Use a dish bowl to keep your sink clear of dirty dishes
Upon discussing things you can do to keep your house habitable when you’re busy, Homie Mich introduced us to her great dish idea:
How I learned to stop lamenting my life without convenient washers
It’s been years since I’ve lived in a place with a dishwasher or laundry machines. Sometimes it’s frustrating to find many well-meaning cleaning and organization tips or checklists offered up online that assume I have these easily available for my personal use. It’s taken me a while to figure out how to better manage my washer-less life rather than just lament it. Here are some things that I’ve found work for me…
Taking back the dishes: Fixing my kitchen angst
The truth is that my flatmates and I are pretty good about evenly sharing work. The truth is, when I did the dishes it was usually totally my turn. The truth is, when I was angsting about dishes, probably my flatmates were angsting about their own hot-button chore items, like mowing the lawn, or having a clear dining room table. And, universal truth is, the only person I can change is me. So I took back the dishes. And I found my Dishes Zen.
Dark Side of the dish soap
This idea — dish soap in a decorative bottle with a bar pourer — was apparently Martha Stewart’s very first “good thing” — and it really Speak(s) to Me. I saved this awesome Pink Floyd wine bottle and used it to replace the ugly plastic bottle of soap on our counter. The result is a real Eclipse of the former bottle.
Use a spoon to wash your dishes
Here’s a great idea that’s just in time for your holiday dish clean-up. Use a combo of a wooden spoon and a wash cloth to clean the stuck-on food stuffs off of your dirty dishes.
Look like a bad ass mofo while washing dishes
You know what sucks about doing dishes? Everything. It’s boring, it’s gross, it makes my hands all dried out, and it’s a chore that’s impossible to feel like a bad ass doing. Until these mother fucking Tuff Dish Tattoo Kitchen Gloves came into my life.
Pre-sort your silverware in the dishwasher
The sorting and putting away of silverware is the most annoying and time-consuming part of doing dishes. Why don’t I just sort them as I put the dirty ones INTO the washer?
This ain’t your mother’s china pattern: Where can we find offbeat china?
I got married about a month ago and ever since, my mom has been insistent on buying us china. But my husband and I can’t agree on what type. I want something nice and elegant while my husband (who is a chef) wants something modern and not traditionally shaped (so anything but circles).
I really don’t mind so long as we find something nice, but all the modern plates I find are a bit boring. Do you know of some companies that have offbeat china sets?