Skip to main content

Keep your kitchen clean challenge

Today marks the fifth day of the Keep Your Kitchen Clean Challenge in the Robinson household and I am happy to report that I have not yet gone to bed this week with a dirty kitchen! We all know that I am a self-proclaimed, horrible housekeeper. Does this mean that I am a hoarder with 75 cats living in my house and so much garbage and clutter lying around that I don't know if the cats are alive or dead? No. It does mean, though, that I don't clean as often as I should and am really bad at picking up after myself. It also means that unexpected guests and visitors put me into a complete panic that could someday cause me to have an anxiety attack. For these reasons and the simple fact that I, too, would like to come home from work to a clean house where I can completely relax (yes, I am capable of relaxing).

So, after speaking to many of the cleanest people I know, and asking about their habits and strategies, I learned that one of the best ways to keep your house clean and tidy is to simply clean up your messes before moving on to make another one. Isn't this what we teach toddlers? To first clean up their messes before they're allowed to do anything else? Either I never mastered that skill (no comments from the parents here) or I completely lost it somewhere along the line.

On Saturday night, our friends Jen and Sean came over to play some games after we went out for Pat's birthday. It was an impromptu gathering and even though Jen is one of my closest friends, she is also the neatest person I know so I was mortified by my messy house, most of all, my kitchen sink full of dirty dishes. The next day, I spent hours cleaning the kitchen until it was spotless (except the floors which still need mopped - hey, Rome wasn't built in a day). At that moment, I vowed to not let it get that messy again - the same vow I make every time I clean, except this time, I meant it.

I am a creature of habit. So when I get into "routines," I am usually pretty good at sticking with them. So here are the new routines I'm trying to make: While I'm cooking dinner, I wash the dishes as I go. When we are done with dinner, we load the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. I got rid of the drying rack to give me more counter space and to force me to dry and put away dishes as I wash them. And finally, I check the sink before I go to bed to make sure there are no dirty dishes in it.

Five days of a clean kitchen might not sound like a lot, but I am comfortable with baby steps. Until I tackle cleaning routines for the rest of the house, however, my unexpected guests are restricted to staying in the kitchen. :)

Does anyone else share some of these struggles with me?

Comments

Kelly Fidler said…
Well, I can keep the kitchen clean, piece of cake. I enjoy cleaning it up after dinner, etc. But I do NOT do floors (not any of them, doesn't matter the surface, not happening) and I don't do bathrooms. So we have a cleaning lady! Oh, wait, they come in a pair. We have 2 cleaning ladies and they are worth every penny! :)

P.S. love the photo. Is that your kitchen?
12/09/2010 12:20 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Annual Ugly Sweater Party

Ugly Sweater Party from Emily Robinson on Vimeo . Well, our First Annual Ugly Sweater Party was a huge success! We had SO much fun, as you'll see from the video. I also had so much fun making this video! I got a new flip cam for Christmas so it was fun to actually make a project with the videos! For those who attended the party, you will definitely enjoy all 14 minutes of this video (it is worth every second). I was laughing so hard while I was making it! For those who didn't attend the party, I can see how the video might get old or seem really long. Either way, if you watch it, let me know what you think!
9 comments
Read more
Week: 19 Baby size: 6 inches, the size of a mango Bump size: 35.5 inches   Weight: +10 pounds Cravings: Anything sweet I still can't pass up desserts and don't worry - I didn't pass on anything this week, as much as I should have. I ate a glazed doughnut, piece of chocolate cake (it was small...) and a piece of cheesecake. Not all in the same day, but in the same week.  Other than my poor eating habits, which is old news at this point, there were a few other big developments this week. I guess you could say I officially "popped." I received more comments (and more belly touching) this week than I have throughout the pregnancy. This is both good and bad. I kind of liked being able to "hide" my pregnancy and only talk about it when and with whom I wanted. Those days are officially behind me and my protruding belly apparently is just screaming to people, "yes, I'm pregnant. Let's talk about it." There are only two weeks ...
4 comments
Read more

Beware of Infections...

When I think of an infection, I think of something that needs a little neosporin and a band aid and then life goes on. When the doctors started talking about Mark's infection as something that is life-threatening, as you can imagine, I was shocked. He has stage IV cancer for god's sake, an infection is the least of his worries, right? Wrong. Turns out it's not uncommon for people going through this treatment to get these infections which can be fatal if it doesn't respond to antibiotics and continues to spread. So, going back to my blog about not worrying because it doesn't get you anywhere and it's a waste of time, yada yada yada - I have done very little of anything else besides worry during the past 36 hours or so. Even during the hour and a half last night watching the movie Amityville Horror I was worrying. Well, I guess I was worrying more about not peeing my pants, but you get the idea. I feel bad for the people around me when I get worried like this. I ...
6 comments
Read more