Hi everyone. I'm Ronnie.
And I'm Jessica. And you're listening to Clean
with me. The podcast where we walk you
through cleaning your house. Thanks for joining me.
Today's episode is part of a series I'm.
Starting on how to. Keep your house.
Clean when you're drowning, it's going to be a 10.
Part series. But step one is getting your
kitchen under control, and I'm also going to give you some tips
and tricks for keeping it that. Way So it's time to gear up for
our kitchen. Cleaning session.
Maybe you need to take out your kitchen.
Trash that'll get you moving, get you outside.
And then of course, you'll reline that wastebasket.
So you'll have a place to throw trash.
While you're cleaning your kitchen, another thing you might
need to do is freshen up for the.
Day. Sometimes just doing those
little things like either putting your hair up or spraying
it. With a water spray.
And styling it a little. Bit wiping off that old makeup
from the day before. Can work wonders.
You know. Slipping into something that's a
little more comfortable. Comfortable.
Yet presentable something you. Can clean in and sometimes it's
just. A good idea?
To open up your curtains and let some natural light in.
That can also work. Wonders on your outlook.
Or maybe you need to light a candle or start a wax warmer.
A lot of people light a candle after they've cleaned the house.
I like to do it immediately so that my house starts smelling
good and I feel energized by that.
So whatever you need to. Do to gear up.
For your cleaning session, now is the time.
Another thing that I often have you do when we're starting to
clean the kitchen is to go around and gather up any dishes
from around the house. Whether it's a forgotten coffee
mug on the night stand, a bowl on the coffee table in the
kitchen, dishes in a teenager's room, there's no telling what's
lurking in your house, and it's disheartening to find.
Dirty dishes after you. Thought you'd done everything,
so we want to get everything to the kitchen so that we can get
everything washed at once. While you're gearing up for your
cleaning session, I'm just going to give you a summary.
Of what's ahead. I am going to recommend that you
take some of your. Dishes out of circulation.
If you're experiencing pile UPS. AKA Dishasters.
Meaning someone in your. Household and this could be you,
this could be your spouse, it could be your kids.
But someone is dirtying up too many dishes and you're having.
Pile UPS. Where not everything.
Fits in the dishwasher or you've.
Got a hand wash more than a couple of sink loads and I'm not
telling you to. Get rid of stuff.
Necessarily, but I'm. Telling you to take it out of
circulation and. What I mean by?
This is. Deciding how many place settings
you really need from day-to-day and then storing.
The rest? Of the stuff in an out of.
Reach cupboard that's hard to get.
To OK, maybe that. Cabinet up above your
refrigerator. Or some other cabinet where you
have to stand on a chair. To access it.
That way you still have those extra.
Items for those few times a. Year where you.
Maybe host? A dinner party or.
You have overnight. Guests over the holidays.
Obviously there are times where we need more than.
Five plates or whatever, 5 bowls, OK.
So that's something that's ahead.
I'm going to. Talk to you about that.
It it may seem. Drastic.
But getting a lot of stuff out of circulation is going to help
you keep things from piling up. I'm also going to talk about
developing a system for doing dishes after meals and there.
Are different ways of. Going about it.
And so I'm going to, I'm going to talk about.
The different ways that people do that.
And of course, all the while I'm going to be cheering you on on
cleaning your kitchen, we're also going to be talking about
decluttering your kitchen and deep cleaning your kitchen.
So. Hopefully you've done whatever
you needed to. Do to gear up.
For your cleaning session, you've.
Gathered up dishes? You have a wastebasket to throw.
Trash in and I'm assuming you keep cleaning supplies in your
kitchen, because pretty much everybody does.
Let's get right into our cleaning session.
Of course, the 1st. Order of business is to get
caught up on dishes. That's that springboard task
that you might be dreading doing.
But once you've gotten that done.
That that clears your surfaces essentially.
I mean, there might be other things you need to.
Clear out of the way, we'll talk about that, but.
Once you get your dishes done, then you can start wiping down
surfaces in your kitchen from top to bottom.
You can declutter. You can vacuum any.
Debris out of your. Drawers and lower cabinets.
So let's get started. On the dishes, whatever that
means for. You usually the first.
Step is putting away any clean dishes.
If you struggle with housework, you're.
Probably not. The type who towel dries.
Your dishes every time. Right after you wash.
Them and that's fine. I don't.
Do that either I put. Things in the dishwasher and
then hand wash the rest and they go into the drying rack.
So you may need to empty your dishwasher and or drying rack.
I realize not everybody. Has a dishwasher.
And some people put everything in the.
Dishwasher but. For me, putting away clean
dishes means emptying the dishwasher and the drying rack.
So that is step. One if you're facing a.
Serious Dishwaster. Meaning you're not going to.
Be able to fit. Everything in the drying.
Rack or dishwasher? You may want to.
Just take a large. Bath towel and lay that out on
either your kitchen island or your kitchen table or one of
your countertops because having an easy place to put things.
As you wash them. Can make you go faster when you
don't have to put any thought into.
Where am I going to set this item I just finished washing?
Makes sense so. That could be something you need
to do when I'm in a situation where I have to hand wash 10
tons of stuff. I haven't been in the situation.
For a while, but I do lay out a bath towel so that I.
Can just spread things out and I'm not playing dish Jenga
building a tower in a drying rack so be putting away.
Those. Clean dishes now I talked about
putting taking stuff out of. Circulation.
So if you're. On board with that, now's the
time it's up to. You to decide, obviously.
How many place settings you need in a day?
And some of you might not want to stash anything away.
That's fine. But.
This this conversation is for the people.
This part of the episode is for the people who do wanna kinda.
Take some things out. You could do a.
Thing where you only have enough clean dishes for one meal.
For the people who live at your house or that eat with.
You on a daily? Basis for example it I have 3.
Kids living at home and I have a.
Husband so that would be. Five of everything now you might
not want to go down to. Five, if you do like a
breakfast. And then you've.
Got to go to work without washing the dishes.
And that's just kind of your system maybe?
You wash dishes after. Two meals.
Or you wash. Dishes at the end of the day,
you know you might be doing some multiplication and saying well I
need 2. Meals worth of plates.
And there are 5. Of us.
So I need 10. Plates in circulation OK, but
just don't give. Yourself too many.
You know your lifestyle and your system.
We're gonna talk more about systems later, but whatever the
number. That you decide on.
You can be putting away other items and storing those.
Out of reach, so to speak. Obviously when you first moved
into your. House you probably stored a few
things and kind of hard to access cupboards.
That you knew you weren't going to.
Use that often. Like a punch.
Bowl or the Turkey? Roasting pan or something like
that. You know these seasonal items or
rarely used items, but you probably have some extra.
Space in those cupboards or. If you're like me, you might
have a cupboard that you weren't using at all.
The cabinets above my microwave were super hard to.
Open. They don't have handles on them
and with my other upper cabinets I open them from the bottom.
But with these. The microwave is in in a
position where you can't really get your fingers up under the
cabinets. So you have to.
Either pry it open. With like a.
Butter knife or something, I mean.
You could. If you're really fiddle with it,
you could open. It up by hand, but it's
difficult. So it just wasn't practical to
store. When I realized.
It was hard to. Open.
I just didn't put anything in there for a while and my.
Seasonal type items for. Dinner parties and whatnot I was
storing in the cupboard. Above the refrigerator, which is
also hard to get just because you kind of.
Need to stand on a chair? To access it because the
refrigerator. Being an obstacle there OK Be
working on putting away your clean dishes and possibly taking
some things. Out of circulation.
Anyway, I had that. Empty cupboard, but if I.
Stand on a chair. I can easily open those cabinets
from the top and so. That's a great place for excess
plates, bowls, mugs, silverware, OK all.
Kinds of things. And I could even put more.
I'm thinking of going even more minimal than what I what I'm
doing right now. There's room for more.
Stuff up there so. Be creative and of course.
If you have. More dishes then you.
Will. Ever need even in the?
Course of, let's say two years. You might want to donate some
items. OK, I'm not saying there's never
a time when you would. Get rid of.
Any of your. Dishes or silverware?
But what another reason? Well, here's another case for.
Keeping some stuff if you have the storage space.
Sometimes when you've got. Kids silverware.
Comes up missing. Or they break glasses, or they
break dishes. So.
You may want to. Save things to replace missing
or broken. Items over time.
I think I mentioned this in another episode.
But I use I buy these. Jams that come in a glass Mason
jar type. Jar that's.
Got a handle on it and I use those as drinking glasses.
They're. Cute farmhouse drinking glasses.
And we've got a bunch of them, so they all match and I feel.
Like they're free because I need.
To buy jam anyway. So I buy a brand that comes with
a cute. Jar that serves as a cup, a
glass, so with those as. We run out of jam and I wash
another jar. I'm putting it in that.
Out of reach cupboard. Because we don't need to
constantly be accumulating them, but over time we're going to
need more if that makes. Sense so.
Deal with that information. What you will Everybody's
lifestyle is different. And storage is different, you
know, some kitchens. Have a lot of.
Storage and some don't at 1:00. House I had.
Several empty cabinets at another house.
I was so short. On space that I.
Was afraid to buy. Any more small appliances?
OK, so we all have. Different situations.
As far as storage. But I think what most of us have
in common is we have. Easy to access shelves.
And cupboards and then we have those ones that are a little
less convenient for long term storage.
So hopefully by now. You.
Are doing dishes good job putting everything away and
maybe taking some things out of circulation.
You can always do more. Of that later, but I'm.
I just wanted to give you that tip on kind of downsizing how
many dishes you're dealing with on a regular basis and basis and
buy dishes. I'm including pots, pans,
silverware, spatulas. I mean, the Sky's the limit on
what you can take out of circulation and either donate or
put it in an out. Of reach area.
For the next time you need it. So while you're working on doing
dishes, whether you're doing an empty reload and run of the
dishwasher, I mean, you've probably put away clean stuff by
now. But whether you're loading the
dishwasher still or hand washing, or maybe you're caught
up on dishes and you're cleaning surfaces in the kitchen just
while you're working in your kitchen, I wanted to.
Talk to you about. Dish Systems and don't feel bad
if all you get done during this episode.
Is get. Caught up on dishes?
Because once you're down to dish.
Zero, I feel like. You're going to be motivated to
really deep clean your kitchen and then maintain it going
forward. We all need.
These resets. At times, and in this series,
I'm going to have you reset your entire.
House but today. Is a kitchen focus and just step
one is getting caught up on dishes and possibly taking some
out of circulation. So I won't belabor that point,
but dish systems, basically you can do a thing where you put
things in the. Dishwasher throughout the day if
you have a. Dishwasher and then you run it
after dinner. Or right before.
Bed whenever people aren't going to be eating anymore, whenever
the kitchen's. Closed, so to speak.
You run it and then in the morning.
You put away your. Clean stuff and a lot of people
miss that. Important.
Step like they're. They know they want it to do
their dishes before bed. They know they want to wake up
to a clean kitchen. They don't want dirty dishes,
attracting pests or anything like that.
So they get that part, but where they?
Drop the ball is not putting away the clean stuff immediately
in the morning that can sometimes lead to a pile.
Up because. If the clean dishes are not
emptied, especially when you have a.
Dishwasher if the dishwasher. Is not emptied.
Then somebody's going to come along who doesn't want to have
to. Empty the dishwasher.
Before putting a dirty dish into it, so.
I feel it's. It's a game changer to put away
your clean dishes first thing in the morning.
Be or at least. Before that first meal is eaten.
Let's put it that way. That way it especially.
If you have the system of putting things directly into
the. Dishwasher.
It's ready. And it's understood that the
dishes in there are dirty. Because.
You're loading it throughout the day, running it at the end.
Now our system is a little bit different.
I do empty the dishwasher and empty my drying rack in the
mornings. It's something I've been.
Super good about lately. But when my kids make their own
snack or breakfast or lunch, 'cause.
I I typically cook. A dinner every night My kids are
teenagers, so they're. Able to.
Prepare their own food at different times of day and
whatnot. And don't get me wrong, they
know how to cook dinner too. And sometimes it's a kids turn
to cook dinner, but usually my husband and I cook the dinners
and kids kind of fend for themselves at breakfast and
lunch. Again, these are teenagers.
I realize you might have to cook for your kids.
Throughout the day, but. These are teenagers and we're on
the go a lot and things like that, but when they do prepare
something during the day, they are.
Supposed to wash. Their dish from start to finish.
So let's say that somebody had a bowl of.
Cereal for breakfast. They wash the cereal.
Bowl and the spoon. With dish soap, they scrub it.
And then they rinse it and place it in the drying rack, and
they're old enough to. Do that.
That's our. System.
The dishwasher thing just has never worked for us.
I'm not going to go into the different.
Obstacles of why that doesn't work for us, but it just
doesn't, so that's the rule. And then at dinner time, I
typically wash the dish the dinner dishes after dinner.
So they don't have to wash their own dish after dinner.
They just clear it, rinse it off, place it in the sink, and
then I load the dishwasher at some point in the evening.
So that's our. System it may not be for.
Everybody. Everybody's different.
Especially if you're a. Small family putting things in
the. Dishwasher throughout the.
Day might make more sense, but sometimes we dirty up a lot of
dishes and pots and pans and different people are cooking and
it. It just doesn't always there's
usually. More than a dishwasher load in
the course of the day and I've just found that having them hand
wash. These.
Little snacks and small meals early in the day works for us,
so. That's that's how we do it.
Another system is let's say you're a stay at home mom.
You might want to to young children.
You might want to just. Wash the dishes by.
Hand after every meal. Or.
You might load the. Dishwasher after.
Lunch and then again in the evening.
No judgement here if you're. Doing a couple loads.
A day. I know people who are doing that
and that's what I used to. Do we're just at a?
Stage now where we're doing something different, the hand
washing. Throughout the day, the.
Dishwasher after dinner. So you may, you may have, you
know, this thing where you're washing.
Dishes after every. Meal.
That definitely prevents overwhelm.
Probably the most difficult method is.
Just having people clear and rinse their plate.
Bowl. Whatever throughout the entire.
Day. And then washing all of it at
the end of the day. I don't recommend that.
I I recommend doing dishes. At least twice a day.
Or as you dirty them. Throughout the day, OK.
And so that's my two cents on dish systems be plugging away.
At those dishes. But if you're done, start
cleaning from the top down. And an important deep cleaning
task is vacuuming out your drawers and lower cabinets.
Crumbs tend to accumulate down low, especially when you have
kids with the upper cabinets. Often it's more about wiping
down the shelves. But with the.
Lower drawers and cabinets. You may need to use your vacuum
attachment. 1st so that's. Kind of your bonus task, your
deep cleaning task. Should you choose to.
Accept it. And of course you're going to
want to also wipe down your cabinet fronts, your large
appliance fronts. You may want to declutter your
countertop. Maybe you have some things out.
Like cereal boxes? Seasonings, things like that.
Put everything where it goes once your dishes are done.
So that you. Can wipe down.
All of your surfaces. And then of course, when
cleaning the kitchen, you always end with sweeping and mopping
the floor. One thing I'll throw in here
that might help you. I realize that.
You might be fully responsible. For every aspect of.
Cleaning the kitchen and I get that.
But if you are. Negotiating kind of a division
of. Labor like, let's say.
You and your husband both work and you know he is willing to
do. Some of the household chores as
he should be if you're. Both working and I'm not saying
that if. You are a stay.
At home, Mom, that he shouldn't help.
I'm not going to get into any of that.
I'm not getting into your marriage here.
But all I'm. Saying is, in general, men tend
to like sweeping and mopping the floor.
I often have. Well, it's on my 18 year old
son's chore list. Because I feel like.
That's one of his favorite things.
I mean, he's not gonna just. Say he loves.
Doing it, but I can tell that he doesn't mind it and that he
likes it better than other chores.
Just in general, men often hate the more.
Tedious aspects of housework like.
Washing dishes by hand. Or.
Picking up. Toys, things like that.
Whereas things that involve. Like gross motor skills.
Like sweeping and mopping, they tend.
To like that better. Just that's been my experience.
So it might be something if you don't like sweeping and mopping
your husband or your. Preteen or teenage?
Son might actually enjoy. That task.
So that's. Something to look into.
I. Definitely recommend, you know.
As far as? Division of Labor in your
household, Figuring out who's. Good at what?
Who likes? Doing what and having people do.
What they do best now obviously if there's.
Something if just nobody in your house likes doing dishes,
they've still got to be done, but there might be someone in
your house who likes to sweep and mop the kitchen that can
definitely. Take the pressure off.
Of you and so I'm just. Throwing it out there.
That in my experience, men don't seem to mind that task,
especially when they're walking into a kitchen.
Where all the. Dishes are done, the countertops
are scrubbed down, the the cabinets are wiped down,
everything's sparkling clean, and maybe you've even moved.
The chairs out of the way. For them.
OK. I put my.
I flip my barstools upside down, set them.
Up on the breakfast bar. And then I move.
The chairs to the. Living room.
I mean, I don't always do it. Sometimes I'll let my son do
that too, but sometimes I just set him up like that because I
don't mind doing those things and then it allows.
Him to just swoop. In there and sweep and mop.
So don't come at. Me if you're jealous because you
have to. Do your own sweeping and
mopping. Your kids will get older
someday. If you have little ones, but I'm
just and you might not even hate sweeping and mopping as much as
I do, but I just wanted to. Throw that out there as I guess
a tip. For keeping your kitchen clean
because it definitely. Works for us.
Now you may be thinking, well, I'm drowning in housework and
yeah, my kitchen's getting clean during this.
Episode. But what about the rest of the
house? Well, when you raise the
standard in a certain room, you get caught.
Up like you, you. Get caught up on your dishes.
You do. Some decluttering.
You take some things out of circulation, you know, you go
minimalist with your countertops by putting some appliances away.
Somebody sweeps and mops. The kitchen's looking great and
you're going to maintain it going forward, and we're going
to talk about that in a minute. But you were already doing some
things right? There are some things that
you're keeping up with. Don't stop those You're adding
on, OK? You're not going to quit
straightening up your living room or doing your laundry.
The good habits that you're already.
Doing keep those going and just add a few things in and you may
be thinking I can't add anything into what I'm already doing.
But you're going to do your. Dishes eventually anyway, so why
not stay? Ahead of it.
OK, you're still going to have to wash the dishes before you.
Eat off of them again. So why not?
Stay ahead of things. So yes, the focus.
Is on the kitchen for your first.
Step. In getting control of your
house. But.
Whatever good routines you're already doing elsewhere in the
house, keep doing those. Don't drop the ball.
Elsewhere. We're adding in good habits.
We're not going to quit any of the.
Good habits we're already. Doing, if that makes sense.
Here's how you're going to keep up on the kitchen, though, since
that's the focus. Of this episode.
And again, just be working on your kitchen.
Whether you're still getting caught up on dishes or your
detailing surfaces, stay in the kitchen and keep working.
Maybe you're even cleaning out a junk drawer right now.
Great, just work in your kitchen.
While I talk but. One of the ways you're going to
keep your kitchen clean, other than doing dishes after every
meal or at. Least after every couple.
Of meals, not waiting till the end of the day to do them
because then it's overwhelming, right?
In addition to that. The way.
You're going to keep up on surfaces, is something that I
call microcleaning. When you're in the kitchen
preparing food, whether you cook or not, you're at least heating
things up in the microwave while you have something in the
microwave. For. 3 minutes or 5 minutes.
Or you're. Baking something that something
in the oven for 30 minutes or you're waiting for water to boil
on the stove. Clean something OK These micro
cleaning tasks can make a huge difference because they make it
to. Where you have less to do.
As far as clean up after a meal, by the time you serve the meal,
your kitchen is almost done. It can also make it to where you
have less to do during these deep cleaning sessions.
Like right now, you may be doing deep cleaning tasks in your
kitchen, and obviously you've got to set aside time for that,
whether it's on a Saturday or some other day.
Of the week where you've got. Time.
To deep. Clean your kitchen.
You're going to keep doing that, but how much?
Easier is that deep? Cleaning going to be when?
During these waiting periods, while you're waiting for
something to cook, you're scrubbing a baseboard.
Here. Washing a window there, wiping
down switch. Plates here or there.
Wiping down pantry. Shelves here or there.
You see what I'm saying? It's not just that you're
cleaning as you go when you cook.
But you're also. Doing small deep cleaning.
Tasks while. You're in the kitchen.
That's going to go a long way in helping you maintain it.
And mainly, you just need to change your mindset.
Raise your standard in the kitchen, you know?
Don't go to bed. With a a dirty kitchen, push
yourself even when you don't feel.
Like it to get. Stuff done and then here is a a
really key point. Don't wait for a mess before you
start cleaning. OK, the other day.
I walked into my kitchen and it was clean and it was a good
feeling and I thought to myself, I've been so good about keeping
my kitchen clean and I love waking up and getting my coffee
in a clean kitchen. But then I thought, wait a
second. Put away those clean dishes.
Empty the dishwasher, empty the drying rack.
Wash. This one bowl that somebody left
in the sink late last night. You've got to stay ahead of it
because. Sometimes we look at something
as clean and it is clean and it is fine, but pretty soon these.
Little things build up. And just for me, not emptying
the drying rack and the dishwasher.
Super. Early.
Can kind of mess up the rhythm of keeping my dishes
circulating. You want to.
Keep your laundry circulating as far as.
Loading the washing machine, switching.
The stuff to the dryer. Folding it when it comes out.
In the same way you want to keep your dishes circulating, you
want to be putting clean stuff away before you have something
dirty that you need to place in the dishwasher or or wash and
then place in the drying rack. So I hope.
I've given you some. Tools to.
Keep your kitchen clean, I'm so proud.
Of whatever you got. Done during this episode.
I don't want you to beat yourself up about past mistakes.
Because. This new version of you is going
to keep up on the kitchen and in our next.
Episode. We're going to talk.
About. The bathrooms the next.
Step. To getting your house under
control is deep cleaning your bathrooms if you don't want to.
Wait a week. Until I talk about.
That. Scroll down We've got episodes
about cleaning the bathrooms. We've got episodes on virtually
everything, but we keep making new ones to.
Keep it fresh. And no two.
Episodes are alike, but if you're, you've still got.
Time and energy and you don't have anything else to do in the
kitchen today? By all means, Scroll down to a
bathroom episode or. Whatever you feel like.
Working for that matter. But the next step in getting
your house under control is deep cleaning the bathrooms, because
you always want to get your house sanitary first and
foremost, and that involves kitchens and bathrooms.
I hope you. Got a lot done during this
episode if you want more cleaning motivation like this.
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