Dishes
Nov. 22nd, 2025 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailelieI hate dishes. Here is my current system for doing them nightly:
1. I check off each day of the week on a whiteboard by my fridge.
2. When I complete a week,I get to add +1 session to my BeeMinder (basically giving myself a skip day for daily writing).
3. When I complete a week, I also color in a square on a four-part square below my tracker. When I completely black out the square, I get to add +1 session to my BeeMinder (for a total of +5 over the course of completing the square).
4. When doing dishes, I wear gloves, use spray soap, and have a comfy pad to stand on. Comfort is key! Plus, no soft nails, touching food, or wet hands.
5. I only have to do the dishes for 15 minutes max per night. I have a push light over my sink that turns off after 15 minutes if I don't turn it off manually. This illuminates the sink and keeps track of time in a way that requires zero effort from me.
6. If I fall asleep by accident, it counts as long as I do at least 1 dish or if I do them when I wake up.
7. If I miss a day, I restart the week from the next day onward. No waiting for the week to start again. (Right now, my week starts on a Friday).
8. I don't have to dry and put the dishes away the same night I wash them.
Do you see all the layers here? Minimizing suckage, adding a reward, removing rules. For the reward, I have one for the week, but also one for multiple weeks that encourages sustaining my efforts. The reward doesn't cost me money or time. And since I can just do the same reward each time, it doesn't require effort to think up. The 15 minute rule helps when I'm feeling overwhelmed by my dishes. On bad days, even just a few feels too many. If it is only 15 minutes max, though, I can manage that (at least I've been able to so far). If I do dishes and then cook more, I don't have to do them again. And tracking the days on my fridge means I've a passive reminder to do them. Plus, it offloads having to remember having done them. The less I have to think about my dishes, the better.
Will this system stick? I don't know. It is really a collection of other things I've tried previously united into a single system. I hope it lasts.
It is weird -- hating dishes feels like part of me. Having dirty dishes is strangely affirming, even as they stress me out and hurt me financially and health-wise (since I end up ordering in instead of cooking). So finding a way to get them done regularly feels almost like turning my back on myself. Except... I don't actually want the sink full of dirty dishes. I actually do want to be better about them. Improvement shouldn't feel like loss, except it does a bit.
I'm also getting way ahead of myself. This has only been in place for two weeks and a day. Who knows? Maybe this time next month I'll be moaning about another monster pile of dishes to slay.
1. I check off each day of the week on a whiteboard by my fridge.
2. When I complete a week,I get to add +1 session to my BeeMinder (basically giving myself a skip day for daily writing).
3. When I complete a week, I also color in a square on a four-part square below my tracker. When I completely black out the square, I get to add +1 session to my BeeMinder (for a total of +5 over the course of completing the square).
4. When doing dishes, I wear gloves, use spray soap, and have a comfy pad to stand on. Comfort is key! Plus, no soft nails, touching food, or wet hands.
5. I only have to do the dishes for 15 minutes max per night. I have a push light over my sink that turns off after 15 minutes if I don't turn it off manually. This illuminates the sink and keeps track of time in a way that requires zero effort from me.
6. If I fall asleep by accident, it counts as long as I do at least 1 dish or if I do them when I wake up.
7. If I miss a day, I restart the week from the next day onward. No waiting for the week to start again. (Right now, my week starts on a Friday).
8. I don't have to dry and put the dishes away the same night I wash them.
Do you see all the layers here? Minimizing suckage, adding a reward, removing rules. For the reward, I have one for the week, but also one for multiple weeks that encourages sustaining my efforts. The reward doesn't cost me money or time. And since I can just do the same reward each time, it doesn't require effort to think up. The 15 minute rule helps when I'm feeling overwhelmed by my dishes. On bad days, even just a few feels too many. If it is only 15 minutes max, though, I can manage that (at least I've been able to so far). If I do dishes and then cook more, I don't have to do them again. And tracking the days on my fridge means I've a passive reminder to do them. Plus, it offloads having to remember having done them. The less I have to think about my dishes, the better.
Will this system stick? I don't know. It is really a collection of other things I've tried previously united into a single system. I hope it lasts.
It is weird -- hating dishes feels like part of me. Having dirty dishes is strangely affirming, even as they stress me out and hurt me financially and health-wise (since I end up ordering in instead of cooking). So finding a way to get them done regularly feels almost like turning my back on myself. Except... I don't actually want the sink full of dirty dishes. I actually do want to be better about them. Improvement shouldn't feel like loss, except it does a bit.
I'm also getting way ahead of myself. This has only been in place for two weeks and a day. Who knows? Maybe this time next month I'll be moaning about another monster pile of dishes to slay.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
