We’ve been doing our Family Kitchen Clean-Up Time for three whole weeks now.
We get off track on the weekends, but during the week we’re pretty much rockin’ it.
And . . . it’s fun.
I know. So strange. But really, one of my biggest excuses/reasons for not cleaning up the kitchen in the evening is that I hate missing family time.
This way, Kitchen Clean Up IS family time. For real.
It’s provided lots of conversations, quite a bit of laughter, real-life counter-wiping training, and barely any tears.
With five people, it gets a little crowded, so we’ve expanded into lunch-making.
Which . . . is my six-year-old’s dream come true.
Seriously. Turns out, I could have put peanut butter, jelly, and a loaf of bread in her stocking and she would have been happy.
So last week, on my birthday, I was cooking supper. (Don’t feel bad, we partied hard the day before.)
I made something that took a lot of prep and then went into the oven for 30 minutes. So . . . I was kinda, sorta done 30 minutes before we were going to eat.
The kitchen looked like this:
I was tempted.
SOOOOO soooo tempted . . .
. . . to leave it that way. Knowing that we had a scheduled Clean Up Time, it just seemed so logical.
I know. It’s not actually logical. It’s Slob Logical. And that’s how I roll . . .
But then I looked at the timer for the casserole in the oven:
And I started doing just a few things. Throwing away trash. Putting things back into the fridge.
When the timer said this:
The kitchen looked like this:
Slightly better. And a little less overwhelming for the family.
And . . . if you happen to see my phone on the counter, you’ll notice that I spent part/most of this time on Facebook.
Then . . . I decided to add one final touch, just for Hubby’s sake:
Which took all of 30 seconds. Including picture-taking.
Hmmmph.
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Nony, I love the idea of turning kitchen clean-up time into family time! I do my best to clean up as I cook, and my husband and son are good about doing the dishes after I’ve made dinner, but there’s still more to it than that, isn’t there? I’m going to have to sit them down and have the conversation with them about how blogging-time adds up to pretty much having a job, and how we need to all start pitching in. Thanks!
Btw, I got quite the chuckle out of the step involving closing the cupboard doors. BOY is that a hot-button topic in my house. LOL
How awful is this? I didn’t even notice that the cabinet doors were open until you told me….
Haha!
Hahaha…same here. How sad is that?!
Me too!!
I was cracking up when I noticed the cabinet doors open in your pictures. 🙂 You have made me so aware of my slob vision, and how I am passing that on to my girls. Thank you so much for being real; it gives me hope and shows me that I am not alone in my habits. Your blog is a blessing, and it is helping me to change the atmosphere of my home. We no longer are living in clutter chaos.
My 5 1/2 year old daughter loves to make PB & J , makes her feel grown up I think 😉
Two weeks ago Saturday I finally cleaned, cleaned my kitchen, you know where I could see my reflection in the granite. And miraculously I have kept it up since, something finally clicked in my brain making me want to keep at it.This weekend it slid at bit and I should have ran the dish washer last night but after being outside most of the day just didn’t do it. This morning though I loaded it up the dish washer and have about 1/2 a load left I can do around lunch time. At least during the weekend I was good about putting things away and tossing the trash. It is such a process transforming us slobs 🙂
I love you Miss Nony, you make my life worth living.
We have the same case for our phones 😉 Just ordered 28 Days to Hope for Your Home from the ebook bundle. They are not being sent right away due to some issue with Paypal, so I am patiently waiting 😉
Do you mean the 5 e-book bundle from bundleoftheweek? (Need to know if it’s something I need to stress over!)
It is the 5 e-book bundle (which I love). When I paid with PayPal, there was a note saying that Paypal was experiencing technical difficulties, so the bundle wouldn’t be emailed automatically and they would be emailing them manually. But I wouldn’t stress about it 😉
I love this update…. our kitchen is a nightmare most of the time as its teeny tiny…added to this – our dishwasher broke just before Christmas and as today is mine and my 2 year old sons birthday, its been such an expensive time that we can’t be affording to replace it. Needless to say kitchen duties are longer and harder and I feel like a 1940’s wife……Tied to the kitchen sink!!!!
oh my I have slob vision I looked at the two pictures and was wondering what it was that you changed for him! then I noticed you closed “a” cupboard door the one that the camera had a direct view into only looking at it again did I notice it was several cupboard doors. drives my mom crazy when she comes over she says when I have my own house someday I should have shelves not cupboards. and if I could have the luxuary of everything being asteticly pleaseing that just sounds so lovely to me I have seen minamilist tiny houses and such like that where everything is out kind of decrotively not the same as everything out because it is out