I just got done doing the dishes, and I realized that I have a very specific way of doing them, right down to the utensils. Plates, bowls, cups/mugs, pots and pans, large utensils, knives, spoons, forks.
My question for y’all this lovely afternoon is: Do you have chore that has to be done in a specific way? If it’s not done your way, is it wrong?
9 replies on “Lunchtime Poll: Perfect Order”
I have had this same discussion with several people. When unloading I go top to bottom, just because of the order of my cabinets. With filling with dirty dishes, glasses first because they are the easiest to get out of the sink. LOL
Nah, I’m just happy about shit getting cleaned and put away. :-)
Fellow dish monster here! I don’t care about how they get washed or how the diswasher gets loaded or anything, but I am positively neurotic about putting them away. Big bowls first, then plates, small bowl, small plates, utensils, saucers, mugs, glasses, and then whatever is left.
And woe be it to the person who moves the measuring cups.
If anything that involves cleaning or washing isn’t done to my standards of cleanliness, it’s wrong. I cringe every damn time when I see my Mom mopping several rooms using the same bucket of water. THE WATER NEEDS TO BE CHANGED FOR EACH ROOM. Or else you’re just using that mop to smear dirty water around on the floors.
Thankfully (?) it is mostly me in charge of cleaning around here. I don’t know how they’d manage without me.
Making the bed. I have a system, and when someone tries to help, it makes me twitchy.
I always wash wine glasses first, followed by anything else glass. That way the towel is still completely dry and doesn’t leave streaks behind. Then I go from least dirty to most dirty in the hopes that I won’t have to replace the dishwater before I finish. This is how my mom taught me, and she definitely considers it wrong to do it any other way. I like to think I’m a bit more flexible, but I do cringe when someone leaves the wine glasses for the end.
There are also three towels in the kitchen. One for hands, one for dishes, one for counters. It’s definitely wrong if you use the wrong towel, and this is the source of most of my fights with my boyfriend. As far as he’s concerned a towel is just a towel. I was immensely satisfied when my brother came to stay with us last weekend and made a point of asking which towel was which before he dried his hands.
I try to do dishes by the order they go in the dishwasher. Silverware first, then plates and the bowls that go in the lower rack, then cups and the bowls that go in the upper rack. For things that don’t go in the dishwasher, I try to do the small stuff and then the big stuff so that I can fill the dishrack most efficiently. My main problem right now is that MiL and I have completely different viewpoints as to how the dishwasher should be loaded. I prefer to evenly space the silverware so that no one basket is overfilled; she sorts by type. I hate that because shit nests together and don’t get clean, and it doesn’t even save that much time unloading since she still mixes tea/tablespoons, salad/dinner forks, and butter/steak knives. And she tends to load other stuff so it clanks together and the noise drives me fucking batty.
Also, laundry. I dump everything on the bed and fold it into piles, then put it away, and match up socks at the very end. Husband sometimes tries to “help” but he folds graphic tees where the design is on the inside of the fold so you have to unfold every damn one to see what’s what. Wrong! Thanks, but no thanks.
One of my boys is super picky about how he folds his shirts. I tried to help him the other day and he kept giving me Looks until I figured out his process. Apparently, they have to be folded just so, so they fit in the drawer without cramming.