Works-For-Me Wednesday: Doing Dishes

Anyone who has read my blog for even a short amount of time should realize I absolutely hate housework. Even simples tasks like making the bed. Seriously, isn't my time better spent blogging playing with my kids? But, alas, I can't put off housework forever, it has to be done whether I like it or not. So I try to come up with shortcuts, or tricks to make myself think it's easier.

One of these tips is with dishes. Have you ever timed yourself loading or unloading the dishwasher? It really only takes a few minutes I've found. Loading takes maybe 5-10 minutes (depending on how caked-on I've allowed food to get on everything) and unloading takes less than 5 minutes. So in total unloading and loading together should only take 10-15 minutes (well, unless you are my hubby, who has to scrub clean each dish first. What's the point of even putting them in the dishwasher if you already clean them?!). Anyway, so what I do when I need to load/unload is wait until I'm already cooking something in the kitchen. Then during the time I'm waiting for the water to boil, microwave to finish, or pudding to chill in the fridge, I use that few minutes to do some dishes.

Just this morning as I was microwaving my instant oatmeal I unloaded the dishwasher. It took about 3 minutes, which was perfect as the oatmeal cooked 1.5 minutes then I got to let it sit and cool down another 1.5 minutes. This is great because then you aren't just wasting those few minutes waiting, and you don't have to disturb your blogging other important activities later to do dishes. This works for me!

Check out Rocks In My Dryer for more great WFMW tips!