If you're addicted to multitasking, this episode is
for you. I'm going to talk you through
cleaning your kitchen, and I'm also going to talk about when
it's a good idea to multitask and when it's not.
Let's get right into the episode.
It's time to gear up for your cleaning session.
Maybe you still need to get dressed and looking presentable.
This is more likely if you're listening to the episode in the
morning. Maybe you need to kind of
freshen up and just feel ready for the day.
Whether you might need to run an errand later or someone might
arrive at the door, or even if you're not expecting anyone,
when you look good, you feel good.
So if you're not ready yet, I encourage you to get ready even
if you need to pause the episode.
Another thing you might want to do before we get started is get
your house smelling fresh. OK?
Usually one of the most important things I do before
starting to clean my kitchen is I have somebody take the trash
out and reline it, and if no one else is around, I do it.
In fact, sometimes I wonder what the neighbors are thinking
because of how many times a day I'm seeing taking out trash.
It just, it's never ending with eight people living here and
packages coming in the mail and we're taking out a lot of trash
here. But I like to take out the trash
and reline it or delegate that to someone else because when I'm
cleaning the kitchen, I need to have a place to put stuff.
So that could be you right now. And of course, having trash
that's just sitting with rotten garbage in it can stink up your
house. Another thing you might need to
do to get your house smelling fresh is run your garbage
disposal. Turn on the sink, run the
garbage disposal, especially if other people in your family
might be putting things in the sink and not necessarily, you
know, running the garbage disposal.
And I realize you're not supposed to put much in your
garbage disposal at all if you know you know a lot of it's
supposed to go in the trash. But you've got to get rid of
those little particles by running it if you do have a
garbage disposal. And then, of course, you could
light a candle or start a wax warmer or an essential oil
diffuser. Or maybe, weather permitting,
you could open some windows. Sometimes it's good to air out
your house for a few minutes even if it's cold or hot.
I mean, nobody's asking you to leave the windows open all day,
but you might want to get some fresh air circulating unless
it's extremely hot or extremely cold.
Another thing you can do if you have pets and at least part of
your house is carpeted, you might want to sprinkle some
carpet fresh or whatever brand you use, some type of a powder
that freshens your carpet. Of course, it's no substitute
for periodically shampooing your carpet, and also this could be
visible on the carpet, so maybe don't do it if you're not
planning on vacuuming later today.
But it's just an idea, even though we're going to be working
in the kitchen. If you do plan on vacuuming
after this while listening to some music, now might be the
time to use some carpet sprinkles.
And another thing to do right before any type of cleaning
session is to get your machines running.
And of course, if you have a dishwasher, that's going to be
running when we get into doing dishes.
But you might want to start a load of laundry.
In fact, I started a load of laundry before I started
recording this episode. My husband said, I think the
washing machines available. OK, it's a weekend, people are
doing laundry and the washer is empty.
So I went ahead and took a advantage of that, started that
machine, and then when I'm done recording this and the bonus
episode, which is going to be a sequel to this episode, it'll be
time to switch the laundry from the washing machine into the
dryer. Hopefully by now you've done
whatever you need to do do to gear up for the cleaning
session. Since this is a kitchen cleaning
session, of course we are going to be tackling those dirty
dishes. You're going to want to gather
up any dirty dishes from around the house.
Maybe you have a glass on your desk, a mug on your night stand.
Maybe there's a plate on a coffee table or a cereal bowl on
the kitchen table. Walk through every room of your
house, unless your family is perfect about taking things to
the kitchen, and bring all those cups, bowls, plates and
silverware to the kitchen. If you want to accept a bonus
task today, you might also want to grab something else that you
could wash in the kitchen that's not a dish.
For example, a toothbrush holder or a little decorative dish in
the bathroom where you keep your jewelry.
If you have anything, maybe a soap dish.
If you have anything that's getting kind of grungy, you
might want to take that item to the kitchen to wash it while
you're gathering up those dishes.
I just wanted to say I've been reading some articles on this.
Obviously it's, it's, it's common sense too, but the
studies kind of back up what I, I've already realized.
Basically, the more we multitask, often the less we
accomplish because multitasking affects your ability to focus.
Now there are certain tasks that do not require much thought at
all. And obviously, I'm going to be
applying this mainly to housework in this episode.
So one example of a task that I often do while listening or
watching something is folding laundry.
OK. Another one that I do kind of
mindlessly while I may be talking on the phone or
listening to a podcast about a random subject is washing
dishes. But I've noticed that when it
comes to organizing and picking up clutter from around your
house or detailing the surfaces of your kitchen, you know, other
than just giving the countertops a light swipe, some of these
tasks take a little bit more effort and concentration.
OK, for example, I use certain products on my granite.
I use other products on my stainless steel.
I like to remember where I put certain things if I'm
rearranging. Basically, I try not to
multitask lately when I'm actually tidying up my house
because it's distracting and it can slow me down.
I allow myself to talk on the phone or listen to something
while I'm doing dishes or while I'm doing laundry, but the house
doesn't really get picked up and detailed when I'm thinking about
other things. Obviously the exception is
listening to a cleaning podcast because I'm keeping you focused.
OK, but I'm talking about unrelated content.
That's for when you vacuum and mop your floors at the end of a
session, or for when you sit down to fold and put away
laundry, or maybe when you're washing a mountain of dishes.
I'm kind of challenging you to stay in the moment more when
you're picking up your house and detailing those smaller surfaces
and organizing things. You need to be more present in
those situations. I'll talk more about that by
now. Of course, you've gathered up
your dishes. Hopefully, you're already
putting away any clean dishes. Maybe you need to empty your
dishwasher or drying rack, or both.
And if you've already put away those clean dishes, it's time to
start washing your dishes, whatever that means for you.
In most situations, I recommend getting any difficult items
soaking. If you have a large pot or pan
with dried on food or baked on food, you want to fill that up
with hot water and dish soap, maybe even a dishwasher pod.
Or maybe if the item's small enough you can submerge it in
your sink. You want to get the difficult
items soaking first. The way I do it is I fill them
up and place them next to the sink.
You know that pot and pan that sat too long after dinner or
whatever. Then the next thing I do is I
clean out my sink, fill it up with hot soapy water.
I I typically just use blue dawn dish soap, but use your favorite
liquid dish soap and I put a little bit of vinegar in the
water as well. And then I start pre rinsing the
small stuff, the silverware, the cups, the glasses, the bowls,
plates, whatever. If there's stuff dried on, I'm
often placing them momentarily into the right side of the sink
where I have the hot water and dish soap.
When it's when I get to that item, you know, I'm pulling them
out one by one, scrubbing it under running water with a scrub
brush on a handle or a sponge with an abrasive side like a
scrub Daddy or a Scotch Brite sponge.
That's kind of the routine. And then I load my dishwasher
with plates, bowls, silverware. I strategically placed some
spatulas on the top rack. I might put a small saucepan or
or a 12 inch skillet in the bottom or a small casserole
dish. But the things that I'm keeping
out to hand wash are my large skillet and my large pasta pot
typically, and then sometimes a large rectangular casserole
dish. I can fit that in a certain spot
in the back of my dishwasher, but sometimes I choose to hand
wash. It just depends how much quote
UN quote small stuff I have to put in the dishwasher.
But of course, if you're hand washing, you're going to start
that first sink load wash that. You're going to change the water
as you go. But once I get the dishwasher
loaded, I don't turn it on right away.
I turn my attention to those items I had soaking and I go
ahead and scrub those. Obviously once in a while you
need to leave something for an hour or longer, but usually
those few minutes where you're washing the small stuff and
getting the dishwasher loaded provide enough time for those
items to soak, just for the soap to kind of dish soap to kind of
do its work. But you might not be in the
exact same situation, just be working on washing your dishes,
whatever that means for you. You have a system, you have a
routine. It's probably kind of mindless.
So while you're washing those dishes, I'm going to keep
talking about this topic of multitasking.
Let me just give you like a random example.
If I don't feel like taking a stand up shower and I'm planning
to take a bath, sometimes I think to myself subconsciously
that it's going to be kind of boring and that I need to grab a
book and take the book in there or take my phone in there.
And I mean, taking my phone kind of makes sense because I might
get a phone call or a text if I have that on just the edge of
the tub or whatever, OK, I might be glad I brought it.
But when I kind of laugh at myself is when I bring a book to
read. And then once I get in the
bathtub and I'm soaking and I'm relaxing, often I don't even
pick up the book and read it because taking a bath is
enjoyable enough and just, you know, thinking.
Sometimes it's nice to just close your eyes and think.
And I can't even count how many times I've brought a book and
then not even opened up the book.
I end up taking the entire bath. Then after I get out and get
dressed, I might read the book, but I don't end up multitasking
in that way. But my mind is always telling me
you need to entertain yourself. You need to entertain yourself.
Like while I'm doing this mundane tasks.
OK. I mean, that's why I created
this show because I knew that I needed to focus on cleaning and
that outside things like, you know, looking at my phone or
computer or whatever were distracting me from the work at
hand. So I wanted to listen to a
podcast about cleaning while I was cleaning.
And I wanted it to even tell me what I should be doing to keep
me from getting sidetracked. And that's why I created this
show. While you're working on it,
Dishes. I'll just say another example of
me multitasking to a fault is when I'm cooking and it pops
into my head that I want to tell somebody something and I call my
sister or something and I'm like on the phone while I'm cooking.
And then I end up making mistakes in my cooking.
I mean, I burn the bread even though I'm standing in the
kitchen. Or the other night I started, I
was making spaghetti with meat sauce, not spaghetti with
meatballs. I do that sometimes, but this is
where you just chop up some ground beef, brown it, and you
season it. Well, I was seasoning it and all
of a sudden I realized I was putting chili powder, cumin.
I was basically seasoning it for tacos when I was making
spaghetti, so the spaghetti was a little spicier than usual.
It had a slightly different flavor.
It was fine, but I do stuff like that all the time and sometimes
I make even worse mistakes where I'm using the wrong ingredient
or I'm forgetting about something.
So cooking is a perfect example of a situation where you should
be just completely focused on that task.
I mean, maybe you're different, but I shouldn't even be talking
to people while I'm cooking. OK, another example.
Sometimes when I'm driving, if I'm in a really interesting
conversation and I'm just super invested in what I'm talking
about, I will forget that I'm planning to go to a certain
store and I'll blow by it. I'll just go on autopilot and
start, you know, heading in the usual direction.
So there are definitely times in life where you shouldn't be
multitasking. And those might be kind of
obvious. Obviously when you're measuring
ingredients to bake bread, you know, you're and you're using
like a One Cup scoop, counting how many scoops of flour you're
putting in. You know, you shouldn't be
talking to anybody or you're going to forget if you're on
scoop 3 or scoop 4. But what we don't often realize
is that multitasking sometimes keeps us from getting our house
fully clean. For some reason, when I'm
letting my mind wander because I'm watching a video or
listening to something that's not cleaning related or chatting
on the phone, I'll start to clean a room.
But then I might wander out of the room and do something else
when what I really need to be doing is working through the
room systematically. I mentioned this in a recent
episode, but when I'm cleaning a bedroom, I'm kind of working in
a horseshoe pattern, You know, start at one corner and work
your way around the bed basically because chances are
your your bedroom is not huge, but you've got a good size bed
in the middle of it. And then you kind of you kind of
work your way around the room and our horseshoe pattern.
And it can be the same way with decluttering your counter top
tops in the kitchen, which we're going to get to in just a
minute. So I'm going to give you a
couple more minutes to wrap up washing those dishes.
Do it quickly. Sometimes the job expands to
fill the time allotted and I want you to get those dishes
done so let's speed it up. I'm lighting a fire under you.
Let's speed up the process and get those dishes done in a
couple minutes so we can systematically declutter the
surfaces of your kitchen and wipe them down.
A lot of times at the end of an episode, I encourage you to sit
down and fold some laundry or vacuum, sweep and mop.
And that's because those tasks don't tend to require as much
thought. I can definitely be on the phone
with somebody or listening to music and mop my floor because
I'm just going, you know, row by row.
Lately I use a a vacuum in my kitchen floor and then my
husband goes over it with a mopping machine.
So we are doing it with machines.
Before I begin with the vacuuming, I sweep up anything
that's maybe along an edge or too large for the vacuum to
handle or whatever. I might do a rough sweep real
quick and then I go over the floor systematically.
But you're going row by row. It's just like mowing the lawn.
When you're vacuuming or you're sweeping, you're doing it row by
row. It's kind of a no brainer.
But for some reason, when there's a task like decluttering
your countertops or cleaning your bedroom or picking up your
living room, there's more of a chance of wandering off because
you're not doing it in rows per se.
You pick something up, you put it away, you see something else,
you get distracted. Or if you're like me, you're on
a long phone call. Sometimes you'll be cleaning for
a while and then you'll kind of plop down and not even realize
it that you're you're back on the couch or the bed again.
I'm going to give you about 30 more seconds to finish doing
those dishes. If there's anything left that
you haven't had time to wash, maybe get those items soaking
and get back to those after the episode.
But I want you to make sure that you don't have any dishes on
your countertop. Either place them in the sink or
behind the sink. One thing I do, if I'm, I
mentioned soaking a dirty pot or pan, I didn't mention the
glasses, but if there's kind of a ring at the bottom of a glass
or something and I need to soak that, I fill it up with hot
water, couple drops of dish soap and I place it kind of behind
the sink. And I also have a waterproof
surface in my windowsill. You might not, you might not
want to put a damp glass in your windowsill unless it's designed
for that. But mine has the granite, you
know, the sealed granite in the windowsill too.
So I'm often placing a glass there to soak or I'm placing it
in the area right behind the sink just because I don't want
glasses to get broken by being submerged in the dish water.
But. Everything else can be
submerged. And no judgment here.
If you're you're deciding that your dishes are taking precedent
and you're just going to keep washing the dishes.
Definitely if all you get done during this episode is get
caught up on a mountain of dishes, that's fine too.
But a lot of you want to switch gears.
So you want to get those last few items soaking and just make
sure that they're off of the surfaces that you're going to be
wiping down. Basically consolidate the mass
to the sink. You know, with the exception of
maybe placing something behind the sink.
And then of course, you're going to remove clutter from your
countertop. You're going to pick one end of
your kitchen and do it systematically.
I don't want you doing the darting around thing that you
might do if you were listening to a different podcast or
chatting on the phone. Where let's say you grab
something from the left hand end of your countertop and decide
that that needs to go in your junk drawer.
And then all of a sudden you're clearing the island because your
junk drawer was on the island. Do you see where I'm going with
this? You leave some items out because
you're cleaning in a zigzag pattern instead of cleaning
systematically. So if you put something away
that was on the left hand edge, keep working on that particular
area until it's fully decluttered.
I'm talking about random items that were left on the
countertop, but I'm also talking about small appliances that have
a more permanent home than your countertop.
Maybe your Keurig and your toaster are out all the time,
but maybe there's a crock pot, an Instant Pot, a blender,
whatever else you name the gadget that needs to be put away
and it's more permanent home, like in your pantry.
My bottom shelf of my pantry is for my small appliances, like my
crock pot and my Instant Pot. And you may need to wipe down
your cabinets. Definitely almost every time I
clean my kitchen as far as wiping down the countertops,
clearing the clutter and then spraying and wiping down my
countertops. I'm also wiping down the
outsides of my large appliances like my refrigerator, my
microwave, my oven, my dishwasher, especially the high
touch areas though that the refrigerator exterior around the
handle. OK, the top of the stove.
Of course, that kind of goes along with cleaning the
countertop. Just be cleaning those upper
surfaces in your kitchen. But I want you to be systematic
about it. Start at one end and if you put
something away, go back where you left off so that you are
truly clearing off your countertop.
And you might be doing it in one fell swoop as far as removing
all the clutter so that you can just get spray bottle happy.
Or maybe you're just clearing an area, spraying it, wiping it
down. It's up to you how you do that,
but be cleaning the upper surfaces of your kitchen.
And then of course, after this episode's over, I want you to
sweep and mop, whether you're doing that with machines or the
old fashioned way. But the bottom line is I want
you to use this show to keep you focused and on task when you're
picking up your bedroom, your living areas, because I don't
want your your mind to wander to something other than cleaning,
to where you start moving in a zigzag pattern and next thing
you know you've left the room. And that can happen when you're
trying to entertain yourself with things that are not
cleaning related, like just listening to a random YouTube
video. I I've found that I get more
done when I go through my house fully present, fully focused, no
headphones and or I'm listening to a cleaning podcast that's
literally telling me to pick up. I mean, that works too.
But when you're not listening to this show, you might want to
just be fully focused when you're picking up your bedroom
floor systematically, or you're organizing your closet or you're
cleaning out a drawer or you're picking up your living room.
Because you're going to be more thorough then that playlist that
you've been saving those watch later videos on your YouTube
watch list or maybe those true crime podcasts that you're into.
Those are for the more mindless tasks like folding and putting
away laundry, doing your dishes, sweeping and mopping, vacuuming.
But when it comes to organizing, picking up clutter, it's not
always a good idea to multitask. And listening to the show while
you're cleaning is not multitasking because I am
keeping you in a certain room, which brings me to my next
point. If you subscribe to the bonus
content, you're going to go through every room in your house
and a lot of those whole house episodes.
So if you haven't already subscribed, you can visit
cleanwithmepodcast.com to learn how to do that.
If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, the Clean With Me
Unplugged are already being advertised to you.
It might be as simple as just clicking Start trial depending
on which app you're listening on.
And you can support me on Patreon regardless of which
podcast app you listen on. And the Patreon episodes do
integrate with some podcast platforms.
Not to sound super technical, but you might have to listen to
them on Patreon itself, or it might be coming up in your audio
feed once you subscribe depending on the app you use.
So definitely visit my website to learn more.
Clean with mepodcast.com Special special thanks to those of you
who are already supporting the show.
But even just listening to these free episodes helps me, so I
appreciate each and every one of you.
Be sure to sweep and mop your kitchen after this and just
beware of multitasking when you're picking up and organizing
your house. That's the thesis statement of
the episode. Either be listening to a
cleaning podcast that's telling you to stay in that room or just
unplug for a while and do that. Then reward yourself with those
playlists you want to listen to while you're doing the more
mundane aspects of cleaning. Hopefully that makes sense.
Happy Cleaning and I'll talk to you in the next episode.