A skillful S-tier parent will make their children do all these tasks eventually. I haven’t managed this yet, but I’ve seen parents who have.
It’s an amazing sight to behold. I manage to do it perhaps once a month.
Have kids, the floor has to be cleaned every day throughout the house.
Have kids and an incontinent cat, and despair.
It’s taken me a while to realise that you don’t ever “finish” cleaning up. I’m probably going to die while there are unwashed dishes that I need to do. There will be dirty laundry that needs doing. I will also have things that I’ve Been Meaning to Get Around To.
Not in a dreary way, but just that this is what it’s like going through life. It helps put things in perspective when I realise I’m not actually capable of finishing all my todos. It’s just a process that you go through while alive.
I go commando because I just have no underwear while wearing two different socks. They will find me keeled over like this eating in a restaurant. Kitchen dirty of course.
I also don’t care.
This was very frustrating for me when I went through it. I was in a growing phase, trying to get my life on tracks, and I HATED that I could never have all my clothes I love to wear washed while still being able to wear them. Obvious, I know. But it really wasn’t something I had encountered before, because I never really cared about keeping things tidy.
It’s funny that once you decide you want things tidy, you realize they never truly will be.
You can clean up all the cans, but you will crack another.
You can do all the laundry, you gotta wear it
You can clean the plates, still gotta eat off of them
Just chill, there’s an insurmountable amount of work to have a perfect house. Is that what truly gives you happiness, or is it the untidiness that gives you unease?
And either case, is that truly coming from you or the family/peer pressure?
I feel this comment intensely. I have no idea where this dissatisfaction comes from, but it was just an invisible part of the lived environment for most of my life, and only now am I realising that we’re chasing something, an end state, that is fundamentally unachievable.
Maybe it’s the video games. I’m waiting for an achievement to pop up so I know I’m finished lol. :P
I want true cleaning hacks. I just got a dishwasher last week for the first time in my life and it’s a huge time saver. What else is like that? The most common sense of course is putting things away after you use them, and another hack is cleaning the kitchen before bed, but what else? Does wiping down the shower every time I use it help? Should I get a used roomba? Are there any roomba-type-objects that mop? Give me the knowledge please.
My best life hack to reduce cleaning time is “no shoes in the house”. This is the easiest thing to do and yet, it seems impossible to tell that to my friends and family when they visit.
Also, do less laundry: your clothes don’t need to be washed each time you wear it.
Get one of those car window cleaners, The kind they use at the gas station with the wiper blade on one side and the scrubby sponge on the back. Use it in your shower every time after you shower. Scrubby side first wiper side second. It literally takes 30 seconds to scrub down everything and while it’s never completely clean it never gets groady.
Treat your grout with bleach. Spray the wall wipe the bleach off the tile itself The grout will absorb it a little bit and it’ll keep mold from forming.
If you have a glass shower door you can treat it with rainx the same way you would do your windshield. It’s not get any appreciable muck on it for weeks. It is unfortunately a fair amount of work to apply the Windex properly.
Get stainless steel cleaner to clean stainless steel. It really makes a difference.
The oxalic acid in Bar Keeper’s Friend will remove tarnish from copper with zero effort. It can also remove burned on food to an extent.
If your range hood is covered in grease and dust, pour olive oil all over a paper towel and use that to wipe off you hood first. Then use a soapy rag to clean off the oil.
Slightly damp magic erasers will remove almost anything from painted drywall. You can do the same spot about four or five times usually before it needs to be repainted.
Don’t use a steam mop on luxury vinyl plank. Only use a spray mop and neutral pH cleaners specifically designed for flooring. Definitely not fabuloso.
Remove the baskets from your dishwasher once in a while and scrub the insides down with the magic eraser.
Clean your dishwasher filter every time you run it, or be prepared to replace the pump every other year.
Take your shower heads off and soak them in CLR if they start spraying water in strange directions.
When I cook I follow the restaurant kitchen principle of cleaning as you go, meaning constantly clear your workspace and clean your essential tools so they’re immediately ready. When you get an inspiration to cook, nothing deflates it like finding you have 20 minutes of work to do first, or that the special utensil or machine you only have one of needs soaking to get the crusty dried crud off it.
The absolute best life hack I have is the 5 minute rule.
If I see something that needs doing I ask one question, “can I do this in less than 5 minutes?” If the answer is yes, I do it.
Over time I’ve realized how many things I used to put off and let pile up because I didn’t have the time and how many of those things take less than 5 minutes, less than 2 minutes.
It’s amazing how many things you can do in basically no time. I used to put off so much, I won’t empty the dishwasher because it “takes too long” takes about 2 minutes. I won’t load the dishwasher because it “takes too long” takes about 2 minutes. The counter is messy but it would take forever to clean it, nope, 3 minutes.
I think it’s a good hack though because it works in 3 different dimensions
- First, and most obvious, you do whatever thing you’ve identified will take less than 5 minutes.
- Second, and less obvious, once you start doing this you find the number of times you need to stop and clean all afternoon going down greatly. It just changes the relationship you have with cleaning (or at least I had with cleaning). Cleaning time used to be this block I would set aside and dread, but now even when I need to stop and do the things that take more than 5 minutes there aren’t 100 5 minus tasks also piled up in the way.
- Third, and maybe least obvious, it helps you really gauge how much work stuff is. I don’t know why I thought unloading the dishwasher was some big ordeal, it takes 2 minutes tops. The longer I use the 5 minute rule the more things I’ve thought to try to see if I can do in 5 minutes. And it’s not like I’m speed running these chores. A lot of the things I put off and let pile up just aren’t that much work if you do them when they need doing.
So that’s my cleaning life hack. It has completely changed the way I think about cleaning. It’s not something I stop and do and dread Saturday because I’ve got to do a big clean of the kitchen. My kitchen is always pretty clean now and on Sunday I spend 30-60 minutes mopping and spraying everything down for a nice squeaky clean.
Living in a nice clean place also rules.
Does wiping down the shower every time I use it help
That help tremendously. You should take the habit of clearing and wipe every place you use as you finish using them. You build the habit one place at the time and you never have to scrub more than one time a year max. The key is to clean as it is not dirty, this way it is super easy (just a wipe) and it never have the chance to be dirty.
There are mopping robots, I have a Braava by irobot
Be warned: that specific model (M6) cannot clean the inside of corners! I’m sure there are newer (and nicer ones) that can do that, since irobot has been super behind the curve for a long time
On the other hand there are now combo vacuum/mop robots but idk if those mop corners very well since I don’t have one
For me it’s just cleaning something somewhat every day that makes the “bigger” cleaning sessions so much easier. Not sure if that’s what you mean but bouts of depression made me ignore things for longer times and it took so much more energy to get it back into shape afterwards.
Like, I’d vacuum the living room while waiting for the water for coffee to boil. As for the shower, once weekly is fine to not have to scrub, but I also don’t have hard water.
A big drying rack for things that don’t go in the dishwasher. Drying with a towel sucks and is unhygienic.
Robot vacuumes!
Buy a cheapish roborock, even used. The S5 is great
fuck dishwashers, I have a triple drying rack.
How do you ensure that things get clean though?
My current apartment doesn’t have a dishwasher, and I can’t stand it. I can hand wash but I’m not content that the germs all got washed away, and it still feels like I can scrub the whole thing and still have spots left that only show up when the dish dries.
As a lifelong washer by hand, I would call those very clean dishes!
Both is best.
if you ever get a robot vacuum, don’t skimp and try finding a quality one.
i tried a cheap one and its useless.
…and folding clothes! That’s how you know you’re alive 😅
The kitchen exists as a place where you can make a mess and quickly clean it up.
Imagine trying to do all the stuff you do in your kitchen, but in your living room or bedroom?
That was my thought. If you take your take out to the couch directly you don’t need to clean the kitchen. #life hack
It’s made even worse when you don’t have a dishwasher.
Dude, for real. Folks: do not take your dishwasher for granted!
One of the best improvements in my life. If I can muster the will to put things in and out.
I never used a dishwasher regularly until I was like 26. They are soooo goooood.
I just got one for the first time in my life last week. I was suspicious, but it’s… splendid.
He might just quit!
This so much. Don’t have a dishwasher currently and I spend upwards of 20 minutes a day in front of the sink. Makes my shoulders hurt hunching over like that all the time
Only 20 minutes?!?! I do have a dishwasher, and I still spend well over 20 minutes hunched in front of the sink cleaning dishes that can’t go in the dishwasher every day.
I let my dishwasher decide which dishes can be washed in there. They either survive or they end up in the trash.
No one in hell would I pay premium prices for something that is going to waste my time by requiring pampering.
Same with clothes.
It’s all just stuff and I refuse to allow it to control me.
This is a pretty silly mindset. I cook every day. I like to use high quality tools for my cooking. That includes high quality kitchen knives. Those shouldn’t be dishwashered. It ruins the handles and dulls the blade.
Same with my nice cast iron pans. And wooden cutting boards.
I also have several very large pots/bowls/etc that are just too large to fit in the dishwasher.
The dishwasher is an extremely useful tool, but it’s pretty ridiculous to limit what kitchen tools you’re willing to use simply because they aren’t compatible with another kitchen tool.
Actually badass though, force yourself to spend hours over a period to find indestructible stuff, then enjoy freedom from hours of stupidlabor weekly forever
Almost everyone I know who spends real time in the kitchen would agree with you though 🙂
Claiming my choices are silly is silly.
I have that too and sometimes it helps to spread your legs wide and keep your upper body upright instead of hunching over. You can also swap between the two positions since eachbis hard to do for a long time.
Fill a pot, put it over the countertop and use it as a sink.
I can’t wash dishes even if wanted to, too tall so the sink is way too low down. Instant back pain.
Buuuut I’d rather not renovate the kitchen just for that. Dishwasher crutch! Haha.
I’m taal too. I got a maid. Game changer.
Hunching over? How tall are you?
I’m only 5’10" not exactly a giant. We just have a deepish sink and maybe lower than average countertops
Not OP, but I’m 6’6" (200 cm). I’m ALWAYS hunching over in the kitchen.
Some are cursed with blessings
When you start to level up in life, invest in a mid-tier or above dishwasher. Man that thing has changed my life. We had a dishwasher but it started leaking and caused water damage on the floor. That was a whole headache. Went to buy a new one once the floor was fixed, turns out I had a very basic, entry level dishwasher. It wasn’t terrible (until it leaked) but upgrading to a better one, oooh baby, this thing cleans and dries like a dream! Ah such a midlife thrill acquiring an effective dishwasher.
Our struggle is lack of space for a full-size one. We might eventually get an 18” one, but we don’t have a lot of options for where to put it. What was the upgraded model you went with? Those crappy basic “contractor’s special” white ones can be more trouble than they’re worth.
Just swapped mine for a Kitchenaid model that is a massive improvement over my bargain bin. I imagine most of the >700 ones are good as long as you avoid Samsung and anyone else advertising gimmicks like wifi instead of good washing and drying.
Note that you can’t always compare them across retailers since they’ll sell slightly tweaked models to each, but usually they have a common numbering system. I think both Bosch and Kitchenaid essentially tier theirs by 100. My Kitchenaid is a 604 and I could’ve gone down to a 500-series but liked that this one is where it included a larger external vent and fan to push air.
We went Bosch, I think some 800 series or something. It’s nice, it’s got that hidden top rack for the weird shaped utensils and whatnot. Also nerded out and watched instructional videos and they were saying it’s best to just scrape food off and load. Don’t pre-rinse, you’re basically doing the job twice if you pre-wash. We had a Whirlpool before which the appliance sales guy said any Whirlpool is like entry-level. Once you go up a level they brand them as KitchenAid cause I guess those two companies merged.
All of our other appliances are Bosch so that bodes well. We have issues with the oven, but I think it’s mostly our wonky kitchen electrical in one wall. The fridge is amazing.
I got a countertop dishwasher last year, best 300 ive ever spent. looking forward to having a real dishwasher when I eventually move!
I want to look into these. I’d have to check if our kitchen has the space though (our cabinets sit kinda low). Great idea!
Getting a dishwasher was one of the things that has improved my quality of life the most. Even a crappy, cheapo dishwasher like mine will make a big difference.
We have a crappy half size dishwasher. We moved here seven years ago and this is the first time in my adult life I’ve had a dishwasher. It’s amazing.
Yeah, in my student single flat, I didn’t had a dishwasher for quite some time.
Couldn’t keep up in any way, although this shit kitchen wasn’t even up to really cook something big, but hand washing every little thing, really put me off cooking for quite some time.
I think, I re-used the same set of plate and knife for years, just because I didn’t want to use up more dishes, that I need to wash…
I have had a dishwasher for basically all my life ( Over 50. Get off my lawn), an I recently moved to a small apartment that has no “magic cabinet”, (the one where you put dirty dishes and when you take one out it’s clean), after my kids moved out. At first the dishes piled up, but now I use what is in tbe drying rack. Gamechanger.
There are small dishwashers that you can place anywhere, bought one for my small kitchen. Lifesaver.
Ooooh. Look at Mr SpongeBorgFANCYPants!!
If only Doordash would also clean your kitchen!
TaskRabbit probably would.
You can get them to if you’re clever enough.
Clean the toilet. Leave for 3 weeks, toilet hasn’t been used. Come back and the bowl is dirty.
The call is coming from in the house.
You got hard water?
Do your roommates not use it?
Stop reminding me god damn it
Truly, this is the most relatable sisyphean trial of modernity.
The biggest culprit to a dirty kitchen is someone that has never heard the phrase “if you got time to lean, you got time to clean”. My wife hates this philosophy, but when I’m done cooking and ready to plate, the kitchen is spotless. It must be witchcraft!
The phrase is used to shame people for taking amy breaks at work, which is why people tend to hate it.
Cleaning as you go (if time is available) does result in a lot less work at the end and more about efficiency than laziness. For meals that create a lot of dishes, having someone else clean as you go is even better than puttibg it all on to cook!
I wish my kitchen was just a little bit bigger lol. My fiance gets mad when I’m all up in her space, kitchen is off limits when she’s cooking.
I always refuse all helpers in the kitchen.
Not because of the size, but just fuck no. I don’t want to clean up after some “helper” who managed to slice a single cucumber while getting in the way and leaving a chopping board, knife and excess cuttings all over the place because “I don’t know where you want the dishes” or whatever. It’s no help at all.
My mother in law is especially bad. She doesn’t know where things are, how to cook or how to clean, but always insists on “helping”.
I’m trying to cook here, not babysit a senior who doesn’t accept that her role as provider is over. Go play with the grand kids. That’s why we invited you as a guest.
My mom offers when she’s over and she’d clean up. But I hate trying to delegate while trying to remember everything else I need to do. Plus my kitchen is very small and two people would make it difficult.
We have had only tiny kitchens and it did take a decade to get the dance down to both be productive in the same space when making some meals. Opening the oven involves an announcement and a confirmation!
There are a few where she needs all the space and I just clean up after. Most of mine have breaks in between steps where I can clean things as I go.
It’s one of the reasons I hate having one person cook and the other clean — the incentives are misaligned, and it just breeds bad habits and reckless cooking IMHO. If you do both cooking and cleaning, you’ll hopefully learn to clean as you go.
My wife hates this philosophy, but when I’m done cooking and ready to plate, the kitchen is spotless.
You know, I’m firmly of the philosophy that a big part of being a good chef is sweeping up behind yourself as you go. Minimizing the volume of cookware and number of appliances I use is also important.
But come on, dude. You’re not wiping splattered oil off a hot stove unless you’re a masochist. That cast-iron isn’t getting touched until it’s had time to cool down.
Oh no, I agree with the latter, but aside from immediate cooking pots/pans/utensils, everything else is put away. I like the multitasking.
You have to prioritize. The cast iron pans are one of the only things that can wait because you never really have to clean them spotless anyways.
That being said, I can always use an oven mitt and my cast irons are so long seasoned that I could leave them overnight in the sink w/o a problem other than a little surface rusting on the bottom.
That only works if you didn’t start in a messy kitchen. I’ll pour the eggs into the frying pan, but I can’t clean the bowl until the sink is empty. I can’t clear the sink until the dishwasher is empty. I can’t unload the dishwasher until my kids stop hugging my legs.
Yeah you gotta do it straight away or very soon after. I try to wash dishes as we go but anything left, if we’re watching TV over dinner or whatever, I pause that after we eat and go wash the remaining dishes. Otherwise they aren’t going to get done
Mine isn’t usually spotless because when it’s time to eat it’s time to eat, but I always clean as I go. Everything I do in the kitchen starts with a piping hot sink of soapy water.
I absolutely despise the patronizing and bellittling nature of that phrase, and the tone it is usually delivered in…
… But at the same time… cleaning as you cook a complex meal with multiple steps and lots of involved cookware… really really does cut down on overall time spent in the kitchen, and makes for an actually usable and sanitary kitchen.
Worst case scenario, you’ve got everything but the final used cookware soapily soaking in the sink when you serve and eat… and then right after you eat, you rinse and dry those off, and then clean the final stage cookware and serving plates/utensils.
If you don’t have the time or energy to handle cooking and cleaning a complex meal… you don’t have the time and energy to just cook it, and then be overwhelmed later by the accumulation of ‘dish cleaning debt’.
…
It can be somewhat challenging to learn how to cook and clean at the same time, and avoid getting soap into your food or visa versa… but it is by no means impossible, and is a huge time saver… and you can feel proud of yourself for legitimately learning an extremely useful life skill.
If you just set a rule for yourself or your apartment or house that … there should basically never be any dishes left in the sink for over an hour… you avoid the massive pile up of dishes and always being overwhelmed and avoiding them… because your rule basically enforces breaking things down into cleaning smaller amounts of dishes at a time, and it also forces the generally positive experience of cooking and eating to be integrated with the generally negative experience of cleaning dishes.
…
I have, waaaay too many times, lived with people who just pile up dishes somehow in the sink and dishwasher, such that it becomes an actual biohazard (I mean it, rotting food and mold, swarms of flies in a sink that hasn’t been cleaned in two weeks or more, nobody can even remember if the dishes in the dishwasher are all clean, all dirty, or a mix of both)…
…and that means if you wanna cook anything with a commonly used piece of cookware, ok, now you gotta pull it out of the ratsnest in the sink, hope nobody threw any knives in there to cut your hands on, and get an infection from the festering biohazard… and then also you must now somehow clean this cookware while the sink is completely full.
Which means you have to just clean the entire sink to begin to be able to clean the major cookware you need to begin to cook the food.
…
Hell, the solution that ended up working best for me was to just also throw on a ‘no dishwasher’ rule.
Force yourself to associate the actual cleaning cost with whatever you are cooking… and the result was that I ended up with a mental health affirming regular structured rule/habit, that I actually ended up genuienly enjoying, as another source of ‘i actually accomplished something today’… as well as basically ingraining a better subconscious ability to understand what level of cooking complexity I actually had the energy to prepare.
If you find yourself being often overwhelmed by what you want to make… learn to make simpler recipes, get a rice cooker or crockpot and just have basically a constant supply of something approximating a stew, get an airfryer or toaster oven for rapidly heating up smaller portions, salads are great for you and often have a pretty low prep time.
Save the dishwasher for actual schedule emergencies and hosting an occasional get together or party.
…
Basically, treat dishes as credit card debt.
Pay that shit off ASAP, otherwise, it’ll snowball into disaster.
Remove the ‘i can handle the dishes/pay this off later’ from your mental approach to it, directly associate all the costs together in a very near time frame.
…
tldr; that saying needs a makeover or rebrand.
Maybe:
Clean as you go, dish pile don’t grow.
something like that? I am not really a … sloganeer.
Okay… but while you were typing all of this, you could have been cleaning. The motto stands.
Got nothing to clean.
Because … I follow these rules… and keep everything clean.
So…obviously not even trying then.
I… assume you are joking, but having grown up with a mother who had legitimate OCD, and would clean and clean and clean and clean in very particular ways, far beyond what was necesarry, and would freak out when any minor spec was anywhere…
I do not find this funny.
I sympathize and it obviously rubbed off on me. My dad called my mother “the white tornado”. Legend has it if you stood still long enough, you’d get dusted.
I read this while cleaning the kitchen.
I read this while procrastinating about cleaning the kitchen
Naturally
I have just learned to be at peace with a certain amount of squalor.
With kids it’s so much worse. I clean the entire kitchen at least 3 times a day, usually more.
Laundry with three kids… Worst thing ever…
Folding is the worst.
At least with my laundry when I take an article of clothing out of the basket to fold you can tell the volume in the basket is reducing. Each item is large enough that the difference is notable.
But when I take a piece of kids’ clothing out, it’s not noticeably less in the basket. It just feels like an endless amount of clothes.
