Out of routine with the dishes

Before

It seems that simply aiming for twice a day doesn't get the dishes done. I'm not sure why. We've had a few dish cycles that haven't run properly. There were two runs where something blocked the soap release. And then the dishes piled up, and when dishes sit for more then a day they become much harder to clean in a dishwasher. I've put off washing by hand. Partly it is because it is not part of my routine, and partly because there is no clear spot to put the drying rack: the counter is covered in dishes.

Before: Table

My brain has other reasons to be unhappy, but I have to say that the kitchen being out of order is often the clearest cause of depression for me. It's surprising that I managed to live for so long with messy kitchens.

Before: Dishes

I find this is something I struggle with in academia as well. I will start working on healthier methods of task completion only to learn that I've left something off for too long and need to go into emergency mode. I'm good at emergency mode. I've had lots of practice at it. It's a coping mechanism that gets me through hard periods. It isn't as healthy and it sometimes renders poor results but that doesn't mean I can always avoid it. Emergencies happen, no matter what. The goal is to be prepared and know what to do once I'm in them. The bigger picture goal is to avoid them as much as possible!

Before: Dishes

So what's the upshot of this post? I guess it's that I need to clean the kitchen. Actually clean it, not just try to clean it. If it takes two hours I need to put in two hours. If I only put in one hour I may have worked hard but the kitchen still won't be clean. And I think that's the key point I've been missing. The kitchen has been clean for a long time. It's important but never urgent. But now it has been bumped into crisis mode and that means I can't just keep running the dishwasher like it's a normal day. I have to use my crisis mode methods to get it back to 'normal day' level of clean.

Before: Stove

On reflection I had methods in the past. When there were too many dishes for the drying rack I would lay out clothes on the table and dry the dishes there. That used to be a habit I suppose, because I would immediately start preparing the table when I did a big dish washup.

So I'll do just that!

After

I set out a table cloth on the table and started washing. I found that washing ten utensils at a time made it easier. I also took breaks. I think I took 3 breaks while I worked. It took an hour to get most of it done. At that point I decided it was time to stop. There was more to do but an hour is a long time to be washing your dishes. So I stopped. 

After: Table

Later that night I came back to it and finished the last of the dishes. The thing to note here is we have been running the dishwasher regularly. It's no wonder I used to hate dishes when it takes multiple hours to wash that much build up. And really it wasn't even as bad as it used to be.

After: Counter and sink

Now my wife and I don't have to order any more pizza!

After: Stove