Never got to bed with dishes in the sink.
Maybe it's not an issue at your house, but in my experience, dirty dishes can and will ruin your life. Between the three of us we go through MORE than a dishwasher full of dishes just about every single day. I'd spend a week pushing Sisyphus's big pansy-ass rock up that endless hill if it meant he'd take care of the dishes for a couple of nights.
There's something maddening about dishes. We have a dishwasher, so I really resent having to handwash anything. In the past, that mean leaving dishes in the sink and filling up the machine the next day after you put the clean stuff away. Well then you end up with a half full dishwasher before dinner even starts...then you dirty up a few pots and pans which take up half of the bottom rack and the next thing you know you're piling the sink full again and deciding that it doesn't make any sense to clean the kitchen up before bed because even if everything else is spotless, the whole thing will still look like crap because of the sink full of dirty dishes (which likely spill over onto the surrounding countertops).
So the kitchen doesn't get clean which means the next morning sucks and I get pissed making coffee and and up buying sludge out of the vending machine at work. Then when the girls come down for breakfast, THEY have a lousy time because the kitchen is so cluttered and they do their best to make breakfast and eat in front of the TV for the sake of getting out of our tiny, cluttered, messy, borderline non-functional kitchen.
Then Amy ends up piling more dirty crap next to the dirty crap already in the sink because, let's face it, she's not going to juggle the baby while trying to dig out from underneath the dish pile long enough to get another load going. A few hours later, I come home, run another load (which is a half load shy of getting the kitchen clean) and somehow always end up going to bed with the kitchen just like it started.
Gaaaaaagh!
So new policy: get all the dishes clean at night...even if it means washing a few things by hand while the dishwasher does its thing. I still hate our tiny dishwasher and the kitchen still drives me nuts, but at least I'm not going to bed angry.
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I must tell you, for the sake of just knowing at least, you get the same feeling if you have a big kitchen and a big dishwasher. Heck, I'm usually the one who neglects the sink-stuff (for us it's mostly just pots and pans, but occasionally other stuff makes it in) for the morning. I guess it's because after dinner is when down time starts - for all three of us.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - on Saturday I woke up to see that there was a dirty pan in the sink - and it was one that I had gone out of my way to NOT dirty, but my wife wanted to. I guess to me that put the onus on her to clean it. Regardless of cause - The stupid pan was still there Saturday NIGHT because we were both being stubborn about it.
I finally washed the stupid thing - but I assure you it was partly out of resentment.
I think your no-dirty-dishes rule might be the trick!
I will avoid dishes as well out of stubborness. "I cooked the whole meal, why couldn't M do the pots as well as loading the dishwasher?" but then I have to remind myself he does the whole bedtime/bathtime routine, and is a lot nicer to me about housework while I'm pregnant. Truth is - and i'm sure you aren't looking for advice but i'll share my thoughts and you are of course welcome to ignore me all you want; truth is - it's easiest to load all the DISHES in the dishwasher and just handwash the pots - specially if you try to wash them during cooking process and get it out of the way - faster to wash them then, rather than waiting until they crust over and they don't take up the whole dishwasher.
ReplyDeleteEither way - there's no easy solution - dishes just suck. And going the paper route is just too non environmental for every day...dishes unfortunately are like clutter - they breed to fill the space. :(