It’s Monday.
The Monday after the SuperBowl.
Don’t worry. You haven’t landed on the wrong blog. The blog of someone who gets so excited about the SuperBowl that she writes about it the next day.
You’re in the right place. And I actually do love SuperBowl Sunday. I love that it makes 3/5 of my family excited. I love hanging out in the kitchen with friends while other people watch the game. But I mostly love it because our Sunday night home group meets at someone else’s bigger, more kid-friendly home.
Which means I get to take a nap on Sunday afternoon.
Instead of cleaning.
Except not having the oh-so-convenient motivation of an impending doorbell means my home was showing the effects of the weekend’s loosi-goosiness. So this morning, I’m getting back on track.
I ran a load of dishes that didn’t seem like they could possibly fill the dishwasher last night.
And then I hand-washed the last few things that wouldn’t fit.
Mmm-hmmm. Example #3,642 of my Slob Vision in action. Doing the dishes led to wiping down cabinets and general straightening, and then I got truly crazy and cleaned out the pot full of beef broth that I’d stuck in the fridge last week.
Sadly, I’d left the broth out on the counter for too long after removing the roasts I’d cooked in bulk. The frugal me and the freaked-out-over-the-thought-of-poisoning-the-family me had battled internally over whether it would be okay to keep.
The Logical Procrastinator Me temporarily settled the argument by sticking the pot into the fridge so the fat would harden. That would make keeping it easier (because I could just pick off the fat and have fatfree broth) or throwing it out easier (because I could stick the hardened fat in the trash and pour the broth down the drain).
And most exciting of all, this let me wait a little/lot longer to make a decision.
Big pot in the fridge. That rarely ends well. Or quickly. So yay for tackling that task, and boo for wasting lovely homemade beef broth.
It’s also Laundry Day. So that’s happening.
Then . . . as I sat down to brag about cleaning the kitchen, I glanced up and realized I’d never even thought to do my five minute pickup.
So I did it.
And even though the house is still far from perfect, I know from experience that those five minutes I just spent will save 20 minutes tomorrow when I have to do a “real” cleanup before our Brownie meeting.
It’s simple Slob Math.
How’s your Monday?
--Nony
i like your random reality checks. i finally washed my dirty pots and pans from like 4 or 5 days ago to start over clean… i probably left one tiny pot unwashed on thursday, that started a pile which left my kitchen sink unaccessible for days. happens every week at some point. i know i have some stew in my fridge which was left out on the counter too long, but i couldn’t throw it out… i think it’s been in there for 2 weeks now. really should take the 2 seconds to throw it out.
You too, huh? Me to a tee. I will go on a stretch where I clean up the kitchen every night, patting myself on the back. I’ve turned over a new leaf! Then one night, there will be one lowly little hand washable (don’t want to waste water for that!), and the next thing I know, it’s days later and every visible surface is covered. And I’m doing math in my head…When the heck did we cook this? Argh!
Cleaned and organized my kitchen spice cupboard yesterday. Do we really need 3 boxes (1 opened) of Bell’s Poultry Seasoning? Especially since the last time we did a turkey was the Thanksgiving after we got married in 2007. And we eat at other families homes at turkey times. So, into the garbage it went, along with the box of cornstarch that expired in 2008 (bought only to make the gravy with).
And now I have a load in the washer, in the dryer and in the dishwasher and so while I am waiting to hear the machines beep, i have put away 2 baskets of laundry and am going through the drawers and closet to see what can be donated and what’s hiding in the back!
Hmmm, maybe it’s time to toss the still-3/4-full open carton of egg nog from Christmas that I see every time I open the fridge, and say to myself “hmm, probably should toss that.” But then I don’t. And now it’s February….
But why Ellen, why? Why do our brains do this? I read her piece, then your comment and I relate so much to it. I just want to know why we. Just. Can’t. Throw. It. I’m flustered with me, in case you hadn’t noticed
I know in my case it’s because the trash is two floors down and twice the entire length of the apartment building from my kitchen trash can. But if I put a container of egg nog in it, even if I dump and rinse it out, it will stink to high heaven in a few hours. The Migraine Nose Knows even if no one else does. And so, there are designated fridge cleanout days on my checklist, where it all goes out at once to make the trip worth it. Which happens exactly ten seconds before I ask, “Okay now that we know what we have left in the fridge, what are we making for dinner this week?” We focus on the things that aren’t bad enough to toss yet, use them up first, and then go grocery shopping in the next couple days for the rest of the week. Every time we manage to keep this up for a while, we manage to stop throwing away bad food within a couple weeks. Every time we fall off the wagon, we start tossing expired leftovers that the mister forgot to recommend when listing off lunch options.
I have a matching carton of egg nog! Ok… Throwing it out, now.
Today, I’m doing laundry. Sheets and blankets even, which generallly have a habit of.. getting pushed back, let’s say (No, I’m not proud.. at all! of this fact).
And yesterday, I explained the container thing to my daughters. And they were as equally amazed as I was when I first realized it. So thank you, Nony, so so much, for pointing out these brilliant little facts!
Oh my goodness I swear every time I read one of your posts it’s like I could’ve written it myself. I too have the whole “frugal me vs freaking out over food poisoning me” battle sometimes. And just a couple weeks ago it was over a crock pot full of chicken broth I had made and then kept saying to myself I would strain it and put it in the freezer after I finished one more thing. All day. Until it sat at room temperature all day long and on into the next day. It killed me to throw it out, but I pictured the whole family coming down with salmonella and figured it was worth avoiding that to waste a pot of broth.
It helps (me, at least) to compare the $$ cost of: Missed days of school/work, medication, processed “feel better” foods for a week+, and the potential for an ER visit if anyone gets too dehydrated (easy with kids, and I don’t need to go into further scare tactics because that’s plenty)… versus the bones & veggie scraps that would have otherwise been tossed, and what, some water? If you make stock/broth with scraps anyway (and you should because otherwise boxed stock is cheaper), it’s one of those things that hey, if you get to it, you saved money and if you forgot about it, not much wasted but the time it took to put it together and to throw it out. It suddenly makes the choice very, very easy!
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one out there that gets lazy and let’s the kitchen get out of hand and who leaves rotten things in the fridge so I don’t have to clean the tupperware.
A few years ago someone told me one of their friends saves leftovers in zip top storage bags. That allows them to deal with the dirty dish (or pot) immediately. Whether they actually wind up eating the food or not, the dishes were all dealt with the day the food was cooked. It’s a whole lot easier to toss a bag – empty or full – into the waste basket than it is to take the sometimes forgotten pan or bowl from the refrigerator, scrape it out, and then wash it. It’s kind of wasteful, I suppose, but whatever it takes to keep the fridge from becoming one huge science project.
Not sure whether this would help anyone else, but I loved the idea – and have used it ever since. 🙂
I wonder if the cost to the environment of washing the container from the leftovers is more or less than the cost of a plastic bag? In any case, I think it’s kind of brilliant.
I relate to all your posts. Thank you for sharing. It is always encouraging to know I am not alone in this battle against clutter.
I like the way you think! My house was a disaster from our Super Bowl party, too. But I was exhausted from a really, really busy week so I wasn’t in a hurry to clean it up this morning. I ended up filling the dishwasher and running it but LEAVING the rest of the dishes until it was done. Then I ran a second load. I still have some stuff to hand wash but I haven’t done it yet. I will, though.
As far as the refrigerator, I don’t like to clean it out. Actually I hate it. So I leave stuff in there until I need the room. But sometimes my husband cleans it out. Sometimes he actually washes everything but sometimes he just gets the old stuff out and puts it on the counter. I was doing a bunch of dishes Saturday after doing a bunch of cooking for the Super Bowl and he pulled out some stuff. I said: “I don’t want to deal with those right now. I wanted to wait until I felt like it.” He pulled it out anyway. Then I had more dishes to wash. Yuck.
I feel your pain but you did great today. I should have followed your example.
My husband used to do that too. Till I put the dirty things in a plastic bag and put it right back in the refrigerator till *I* was ready to wash them. He learned to either leave them alone or wash them himself.
“Simple Slob Math”
Math has always been my favorite subject! 🙂
How did you know I spent my Monday getting back on top of everything? Dishes that were…well we all know. A floor that hadn’t seen a broom or mop in far far too long. I tackled the extra box of laundry that was full of the push to the bottom items (perhaps some of those things may have been there this time last year, perhaps). And I dealt with some of those food stuffs that make me argue with myself. I have this fab new way of dealing with the food stuffs that aren’t rotten but not really human suitable. I make dog stew. They love it. I throw it all in a pot, (easier then the bin because sloppy stuff in the bin is ugghhh) veg that’s on the edge, meat that’s questionable, broth that gotten made but not put away, just add water and rice (or in this case split peas that were 2 years out of date and meat we didn’t trust anymore). I wonder how long I’ll be motivated to keep making dog stew?
February 2. That must egg nog tossing day. I FINALLY threw out the gross and clumpy egg nog this morning, and remembered posting about it last year. And after checking your website can you believe it was February 2nd last year too? I think we need to declare a National Egg Nog Disposal Day for February 2nd.
I hereby declare it!!!