is dried. A quick scrub and stack leaves me with piles of soaped / washed dishes. Once a bowl has soaked with water in it, I'll transfer the water to another bowl to re-use it.
A scrub of all the utensils with the long brush while in the bucket mentioned above allows me to process them all at once. Before the rinse I have a bucket of soaped and scrubbed utensils and a sink full of soaped and scrubbed bowls and plates and glasses. Finally, I finish with a rinse of hot water. When doing lots of dishes, I'll wear gloves because the water gets really hot and I don't want to spend so much time with my hands soaking in hot soapy water.
I didn't learn the lesson when I was a teen, but looking back, I see my immediate approach now is informed by lessons then. When asked to do the dishes as a teen, I'd ask: "Oh mom, can I do them later?" to which she'd always reply, "Sure."
Now that I know dishes, I know "later" means the food is dry and harder to wash. I think she knew that too.
It's satisfying to be the one who can jump into action when tired and put the rice on, steam the veggies, and grill up some chicken. In less than half an hour - a hungry house is ready to eat. Clean up follows a similar, practiced approach.
To make clean up easy, I've discovered a system. First, I avoid stacking dirty dishes. Unless it's a large group of people and counter space is required, just bring the dishes to the kitchen and I'll hand wash them quickly using the following method.
First, run some hot water into the sink and have bin of soapy water with a scrubber of some sort. My favorite these days is a bottle brush by OXO that can readily handle glasses and mugs as well as be swirled around plates and bowls.
Once the hot, soapy water is in the bucket, I put all the utensils into the small bucket. Then, I'll rinse food off a plate or fill a bowl with water if the food is dried. A quick scrub and stack leaves me with piles of soaped / washed dishes. Once a bowl has soaked with water in it, I'll transfer the water to another bowl to re-use it.
A scrub of all the utensils with the long brush while in the bucket mentioned above allows me to process them all at once. Before the rinse I have a bucket of soaped and scrubbed utensils and a sink full of soaped and scrubbed bowls and plates and glasses. Finally, I finish with a rinse of hot water. When doing lots of dishes, I'll wear gloves because the water gets really hot and I don't want to spend so much time with my hands soaking in hot soapy water.
I didn't learn the lesson when I was a teen, but looking back, I see my immediate approach now is informed by lessons then. When asked to do the dishes as a teen, I'd ask: "Oh mom, can I do them later?" to which she'd always reply, "Sure."
Now that I know dishes, I know "later" means the food is dry and harder to wash. I think she knew that too.
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