Dishwashing Routine

Like in other areas of my life right now, I’m tossing out schedules and replacing them with routines, so it seems timely to finally update my post about our dishwashing schedule. After we bought our dishwashers and for about a year after, our system of getting the dishes washed was a basic rotation of the job.  One washes, the other unloads the dishwasher, and the third had the day off.  This switched every day. Every time I got off of the posted schedule for whatever reason, I would hear MAJOR complaints. 

“I did it last time.”

“It’s her turn.”

“Why doesn’t he ever have to wash?”

“Blah, blah blah!”

The kids were obviously becoming too legalistic about the schedule and it wasn’t accomplishing what I had hoped it would so…I tore it up in a fit of rage!

Lazy Girl Tip #1: Don’t keep doing things that don’t work just for the sake of doing them.

Lazy Girl Tip #2: Don't have fits of rage.

For the last few months I have been just choosing who would do the task.  In my head I try to keep it fair and rotate through equally, but honestly, I don’t like this system.  It leaves it to me to micromanage them, always telling them when to do the chore, and they still complain if they think I'm not keeping it fair.  It doesn’t build any ownership, a sense of responsibility, or teamwork.  It's just the chore that everyone hopes they don’t get stuck with.

I’ve been looking for a good chore system for our family for some time now.  I haven’t found one that I’m ready to settle down with. Until I find one, I've started a new routine that I hope will help maintain peace and an orderly kitchen.  It’s so simple, it’s stupid.

Lazy Girl Tip: Keep it simply, stupid.

I have someone, sometimes me, unload the dishwasher in the morning and start it before bed. Usually this means that we don’t have dishes to do in the morning, or if we do, very few.   I also call one dishwashing session during the day where we wash pans, plastic, and other things that we don’t put into the dishwasher. That's it.  Like I said: simple.

As a side note, the girls pointed out to me the other day that I will say, “do the dishes,” or ,“start the dishwasher,” and I mean different things.  When I say, “start the dishwasher,” I only mean load and start the dishwasher.  When I said, “do the dishes,” I mean all the dishes, pots, and pans, use the dishwasher, and wash by hand. HA! Who knew? There had been confusion about that for a while.  I don't really think it was all that confusing; I think they were just looking for excuse to avoid washing the pots and pans, but WHATEVER!

Lazy Girl Tip: Say what you mean.

So until I have found a chore system that I like and that works, this routine will have to do for now. 

1.       Load the dishwasher at night.

2.       Unload it in the morning.

3.       Call one hand washing session per day.

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