Outwitting Housework Brilliant Tips, Tricks, and Advice on Housekeeping... and Life

Excerpts from Outwitting Housework--Brilliant Tips, Tricks and Advice for Housekeeping... and Life (Lyons Press, June 2004).

Make it a habit to train your eye to look at a room objectively. Take a step back and survey the area. What is not needed? What is adding visual clutter? Viewing a room objectively takes practice. We quickly become accustomed to our surroundings and lose perspective.

There is a fine line between tasteful accessories and visual clutter. The fallout from years of random accumulation adds up. A stash of papers here, an unused planter there, a figurine inherited from an aunt, an unused picture frame… these seemingly harmless items multiply and then coalesce into a smothering avalanche of stuff.

Once you develop and then hone the ability to look at a room objectively, you may be mortified by what you finally see. Random, meaningless stuff is everywhere! You didn't collect these things overnight, and you won't solve the problem of too much clutter overnight, either.

How, then, to remedy this situation?

In many cases the areas of clutter and chaos are concentrated. These "hot spots" are default zones, places we put things when we don't know where else to put them. You want to start by gaining control of your hot spots.

Shelves and bookcases--or any flat surface, for that matter--are prime accumulation areas.

Look at your desk, for example. Are there items on the desktop that serve no good purpose, that don't even have sentimental value? If so, clear them off. Get rid of them. Keep only the items that are genuinely useful or that bring a smile to your face. Keep pictures of friends and family; get rid of anything useless or extraneous. If it doesn't make you smile or serve a definite purpose, toss it.

* * *

All of us have habits. Happily, once you break an old habit and replace it with something new, the new habit becomes just as automatic as the old one was.

Maybe your old after-dinner habit, for example, is to place dirty dishes all over the counter, filling every available space. The dirty plates, cutlery and glasses co-mingle with empty containers, used cooking utensils, and crusty pots and pans. Oh, the chaos!

How to break this habit?

As you cook, rinse and stack items to be washed to the left of the sink, like with like. Keep a bowl of hot, sudsy water in the sink as you cook. Toss dirty utensils in the soapy water as you use them. Once a pot or pan has been used, fill it immediately with hot, soapy water. Never let food harden on a used pan.

I keep a clean, dry dish towel spread out to the right of the sink as I cook. Once I use a utensil, I slip it into hot water to soak or I rinse it off and put it on the clean towel. Either way, the utensil is ready to be either used again or cleaned, but it is not sitting on a countertop forming an impermeable crust of hardened food.

Another key to developing good kitchen habits is to hone your preventive-maintenance skills. Never underestimate the value of heavy-duty foil (to line the oven and cover foods as they cook). Use plastic wrap or paper towels to cover foods as they heat in the microwave. Use disposable foil liners beneath burners. If something spills and then burns, all you have to do is throw away the liner.

The trick is to learn to cook with cleaning in mind. Using nonstick sprays, covering things before baking, using splatter guards, reusing pans as you cook, and so on are all ways of making life easier for yourself once the meal is through. (While you're busy covering casseroles or other items that might splatter before you put them in the oven, go an extra step and spray the inside of the foil with nonstick cooking spray, so it won't stick to the food it's covering.)

* * *

• Keep a large safety pin by the kitchen sink and use it to pin your rings to your clothes when you wash dishes.
• Utilize the backs of doors for storage. Use the back of a cabinet for storing spices, and the back of the cabinet door beneath the sink is a great place for installing a small towel bar, so damp kitchen towels are hung to dry out of sight.
• Use a vertical organizer in a cabinet near the oven to store cookie sheets and other baking supplies that tend to slide around haphazardly when stored flat.
• Lay a thick, grooved, rubber mat in the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink. One day the sink will leak, and you will break your arm patting yourself on the back when the thick rubber mat contains the mess.
• Keep a supply of paper plates on hand for days when you'd really rather not have to wash a bunch of dishes.
• Stock up on refrigerator-to-oven bakeware. You can bake, serve, and then store food all in one container.
• Keep an Oriental rug, sans fringe, beneath the kitchen table, to help mask evidence of drips, spills and crumbs.
• Instead of spending $2, $3, or more on a clip to close chip bags, purchase a whole bag of wooden clothes pins instead. The handy clips are inexpensive, durable, abundant, and can be used to seal just about any bag in the kitchen, including partially used bags of frozen foods and plastic cereal box liners.

• To clean a coffee grinder, put dry white rice in the chamber and grind away.
• To clean a blender, rinse it, fill halfway with hot water and a squeeze of dishwashing liquid, then turn it on for 10-15 seconds.

I used to hate washing dishes. It wasn't that I just didn't much like it; I really detested the task. I hated getting my hands wet and dirty. I hated the slimy feel of diluted leftovers. Above all, I hated the fact that the running water kept me from hearing and participating in family discussions. The whole process felt icky and isolating. And then I read something that changed my mind.

Washing dishes can be relaxing, a small retreat after preparing and then consuming a meal. The process of washing dishes incorporates several elements: warm water, repetitive motion, and the soothing sounds of running water. Once I popped on a good pair of rubber gloves, which insulated my hands from the slimy feel I hate, I learned to view the process as a chance to immerse myself in a warm, sudsy world of peace and calm and soothing repetitive motion.

This change in perspective worked wonders for how I approach cleaning up a messy kitchen. Now it's my favorite room of the house to clean. I choose to look at it as a mini escape, a chance to be alone for a few moments with my thoughts. It is truly amazing how such a minor attitude tweak can revolutionize a job you despise.