Chore Blues

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I've noticed this year that one of the thing that really tempts me to lose my patience is the chores. One of my kids can easily and cheerfully jump in when things are hectic and the house is a disaster.

 

My other one really thrives on knowing what her expectations are. She takes a long time to learn a job thoroughly and she gets not only stressed but frustrated when the expectations aren't clear.

 

I am happy to divide up the work, so that each person has some jobs and clear expectations.

 

But my problem is dishes. Dishes in the morning, afternoon and night. Pots and pans from my daughters creative (and Healthy) cooking, my sons GF oatmeal, lunch dishes, dinner dishes, snack dishes....they never end and we all hate them and we cannot figure out a system.

 

How oh how do you get the dishes done 6 times per day without people getting frustrated?

[FriedClams]

One thing that's helped me is to have one kid empty the dishwasher and drying rack first thing every morning. I make sure it's run before I go to bed, so at least I start with a clean, empty space. I'd have the more stressed out kid handle that job. Then throughout the day, load it up. I'm also a fan of paper plates for breakfast and lunch. Growing up we also had a mandatory clean up for anything we made our baked ourselves, so I might try that for the cook. I'm happy to clean up if my kids cook for me, but I also am working on training them to use the minimum number of pots and pans when creating. Random fun cooking - they have to clean it up (and not use a ridiculous amount of dishwasher space! LOL!).

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I just started having mine wash their breakfast and lunch dishes. Basically, any dish you use before dinner, you're responsible for. I clean up from dinner. 

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I also reduced our dishes. We have 4 small forks, 4 big forks, 4 small spoons, etc. Same with plates and bowls. It makes it a lot easier to keep up. 

[brynndolyn]

My kids clean up all the dishes after every meal. DS6 and DS8 take turns. So for one week one cleans the plates and loads the dishwasher, the other one sweeps the floor after meals and helps clear the table and gets drinks for everyone. DD5 sets the table and wipes the table after meals. I normally clean the big pots and pans just for my own sanity. I also normally cook so I don't feel bad about them doing most of the clean up. :) We tried having each person wash their own plates but that made for a long line and arguing about who was done first and still there were lots of things left to clean up. This system is working pretty well for us.

 

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[JustEm]

We don't have a dishwasher and my kids are too young to wash dishes regularly so it is up to dh and me. We just make it routine to do that meals dishes immediately after the meal. I've also gotten really good at doing dishes while waiting for something to finish cooking. A meals worth of dishes takes 5 minutes to wash by hand. Pots and pans sometimes get left until late at night if they need additional scrubbing or soaking. I can handle 5 minutes of washing 3 times a day much better than 15 minutes of washing once a day.

[wendyroo]

- We eat at scheduled times.  Snacks and meals are served and cleaned up every couple hours and my (still little) children are not allowed to serve themselves without permission.  It would drive me insane if messes were constantly being created by four children eating at random times all day.

 

- Oatmeal pots and bowls are immediately put in the sink to soak before being loaded into the dishwasher later in the day.

 

- Each child has a designated color of cup that lives on the counter all day and gets reused for each snack and meal.

 

- Each child has a designated color of plates/bowls - especially important because two of the kids have different food allergies, so I need to make sure each is getting the food I specifically prepared for him.  After morning snack, the plates are left on the counter with the cups and reused for lunch.  After afternoon snack the plates are reused for dinner.

 

- After breakfast and lunch the 7 year old is in charge of clearing the dishes into the sink and wiping the table.  

 

- After dinner no one wanders off until the table is cleared, the leftovers put away and the kitchen tidied.  This is important for us, because otherwise all my little kids would be off making big messes elsewhere while DH and I cleaned up dinner.

 

- We always run the dishwasher overnight and the 5 year old is in charge of emptying most of it (he can safely put away about 75% of the dishes) each morning before breakfast.  I load the dishwasher over the course of the day (so it gets done "right" :sleep: ); we always generate a bit more than a full load of dishes each day, so I hand wash a few not-too-dirty things after breakfast and lunch.

 

Wendy

[closed]

People will probably find this gross, but . . . still worth it for me :)

 

We only do dishes once a day, in the am. My 8yo does the majority: loads / unloads the dishwasher, and washes all the pots and pans he can. I finish up, and then we just stack the dishes we use during the day in the sink. There are not many until dinner though - we use cups for whatever we eat at breakfast, and lunch is often one big plate of finger-type foods. If we eat leftovers we might use paper plates (shame, shame, I know). Then there are always 7,000 dishes created cooking dinner, and I just . . . turn off the light. Out of sight, out of mind, lol.

[Peaceful Isle]

Paper plates.

 

Also, my oldest does the dishes each night and my second oldest unloads the dishwasher. I take care of the day stuff a lot of the time.

 

Dishes are never ending, and everyone hates them. Sigh

[HS Mom in NC]

I cook.  That means dishes include place settings and pots and pans. We use disposable place settings most of the time so we can keep up with the pots and pans. Dishwashers seem to have been designed for people who eat out a lot.

[LindaOz]

These are our dishes rules:

 

- dishwasher from night before is unpacked before breakfast so that there is space for new dirty dishes. NO BREAKFAST BEFORE THIS IS DONE. Extra dishes from last night's snack/drinks are washed up by me before bed and left to air dry so they also get put away before breakfast.

 

- breakfast dishes go straight to dishwasher and two kids are on kitchen clean-up after breakfast which includes any extra dishes.

 

- three kids wash and dry lunch dishes (one is a little).

 

- one child unpacks dishwasher before dinner so it's available for dinner dishes.

 

- After dinner, two kids are rostered on dinner clean up which involves packing dishwasher, washing and drying extra dishes. There are ALWAYS extra dishes here.

 

- I wash up post-dinner dishes before bed so they can be put away before breakfast next morning.

 

So, we need to do dishes after every. single. meal. to stay on top of things. If someone does baking in between meals then they are responsible for that clean - they can run an extra dishwasher load if they want.

 

 

 

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Edited June 11, 2016 by LindaOz

[lllll]

nm

Edited November 30, 2016 by cathey