Shiny Sink

For the first time in ages I didn't sit down this New Year's and write out a list of goals for the year. Usually I'm so formal about it. This year, I decided that what the heck, I'm just going to work on whatever crosses my mind without making a big deal about it. Then I realized tonight I kind of set a resolution in spite of myself. I guess it's just a habit I'd like to form and I've managed to stick to it for the last several days. It's shining my sink.

What on earth is that all about? Well, it's a Flylady thing. My mom introduced me to Flylady way back in the very early years of my marriage. I think I had just had M and I was facing, for the first time in my life, the daunting task of trying to be a homemaker. See, before I had M I was working full-time as a consultant. My job required some long days with a long commute and occasionally some travel. So whether our apartment got cleaned or dinner got made was a total toss up between Terence and I, whichever one happened to be around and thought about it. Then less than a year into our marriage Terence starting taking college classes full time at night, and so there was not even an attempt at making a joint dinner anymore.

Everything changed when I had M. I quit going into the office then, and since I was only working part time from home, I had these crazy expectations of myself as far as having an immaculate house and balanced, tasty meals on the table. Only it didn't quite work like that. I'd always assumed that having a cluttered, messy house came with the territory of working full-time, and that when I was at home I would have oodles of time and energy to clean.

Hah!

Well, enter Flylady. She teaches you a program to get organized (mostly) and clean (relatively) for those of us who are not "born organized." The first thing she asks you to do is keep your sink shining and spotlessly clean. Even if you have cluttered, overloaded counters, your sink should spend all day looking pretty-- hopefully to motivate you tackle more things in your house and make them look pretty! Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that in our house. Terence and I have come to odds over this before during the last ten years. Most of our marriage we have not had a dishwasher so when there were dirty dishes, I preferred to have them stacked neatly on the counters so my sink would still be nice and inviting whenever I got around to doing the dishes. (This was especially important when I was frequently having to wash bottles.) Terence on the other hand believes dirty dishes belong in the sink because having them on the counters is depressing and dirty.

Strike one against working with Flylady!

Her solution for people without dishwashers is to hide a dishpan of soapy water under your sink and put the dishes in there. But since I have nearly always had a small curious toddler who is not fooled by childproof cabinet locks, I always thought that would be a bad idea. So multiple times I just gave up on the shiny sink thing in despair, figuring I could get to it again once I had a dishwasher.

Well, I have a dishwasher again, but I still have the same problem only compounded! I can't leave dirty dishes in the dishwasher, you see-- my children always get cups and silverware for themselves straight out of the dishwasher, whether they have been washed or not. I haven't been able to retrain them. So I try to make it a habit to always start the dishwasher right after it's been loaded. But once again, that means I usually let the dishes stack up a bit so they go in a full load at a time.

Dirty dishes on the counter? Or in my shiny sink?

Well, this year I've decided to compromise. As long as my sink is shiny and pretty when I go to bed, at least that's something. I only wish Terence would leave it that way so I could wake up to it! But he always eats something when he gets home from work, and he always piles the dishes in the sink. Alas, retraining husbands is even harder than retraining children.