I am. Procrastinators unite!
I feel so overwhelmed by my dishes. Now I pretty much cook three times a day. I use lunch time to make myself foods that no one else here eats. I am in the process of making tamales but have to go clean up the strays of last nights dishes and this mornings dishes before I can get at it. I mostly try to clean as I go, and get to most of it after we eat. But then after cooking much the time I just look at my mess I created and curse at it. As if they have it out for me. Whatever my dishes DO have it out for me. I really need a new hobby.
So please make me feel not so alone. I love to cook, but those dishes just need to help me out a wee bit more on their own accord. Oh and anyone feel the need to use every pot and bowl and utensil in the house? Geesh.
Yeah, it really has gotten out of control with my new found love for cooking. I homemake just about everything from scratch so I am going all the time and if I take one day off (of cleaning everything) I am playing catch up. Can't make chicken or anything with bones for that matter without making a stock immediatly after. I blame it on the foodnetwork channel. I am sure when my fridge dies my life will be so much better. But until I get better freezer storage it will most likey continue. The up side to all this insanity is I have seen a huge decrease in my grocery bill. I just need to start a new habit of picking a day to premake all my sauces. And as much as I would love one pot meals, not for the guys, I have tried and tried and there really is not much the care for. My husband is so lucky I love him, but he is not much into sauces or things being cooked together.
Have you ever made crispy orange beef? Oh my it is like a tornado hits my kitchen, and my sons favorite dish. But then that requires fried rice. See how diffacult I make it for myself. I truly wouldn't have it any other way. Except a dish maid. I am bound and determined though that after I am done finished refinishing my cabinets (almost done, yes and all by myself by hand) I will make a bigger effort to keep it cleaner. It is just so easy to use that as my current excuses.
I truly do need need intervening on my kitchen. And a second dishwasher just for the pots and knifes. Okay now off to the tamales, wish me luck I haen't yet tried this before, it is my recipe for the week.
I hate dishes. I have started using plastic cups and spoons and paper plates and it does help a lot.
My mother is a use all the utensils and pots/pans gal. As chief dishwasher I rebelled when I left home and vowed to never be that way. My personal challenge - one pot and one utensil. It's a game I play. :) Good luck and don't let those dirty dishes overwhelm you.
I keep kids at my house so every day I have 6 cups, 6 breakfast bowls, 5 lunch plates, pans from making lunch, dinner dishes, dinner plates, etc. I HATE doing dishes!! I hate it! So no, you are NOT alone!
They are like gremlins, put water on them and they multiply.
Messies.com - just found it and I like it. :)
I'll do the dishes, you do my laundry.. UGHHH, hate putting away the laundry!
I hate dishes that's why my 13 year old does ours most the time. Our dish washer stopped working at least 6 months ago and my husband wont call to get it fixed. So between the two of them they get done. But what I try to do as much as possible is use paper and plastic. But sounds like you cook a LOT. That would make my head spin if I had that many dishes. You are wonderwoman to be able to do that!!!
Yeah......................
Last night's dishes are still on the counter, we had scouts so no one did them. My daughter started cookies yesterday, we had no eggs so she left the butter and sugar mix covered on the counter.
I have homeschool projects all over one side of the kitchen. Along with all of last weeks mail and probably 7 papers. Why I still get the paper is beyond me.
I am looking at 2 beer bottles and 2 soda bottles in the mix of dirty dishes. You are soooooooo not alone.
But I did polis the stove and clean the microwave this morning.
My husband is you. He uses every utensil under our roof. Since he is the chief cook, I am the chief bottle washer!
I usually start minimizing his dish pile while he is cooking.
Start small say, I will wash just the cutlery. Then I will tackle the pots, etc.
Or you can just walk away for an hour and do something enjoyable with the promise you'll oh, do them later!
Bon Appetit!
You are not alone! Why am I even sitting here answering this question with the stack of dishes towering behind me?? (And I have to hand wash EVERYTHING...sigh.)
i don't get overwhelmed by dishes because nothing is ever in the sink. everything gets rinsed/washed and put away/or in the dishwasher. frankly, i hate doing laundry, but not dishes.
Surely we complicate our lives in other ways, but the dishes aren't overwhelming, nor do we feel compelled to get everything dirty along the way.
Could you consider re-thinking your cooking? i.e. instead of making enchiladas, make a soft taco lasagna? that way everything can cook in one pan and be layered in one pot.
other similar shortcuts are available to you, if you are willing to take them.
good luck to you and yours,
F. B.
My dishwasher is my friend. :)
I never have dishes in the sink, they are immediately either hand washed, dried & put away or loaded into the dishwasher until it's full, then I run it.
I just hate to see dirty dishes. It makes the whole kitchen look messy.
Waiting til there's a lot only makes it an overwhelming task.
I have dinner duty for a family today and I had all of their stew in the crock pot, and ours in the oven by 9:30 and everything cleaned up shortly after that.
When I'm cooking, I clean up as I go. Makes it a lot easier.
K., you have got to ms me and tell me what you used to do your cabinets. I want to do mine and my brother tells me there is something at Home Depot where I would not have to strip them first. Please share....I am smiling just thinking of the thought. Also, let me know how long it took you? I realize it wasn't an all day 1 week deal, but relatively how long, with all of your other duties.
I'm a procrastinator too and I have a dishwasher, but sometimes the glasses get turned upside down and they fill up with water. Anyway, I sometimes leave them for a day or 2; however, I've started buying paper plates to ease my misery. LOL.... I figure as long as my bathrooms are clean, we're good. I love the fact that you're cooking from scratch. My mom does and I prefer it, but I'm a tired and lazy cook until the weekend. I've decided to stop worrying about so much of my house being tidy and make sure the time spent inside of it is valuable for my girls.
I do let them get out of hand a bit - once the sink is full then I load the dishwasher - usually need to do a full dishwasher load every day and a half or so. I am a SAHM, so, by default I do lots of cooking, but I try to use paper plates at lunch and just do PB&J or sandwiches usually for lunch, so not much in the way of dishes for one meal at least.
We have an old fashioned kitchen too, with no built in dishwasher, so we have a roll-away dishwasher, that you can sit anywhere in your kitchen, and then roll it over to your sink, hook up the hose to your faucet, and run it, then roll it back to wherever you have a space. Here is a link to a bunch of them at Sears, which is where we got ours, and we have had it since 2002, still going strong. http://www.sears.com/appliances-dishwashers-portable-dish...#
Next year we are thinking of doing a mini-remodel to put in a real built in dishwasher and new flooring (ours is aqua and tan checkerboard asbestos tiles like in a school hallway) , but probably not the new cabinets and all that for a few more years.
My laundry is actually a bigger issue - we (DH and I and a 5 year old girl and 3 year old boy) get a huge amount in a week, somehow, like 6-8 loads, and that's not including sheets and towels! I hate feeling like I am doing laundry EVERY DAY, so I leave it for the weekend, then spend a whole day or more washing and drying and folding...then i get it all in baskets and I am so tired of all the other work (my laundry is in the basement, bedrooms on second floor) I sit the baskets in the bedrooms, and we just wear the clothes out of them instead of putting them in the drawers like I should. UHG.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Dishes don't bother me too much now... but I must admit Im glad my older 3 are old enough ( and have been for a few years) to do them every night!
Now that I don't have to do them every day I don't mind doing them once in a while... but when I had to do them daily with the 3 being babies/ younger, yes I hated doing them and they would pile up until I had nothing left in the cupboard and then would have to spend over an hour ( if not longer) doing them so I could cook...
I hate doing the dishes!! I'm trying not to let them pile up on me, but it's so hard! I want a dishwasher and have no place for it... stupid 50's kitchen.
Oh well, must go to them or I won't have what I need to make dinner tonight.
In my defence I'm 17 weeks pregnant and I mowed/trimmed/weed killed our back yard/driveways yesterday and today. Ha!
There isn't any household chore I hate worse than washing dishes.
I do almost all the cooking, and my wife does most of the kitchen clean up. She does the kitchen clean up because she cleans it to her standards. I clean the kitchen to the best of my ability and hit her standards more fequently now than I used to, but I don't get my white gloves out to check after I've wiped and dried the counters.
OH WELL. I love her very much so I keep trying.
Good luck to you and yours.
I am EXACTLY the same way. I have a house full of picky eaters, so lunch is my meal, my way. (The kids get chicken nuggets....)
I love to try new recipes, and yes, it requires lots of dishes and utensils. And forget about all of the food storage containers I go through everyday. I am always storing or reheating leftovers.
One thing that helps me cut down on dishes is the fact that I don't buy many kitchen gadgets now. I got rid of the salsa chopper, I don't use the egg slicer, and I don't use the food processor unless I absolutely have to. It's pretty much me, a knife, and the cutting board.
Another thing that helps is lining the baking pans with foil so that I can just throw away the foil and not have to wash the pan.
You're not alone :-)
Yeah, and we have no dishwasher to help out!
I start off with a sink full of hot soapy water ready to go (plus I wash my hands several time during cooking for sticky, messy stuff) and wash as I prep, then cook & then bake, leaving the other side of the sink for washing veges or what not...I do not mind washing the dishes as I go & placing them on a dry towel to dry to the side of the sink, I do have a dishwasher, but I actually find the washing relaxing inbetween the prep/cook/bake stages. My hubby organized my whole kitchen & everything has a place, so it makes putting them away SO much better once they dry or I will dry after they have been draining enough. BOTTOM LINE: start off with hot soapy water, wash as you go & have an organized kitchen for ease of putting them away! Bon Appetit !
I don't get over whelmed but in all fairness my hubby does most of the dishes. It is the one chore I can't stand. I would rather scrub the bathroom. However since he switched jobs and is gone 12 hrs a day I have been picking up the slack. We can't let dishes sit in the sink over night because of all the ants around our area.
