So it's your turn to empty the dishwasher, and amongst the sparkly clean knives, forks and plates you come across this plastic doohicky thing you've never seen before.
Normally you'd search the kitchen drawers & cupboards for a similar doohicky so you can put this one with it. However, a writer's time is precious, so here's your time-saving tip for today: Set the plastic jobbie aside for the minute, and when you've finished emptying the dishwasher just chuck the doohicky thing back in again. Hey, not only did you empty the dishwasher, you've now made a start on refilling it!
Repeat this tip until it's someone else's turn to put the stuff away.
And you never heard this tip from me.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
9 comments:
My sister is a very helpful soul who always does the washing up when she visits me. When it comes to putting things away though, she has her own distinct style. Sometimes I have to wait until she visits me again before I can find a particular dohickey!
Ah-hah! I knew it! You guys really do that kind of thing on purpose!
Three of the four boys in our house do the dishes. Their favorite time saving step is to load the dirty dishes in with the clean ones and rerun the whole load. This works until a) I catch them in the act or b) the machine is too full to put anything in or c) one of them needs a clean dish and can't find one.
That's nothing. My wife has gone to put the washing on only to discover a pile of neatly folded clothes dumped right into the washing basket.
Our kids thought it was easier to put them in the washing basket than to actually, you know, put them away and stuff.
Now they get to do the washing from time to time (and I do all my own, I hasten to add.)
About to vacuum the house - and not in a space kind of way.
The boys are sneakier than your lovely daughters. They take the trouble to unfold them first. The punishment for this offense is a stiff one--they get to do the entire family's laundry for a week.
Our first dishwasher cost us less than $50 2nd hand, and we had to push it around the kitchen to get to the cupboards. I joined 3 lengths of washing machine hose just to get it to the tap.
Big saving in labour, though. We were both working full time, so it made sense. Now, with two kids, it goes on every day.
Off-topic on MY blog would be a stretch. Toast, shampoo, dishwashers ...
Our fridge tends to collect jars of that scungy leftover oil/brine with vegetable floaties in it, from when you finish the sundried tomatoes or whatever, and then just... put the jar back. Someone else can figure out what to do with it.
As if it could be figured out.
Ahh yes, "Salad Dressing". Well, not really but you can chuck it all on the next green salad and toss the jar in the recycling.
Our kids are also good at not bothering to replace toilet rolls (they don't change themselves!?), leaving pets to wither from lack of food and/or water (we remind them daily), putting plates encrusted with scraps into the dishwasher (assuming they don't just leave them on top for the house cleaning robots to deal with), and tonight's episode involved the eldest soaking her toothbrush in hospital grade disinfectant to 'clean it'. 10/10 for effort, minus several zillion for not reading the label first.
An excellent tip. I also find that it is good to forget the purpose of other items in the dishwasher, such as spoons and pans, and apply this same time saving devise to those.
Wife: Why didn't you finish emptying the dishwasher.
Me: I didn't know what those things were, so I left them in there.
Wife: You didn't recognize the spaghetti strainer?
Me: Um, no. Plus, I think there was a little bit of spinach or something on it.
Wife: Ok, better run it through again.
Me: Agreed.
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