Thursday, July 26, 2012

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

Dirty more dishes.

I used to think that the ideal number of dirty dishes was "as few as possible", but I have recently made the discovery that the ideal number is actually "enough to fill the dishwasher once a day". It seems counterintuitive, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. I used to only ever use the dishwasher if I was behind on dishes (which, admittedly, I usually was), because it seemed wasteful to run a partial load, and if the dishes sat in there for more than a day, I would go crazy looking for things I use every day (like my kefir strainer and my DMIUFCEM) and have to dig them out of the dishwasher and hand wash them after all. Dishes that sat for longer also needed more of a pre-scrub (or more of a post-scrub, if I didn't pre-scrub them) than dishes that were washed the same day.

So, my amazing discovery has been that: More dirty dishes = Running dishwasher more often = Actually washing fewer dishes. Hooray!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

When you're taking baby wipes out of a standard wipes container to refill a travel wipes container, flip the container upside-down and take your wipes from the bottom. This way, you don't have to rethread the top wipe every time you take some out.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

If you have enough dinner leftovers to make another whole meal, pack them up and freeze them. Then, flip ahead a few weeks in your day planner (or online calendar or menu planner), and write "leftover __________ for dinner (in freezer)". This kills two birds with one stone: you don't have to worry about the leftovers being forgotten, and you'll have one day a few weeks from now where you won't have to plan anything for dinner!

(If you're extra geeky, like me, you can make it an event on your Google Calendar, then set a 24-hour reminder so you'll remember to take it out of the freezer.)

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

When you're doing a big cleaning job, remove the lid from the trash can. It might only save a few seconds every trash trip, but over the course of a few hours of heavy cleaning, it really adds up.

(If you have a cheapo trash can that you have to open with your hand, like ours, it saves you even more time, because you can carry two-handed loads over to the trash without worrying about how you'll get it open once you get there.)

Friday, July 13, 2012

Words to Live By

I can't go grocery shopping, because I have no fridge space to put things away.
I can't clean out the fridge, because I have no counter space to move things to.
I can't clean the counters, because they're covered in dirty dishes.
I can't wash the dirty dishes, because the dishwasher is full of clean dishes.
And it's my husband's turn to empty the dishwasher.

No matter what the problem might be, you can always find a way to blame someone else.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

Whenever possible, use the same dish for preparing and serving food. Unless your fancy aunt is coming over for dinner, I don't think anyone is going to care if you serve your rice in the pot it was cooked in, or if you just move the crock from the crockpot to the table when it's time to serve the food.

On a related note: Whenever possible, use the same dish for preparing and eating food. For example, I make my morning coffee with a one-cup coffee maker that brews the coffee directly into my mug. No pot to wash! And I make my smoothies in wide-mouth mason quart jars, which serve triple duty. The measurements on the side save me using a measuring cup, the wide mouth lets me use my immersion blender rather than dirtying my big, cumbersome countertop blender, and when it's all done, I can just drink straight out of the jar like a giant cup!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

Let your kids sleep in their clothes. That way, when you're too lazy to get everyone dressed in the morning, no one ever has to know.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

Get a chest freezer, and stick it right in the kitchen where your clutter-covered-kitchen-table-that-you-never-eat-at-because-you-can't-get-at-it is. I could probably split this tip up into several posts, but here are the reasons I love my in-kitchen chest freezer:

  1. Frozen food keeps colder longer in a chest freezer, so it's not as big of a deal if I don't rotate through the freezer stuff as often as I should.
  2. I have plenty of space to freeze leftovers rather than putting them in the fridge, where they often spoil before I remember to consume them.
  3. The top of the freezer is a huge, flat surface that can be used as a countertop. However, it has two advantages over a regular countertop:
    1. You have to open the freezer sometimes, so it regularly gets cleared off completely.
    2. It is open at the side, so you can set the trash can right beside it and shove trash or vegetable peels right off the edge into the trash can.
  4. When you have easy access to the chest freezer, rather than it being stowed away in the basement, you're more likely to use it.
  5. Several square feet of additional ferrous surface for the kids to put magnets and artwork on.
  6. When you order pizza for dinner, you don't have to worry about making room in the fridge for the leftovers - just stick the whole box right in the freezer. (Added bonus: When you pack frozen pizza for lunch, it stays cold until you eat it.)