I’m stuck at home with covid and decided to do the dishes. The sink was clear for a whole 5 minutes, then the kids came home and now the sink has more dishes but the dishwasher is full and I don’t have the energy to wash more dishes…
I read somewhere that interpreting things like a clean sink or a clean room as a sign of success is actually counterproductive. You might think by thinking this way, that you’re motivating yourself to clean, but you’re actually just shaming yourself for not cleaning. It’s easy to think “cleaning is so simple, it should always be done” when in reality it should be “cleaning is such an optional task it’s okay if things build up a bit.”
By shaming ourselves for not cleaning, we’re really shaming ourselves for having a hard day at work, or going through a hard time, or being depressed. And let me tell you, more shame is not going to make any of those scenarios any better.
As a former dish washer at a deli, it bothers me that homes come standard with two sinks instead of three.
What’s the advantage of a third?
Standard practice in food service is 1, wash sink; 2, rinse sink; 3, sanitizer.
Retired Food Safety Manager for 20 years here. The sanitizers we use aren’t exactly “safe” for normal consumers. If you use too much you might have a minor outbreak of what looks like food poisoning. If we were to sell the same formulas as a consumer product, someone would end up poisoning their entire family and end up dead.
Also it’s cheaper to have the two basin sink rather than three. Be glad we switched off the one basin sink as standard back in the 50s or 60s
That’s a good point, a lot of people probably would misuse them. On the other hand, I’ve known way too many people who clearly don’t know how to avoid cross contamination, or even proper food storage and refrigeration.
Food is a lot safer than we think. You have to mess up pretty bad to get really sick from something. It’s the small minority of cases where something like e. Coli, or salmonella is present and given the opportunity to flourish that things get really bad. The truly terrifying one is botulism, and it’s toxin can’t be denatured by heat.
Yep. Had to fire a kid because he just didn’t understand that he needed to wash his hands, station, and tools between prepping meats and anything else. It annoyed me when he would switch between veggies, but that should be relatively safeish… Same kid tried to use the sanitizer sink to defrost a case of chicken.
Yup, I’ve seen coworkers do similar - and never be corrected for it.
Does anyone else just get these sudden urges to CLEAN EVERYTHING?!
Yes but mostly when I’m overwhelmed with how much actual stuff I have to or want to do but can’t get myself to simply DO so I start cleaning one small area and then it turns into a whole project
YESSSS!!! “Just cleaning my desk. Oh that could also need cleaning. And this could be sorted again…” and so on
Rarely but sometimes, and I try to juice it to the max because I collapse because I know it might not come again for a while.
I get the urge when going to bed with the thought of “I’m doing it tomorrow” and guess what never happens tomorrow.
I like dishes-- although sometimes I’ll let them go for a day or two. But it’s such a straightforward task that doesn’t take long to complete and when you’re done you know exactly where to put everything. Then stuff is clean and I feel like I accomplished at least something.
Compare that to random stuff I’ve got lying around that I haven’t found a place for and keep getting side tracked because it’s not very linear and requires decisions and more effort.
Let that sink in.
To me it’s not just “an empty sink”, that’s two empty sinks!
And the basis for setting up arbitrary rules for what each sink is for. Rules that nobody else cares to understand, but I will still try to enforce… Let’s just say that I get to load the dishwasher by my self.
Left is for soapy dirty water, right is for flushing.
If you’re thinking anything else, you’re wrong
Do you mean rinsing? On the right? If so I agree. But I would allow a left-handed person to do the opposite.
Flushing is a word I associate with toilets.
Oh, yeah rinsing heh
I’m glad that wording got clarified, otherwise people’s mental images could have taken a disturbing turn. :-D
Tbh the kind of sinks with waste grinder could be used for flushing waste too. We have one in office, maybe need to experiment
this might not be helpful as most folks rent - but my adhd brain hates double basin sinks, replacing mine with one big basin was one of the biggest improvements in my kitchen
I will procrastinate washing a big item like a sheet pan for a month with a double basin sink
This picture is standard issue rental sink. When I got my own place I went with a big ass double. Thing is 11in deep, with 2 14x16 basins. And a commercial style faucet. Just grab and start spraying. Wasn’t realy expensive. Cheap since I got the sink used and the faucet on ebay. Like $85 for both. What a difference. If I had to go back to that picture above I would be bumm’n
Thing is 11in deep, with 2 14x16 basins
You are the person I want to become
40% try, 40% follow through, and fuck the rest, 80% is plenty
I’m the complete opposite: I don’t like rinsing under a running tap, so a single bowl means farting around with a container for the rinsing water.
and I will wash zero other dishes while procrastinating a single big item 🙃
The cookie sheet is like a blanket that I can use to hide all of my sins. If it’s under the cookie sheet, it doesn’t exist and I don’t need to clean it.
I wash dishes while waiting for the water to boil, or sandwich to cook in the panini press, or food to microwave, etc. Better than just standing there.
My wife will never comprehend this.
“Ahh finally space for me to put the dirty dishes”
Kid comes out of room, puts dirty plate in sink.
Make them put it in the dishwasher themself
I got that beat mercilessly as a little girl masking version of ADHD where my sink is never not empty but even if I didn’t, I understand it and I understand depression which is so often comorbid with untreated ADHD and we deserve to celebrate every success like this.
Now if I could go home after work today and sweep and mop my damn downstairs, that would be the kind of success that I can only dream of. We need ADHD collectives where I’ll come do your dishes (as long as you have gloves and a fresh sponge that doesn’t stink) and you can come do my stupid floor.
I’ve always been of the mindset that we ought to clean each others places just because it’s so much easier to help a friend out than work for myself.
Does “Shine your sink” ring a bell for anybody else?
Fly lady! That term is the only thing that stuck in our home.
Simple as cleaning… my god, I wish I had your energy.
I was thinking to myself, simple???
