Earlier in the week, I wrote about my Big Organization Breakthrough, which involved re-configuring the space for three rooms: moving the floor-to-ceiling PAX shelving units from a small bedroom to the living room; moving the master bedroom to the small bedroom; and creating a studio/den out of the master bedroom. These changes took a lot of time, a lot of energy, and were not without expense. But another change has likewise made a huge impact in our day-to-day lives and not only is it super simple, it doesn’t cost a cent.
We run our dishwasher every night. And we unload it every morning.
I don’t know why this didn’t occur to us before: it just seemed sort of wasteful to run the dishwasher unless it was completely full. But we weren’t very good at gauging just how much we could fit in the washer, so inevitably we would have an overflow of dirty dishes, and then while we ran the washer more dishes would pile up, so that by the time we got around to unloading it, we’d have an overflow of dishes again.
Now we run the washer even if it’s half (or less than half!) full. We do this at night, after dinner. In the morning, in-between feeding the cats and making the morning tea, we (okay, Alpay) unloads the washer. The empty washer makes it easy to put in any dishes that accumulate during the day, keeping the kitchen tidy, clean, and presentable. The only downside is that the whole are-the-dishes-dirty-or-are-they-clean? rigamarole we used to engage in on a daily basis no longer takes place, and after 20 years, I’d sort of gotten used to it. If anyone has any ideas on how we can annoy each other anew, I’m open for suggestions.