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Monday, 23 January 2012

Gentlemen, Is This A Familiar Sight?

(Yes, I'm a fan of Winnie the Pooh. Get over it.)

OK, with all this cooking, there's inevitably a lot of washing up to do. When I first moved into my flat and had the kitchen redone, I thought very briefly about having a dishwasher installed. Since I'm living on my own, and rarely have guests (and, on those occasions, frequently end up eating out anyway), I figured there'd never be sufficient dirty dishes to warrant the use of something like a dishwasher.

I must have been assuming that I'd do the washing up after every meal, or something.

Of course, what actually happened was that plates and bowls and cutlery and baking trays and mugs and glasses began to pile up on that handy, stowable work surface (which is almost never stowed because it generally has washing up stacked upon it). Since I have six of everything (other than dessert spoons... still trying to figure that out), I'd often get to the end of the week and only do the washing up because I'd otherwise have nothing left to eat off, or with. That photo up there ain't the worst it's ever been. Far from it.

This is not good.

So here's the thing: I know I don't get an awful lot of feedback on this 'ere blog, but I'm going to put this question out there anyway...

Those of you without dishwashers (you foolish, foolish people!), what do you do to motivate yourself to do the dishes more frequently?

I mean... I have a lovely view out of my kitchen window, and the quantities don't exactly present a great hardship for me... But, all too often, I'll end up just making a deal with myself, like "No TV till I've done the dishes" or, in extreme circumstances, "No internet till I've done the dishes"... and yet, even then, I'll merely make a half-arsed pass at the cutlery, drinking glasses, and/or whatever pots and pans need doing.

I'm open to suggestions, here...

2 comments:

  1. Especially if you don't have guests, you don't need all those plates. Keep just one plate, set of cutlery, cup, glass etc. and put the rest away somewhere there's more inconvenient to access than it is to quickly wash up the item you need. Job done!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your suggestion, Anonymous Reader!

      That's an excellent idea and quite a devious exercise in psychology, too. I'll have to figure out where in my flat is inconvenient enough for plate storage.

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