I have just concluded a project I call “Internet Honesty.” This is part 2: Dishes.
Part 1 of this project was about what me and my kids look like when we leave the house. Part 2 is about the dishes.
I love the idea of a perfectly clean kitchen! The after photos of kitchen remodels look like a dream!
In my life that’s what a clean kitchen is. A dream.
The floor will be clean, or the counters will be clean, or the sink maybe. But not all at the same time. By the time I finish one and move to the next, the first one is dirty again.
For the sake of ‘internet honesty’, I took a picture of my sink every night before bed for 6 days. (I couldn’t bring myself to photograph my whole kitchen. I’m not that brave.) I literally took the picture, turned off the lights, and went to bed.
It was actually really hard to do.
The first night I found myself trying to decide if I should do the dishes and have it look nice, or if I should just let it be messy. This is how the internet lies. It’s so easy to change how things really are when I know that I’m going to post it later.
I finally told myself to just clean whatever I felt I needed to in the whole house until it felt good enough to go to bed. And I kept that mantra through the entire ‘project’.
So, without further ado, the sink (cringe):
For the record, I like to wash dishes in the morning. Well, I don’t really ever like to wash dishes. It’s just a necessary evil. But since I must, I usually wash them in the morning while I’m making breakfast. It works for me. Washing at night eats into our family time (and washing dishes all together after dinner hasn’t turned out to be an ‘uplifting’ family activity). But honestly, after making dinner I just don’t want to be in the kitchen anymore. 🙂
The internet gave me the idea that I should have a clean sink to be able to sleep at night. That’s not true. I sleep just fine with a dirty sink.
Which is probably a good thing. I don’t think my sink will look much better when my kids are old enough to wash dishes by themselves. 😉
It might be odd but knowing that I’m not the only one with a messy sink motivates me to be a better home maker. I guess I need to feel that I am good enough before I have the energy to be better. I enjoyed this project, thanks for posting!
I could have written this post! Ha! Mine looks the same. My kitchen always looks awesome from about 9-11:30 am. Then it’s a mess.
I’m so glad I’m no the only one! 🙂
If you ask you mother about when I was first married and she wanted to come to my house and wash my dishes. I LET HER! Ask her how bad it would get; then you will feel good about yours.
Finally a sink that looks just like mine!
🙂 Thanks for reading!
It doesn’t get better or easier when the kids are older either. When I am home, speed cleaning for 15 minutes before bed does a LOT of good. Unfortunately, the nights I work, my kids don’t carry on the 15 minute rule. Oh well.
Thanks for being perfectly imperfect. 🙂
When we had our first three little ones I always left the dishes until morning for two reasons. 1. I was ALWAYS too tired to stay up because I had Valley Fever. 2. I knew that I would do the dishes in the morning because I liked a clean kitchen. Choose your battles! That’s what dishes are at times. Now, don’t you feel better knowing that EVERY woman has challenges with her dishes?
Thanks Grandma! It does make me feel better that even the people I look up to most struggled sometimes. 🙂