Monday, March 03, 2008

Mt. Dirty Dishes

Next to the laundry, the second biggest, never ending chore around our house is the dishes. I can spend thirty minutes in the afternoon washing breakfast and lunch dishes and the next time I turn around the sink is full again. Or the dishwasher is full and needs to be run or unloaded. Again. It's a never ending cycle of washing, rinsing and drying. Day after day, hour after hour, quite literally.

This past Saturday the Mt. Dirty Dishes got taller than is normal, which often happens on Saturday mornings when we are all here for a big breakfast. Superdad dutifully washed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher, as many twenty-first century husbands are ever so careful to do.

But then on Sunday, Mt. Dirty Dishes returned after a rushed breakfast and throwing together a pot of soup. I had to run a few errands and casually said to Joe, "Hey, if you have sec, could you start washing the dishes?"

"Huh?" He says to me, looking confused. "I just spent all day yesterday washing them."

Yes. Yes, you did. And now everyone knows how I feel because here it is Monday and the pile has returned. Argh!

6 comments:

sixty-five said...

I think with a family of 5 it's not quite the same, but one of the best things I've done is stop using the dishwasher entirely. I have a plastic dishpan that I keep in my (single) sink. As I use dishes, I rinse them and put them in there. As soon as the pan starts to get full I fill it with suds and hot water, let things soak for a few minutes, then swish and rinse and put on the drying rack to air dry. Since there are never more than a few dishes to deal with at a time in any category, it never gets overwhelming. Even when a backlog occurs, which does happen from time to time, it still seems manageable. Emptying a full dishwasher when there is a full "Mt Dirty Dishes" looming (hence nowhere to put anything) has to be one of the most distasteful tasks on earth!

Anonymous said...

good idea. no matter how, though, let's have those dishes done and stored before I make my weekly pilgrimage into your kitchen on Thursday.

Anonymous said...

Supermom, you said it!

MOST with an attitude said...

I hear ya!! I think I need to buy stock in Cascade and Dawn!!

Later...gotta go wash the dishes :)

Alexis Jacobs said...

Laundry and dishes are the worst when you have three kids. I swear I feel like I spend half my life in the kitchen washing, loading and unloading the dishwasher and the other half in the laundry room. Sometimes I think a maid would be worth the cost just so I don't have to do those anymore.

Liz Allman said...

ugh, don't you love when they do that? My other favorite is, "Can you just take the kid for five minutes?" Seriously? I have been with her all day you have been with her for twenty minutes? These boys.