How changing my habits with the dirty dishes and
my cluttered kitchen counters rippled into my creativity.
My Story –
My dad was a professional chef and when I was little I was taught all about kitchen efficiency. I learned about cooking tools, ways to prep your station, how to chop fruits and vegetables, and how to batch together tasks to get food prep done quickly.
As a teenager, I visited friends houses and I was always interested in how someone organized their kitchen counters. I was surprised that the clean, organized, clutter free kitchen of my childhood was not the standard for everyone.
Life moved on. I got married, became a public school teacher, and then a young mom. Somewhere in my 20s I started to believe that household tasks only need to be done when you “feel like it”. When you have energy and motivation for it. As my life got busier and I had less free time. I stopped being consistent with my household clean up. I was working all day. The messy kitchen would be there tomorrow. Sigh.
Photo by Jessica Lewis 
I learned a new rhythm for my evenings:
The Kitchen Clean-up
In 2008 I was a young mom. I had a 3-month-old and a 2-year-old when I spent the summer with my kids and my mother-in-law at the cabin. We followed a very specific daily routine working together to get the household tasks done, take care of the kids, and get big projects done around the cabin. We were spending hours painting, moving rocks, and fixing things around the house.
The evening routine was dinner, getting the kids in bed, doing dishes, and cleaning up the kitchen for the evening. I must admit that those days of long physical work wore me out. The last thing that I wanted to do was dishes.
At my own home back in Mesa, I had gotten out of the habit of cleaning up my dishes regularly. Often the sink and counters were full of dirty dishes that I was procrastinating on. I would think, “Why should I do the dishes when I am worn out after a long day?”
But, I was staying in someone else’s house. My mother-in-law was insistent about having a clean kitchen every night. So the entire summer I stayed at the cabin I did the evening dishes and wiped down the kitchen. Even when I was bone-tiered and it was late because my kids would not go to bed on time.
Thankfully, that habit stuck with me when I returned home. At the end of the evening, no matter how late it was or how tiered I was, I cleaned up the kitchen. I cleared the counters, did dishes, wiped down the surfaces, and even swept the floor.
The thought pattern that I had created in my 20s was not helping me. The basic household tasks need to be done whether or not you “feel like it”. I had been missing something so important. There is so much beauty in consistency.
When we show up, whether we feel like it or not, that is when we can stretch ourselves.
Our capacity for hard things comes in the daily giving of ourselves to these quiet tasks of the home.
We can choose to continue with what should be done, no matter our emotions. Then we have the opportunity to finish the day well. To be kind to the person who we will be tomorrow.
I absolutely love walking into the kitchen to make my morning coffee and seeing clean dishes, cleared counters, and an empty sink. It is a blank canvas for my day to start. A new beginning to the day’s messes and meals.
My nightly dishes routine had quiet and hidden benefits that I could not understand beforehand.
My productivity and creativity increased dramatically.
I felt calm and ready for the day.
Now, let’s talk about those counters!
In my younger years, I watched my dad make family meals in our clean and well organized kitchen. My mom is a minimalist and kept things cleared out. Clutter never accumulated in our house. The kitchen counters were always empty and we cleaned them off daily. We did not have decorations or even appliances out.
A few years ago I went through the methodical process of decluttering my house room by room. (See this article) One of those places where “the big declutter” made a huge impact was my kitchen.
I had to do my kitchen in layers. I divided it up into areas to work on. I watched YouTube videos for inspiration while I would tackle one section of the kitchen at a time. My favorite is Dawn from The Minimal Mom. (see link below) Her videos are practical, encouraging, and engaging. I was cleaning out a drawer of utensils when I watched this video and saw my counters in a new way.
I also read in Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and was inspired by her definitions of kitchen counters. It was completely different than what most friends and family were doing in their kitchens. And then in her Netflix show she showed the families how to make changes and stick with them. I was hooked!
Many people leave everyday staples like oil and salt within easy reach, but all too often that can lead to a whole mess of items that end up greasy and make a kitchen look sloppy, even if it has just been cleaned. “A counter is for preparing food, not for storing things,” Kondo writes in her 2014 book. “Shelves and cupboards are usually designed to store seasonings and spices, so put them away where they belong.”
from: Yes, You Should Marie Kondo Your Kitchen — Here’s How
These experts got me thinking about how I organize my counters.
I saw my kitchen with a new perspective.
- Why do I have the toaster sitting on the counter?
- Why do I have my coffee pot on the counter where my oldest is trying to unload the dishwasher in the morning?
- Where else can I put this much needed morning appliance?
- Where can I put my mixer, decorations, and random stacks of mail?
- Why do I have spots where clutter just shows up throughout the day?
- How can I create a space in our home that is useful and ready for anyone to prepare food?
- What is here that does not belong?
- If I do not have enough cabinet space for my stuff than I have too much stuff.
- What can I get rid of? What do I no longer need?
Just like the nightly dishes routine that had those quiet and hidden benefits. My kitchen counters were my next big change. When I decluttered the space, I had a blank slate to work with. I realized then how important it was. The clear counters made space for messy afternoon snacks, cookies with the kids, homemade dinners, and fun science experiments.
One of the reasons I did not enjoy cooking was simply all the stuff that had accumulated. I have more counter space in this house than we did in our other house. So I incorrectly thought that I could waste space with stuff and it wouldn’t be a big deal. I was wrong.
Before I could make anything, I had to clear off the work space. It took double the energy to get the kitchen ready to make dinner as it did to actually make the food. No wonder I avoided cooking!
Photo by Brooke Lark & others on Unsplash
Make space in your cabinets. Keep only what you need for the next 2 weeks. Everything else goes in a box somewhere out of the way. The holiday baking tools, the turkey roasting pan, the special serving trays, and the blender do not get prime real estate! They can come out of storage when needed.
This new concept is so useful to me. To be honest, I do not plan to become a minimalist. But, I do want to have less stuff and more space to do things with my family. I want my kitchen to be a place where people can gather, make messes, set out trays of food, and not be overwhelmed by clutter.
When I walk into my kitchen in the morning I want to see a clean blank slate for whatever the day holds.
Photo by Paul Hanaoka & by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
Am I always good at this? Umm.. no.
It is a constant battle of daily cleaning the space. I must choose to be kind to my future self. I still would rather crash on the couch than stand at the sink after a long day and do the dishes. It is so much easier to pile whatever I am holding on the counter to deal with “later”.
But I know that I am able to do more than I think I can. I know that my capacity has been stretched. That I can push through and do hard things! I can choose to be kind to future April who walks into the kitchen tomorrow morning. She will be half awake, doubting if getting out of bed is a good idea. She will want to make a cup of coffee and stare into the abyss. She will not want to see last night’s dishes, crusty counters, and rows of containers piled on the counters.
So, I make the most of my nightly kitchen clean-up (see more about that below). I do my best to press forward and just get it done. Usually, I am able to clean up in less than 15 minutes. I am so thankful when I choose to be consistent. I am learning that entropy is a part of life.
Maintenance and upkeep are a fact of life. Everything – everything – tends toward disorder if left untouched and unmanaged. If we accept that and build in times for maintenance and upkeep of our homes, our systems, and our family, we’ll find more fulfillment and satisfaction in the work we do. If you’ve been discouraged with the continual upkeep required, just know that the problem is not necessarily you or your system; the problem is entropy and it’s just a fact of life.
from “52 Ways to Organize Your Attitude” By Mystie Winkler – she is amazing!
We can do this!
We can choose to be kind to our future selves. We can walk into the kitchen in the morning and see a clean blank slate for whatever the day holds. We can create space in our home that is useful and ready for anyone to prepare food. We can embrace the nightly dishes routine that has quiet and hidden benefits. We can face the messes and disorder with confidence.
Sending you a soapy hands High Five!! – April
Want more ideas?
Here are some articles that you will find useful:
- Why Decluttering Clears my Mind – My favorite way to feel in control of my environment is to declutter something when I am overwhelmed. I tackle small spaces that need to be organized when I feel emotionally drained, scattered, frustrated, and/or defeated.
- This article is all about my Decluttering process and how I use this awesome task to see progress. So much of what I do is invisible. When I declutter a space I get to enjoy immediate results. While I am not a minimalist, I am choosing to keep less. To store what is most important. I am a work in progress, one space at a time!
- Why Hobbies Matter – Here I write about my mindset change. Household tasks can be seen as hobbies.
- I can add to my daily household tasks with some new input and new ideas. Cleaning tasks can become a hobby with a mindset shift. I look at household tasks as an opportunity to listen to something educational. I pair washing dishes with watching YouTube and sweeping the kitchen with a podcast. This is a small change that has given me extra energy to get that kitchen clean every evening.