Does your kitchen sometimes look like a bomb went off in it?
Are your counters covered with dishes without any spot to work?
Do you wake up in the morning just to realize there are not enough clean spoons for this morning’s oatmeal?
The kitchen has been called the “heart of the home” and because that is often true if the kitchen is in chaos so will be the mood of the home.
So here are just a few things for you to try to calm that chaos and break the cycle of the kitchen madness.
1. Clean as you go. Don’t just stand there and watch that meat sizzle or that water boil. Run some hot soapy water and make use of each and every moment. Wash that cutting board as soon as the veggies are chopped and before you sit to eat place those pots and pans in the hot water to make washing easier.
2. Plan ahead. Don’t plan a huge dinner with lots of prep for an evening that you must rush out the door. And leave yourself plenty of time to cook. Planning meals ahead of time helps with this. If you know what you are fixing you won’t put off starting dinner as long. Cooking for our families can be such a joy if we put a little effort and planning into the process.
3. Pick a prompt. I HATE unloading the dishwasher. Don’t know why but I do. That and unloading the draining board. I put it off way more than I should and sometimes avoiding the unloading makes me put off cleaning up a meal. So, I set a new rule for myself not long ago and it has helped so much with this. Each time the phone rings I walk straight to the kitchen. If there are clean dishes to put away I get right to work. Chatting with a friend helps to pass the time and since my phone is pretty busy most days I have been able to stay up on this chore much more consistently.
4. Don’t sit down after dinner until the kitchen is cleaned. It is much harder to pull yourself up off the couch. Don’t say you will do it in 5 minutes. Do it as soon as you are done eating. Then you will have the rest of the night to enjoy.
5. Unload the dishwasher when you start dinner. It is easier to “clean as you go” and to clean up as soon as you are done eating if this step is taken care of. So do it first.
Do you have any tricks or tips for calming the chaos in the kitchen? Do you struggle to keep your kitchen clean? I hope that you will find these ideas useful and easy to accomplish.
Great advice! I find that cleaning as I go is the best thing to do. Then when dinner is all done, all you have to clean are the plates and dishes holding the meal. I do this when baking as well. The only thing I do differently is wait until my kiddo goes to bed to clean the kitchen after dinner, but then my husband helps me. That way we get to spend a couple hours playing and talking with our son and then clean up. It works for us, but like you said, once you sit on the couch it is hard to get back up!