Cleaning Up

[fresco]

Based on this usage, I'm seriously considering having the existing two-compartment sink replaced with a model with one huge compartment.

fresco... Go get in your car NOW and go get a big sink. Do not delay. My house had a big sink/little sink with the disposer combo. This apartment has the usual really dumb double sink. I curse that thing every day of my being. The air today is particularly blue because I am making stock and hastling the big pot, containers and everything else is driving me bonkers. I MISS MY BIG SINK! New house will likely have a big single sink for clean up. (Prep sink is in the island.) Interestingly, the one I had in the house was the exact same size as a standard double sink, but what a difference.

I'll right, I'm convinced. We're doing this kitchen upgrade in stages. The DCS range vent got installed yesterday, and is great. But every upgrade involves a lot of wrangling and negotiating (and, let's be honest: begging) with trades about when they'll fit us in (there's a building/renovation boom on here now.)

So I think the sink will wait till after Christmas.

[Nick]

Based on this usage, I'm seriously considering having the existing two-compartment sink replaced with a model with one huge compartment.

Fresco, if Fifi hasn't already convinced you... do it! This summer when I finally got my kitchen done I put in an Elkay that's 28" side to side, 16" front to back, and 7" deep. Those are the inside bowl dimensions. It's great! It holds oven and refrigerator racks, and anything else I can think of that I've got around. I also bought a Moen faucet with the sprayer as part of the faucet. It sticks up high enough to get a tall stockpot under (or a bucket) and the sprayer works great too. You can leave it in place and push down the sprayer button and it stays on until you turn the water off. Great for rinsing!

[fresco]

Nick,

You sure about those dimensions? I just measured our double sink and the inside dimensions seem to be 29 x 16. I was hoping to buy a unit that would just pop into the existing space so we don't have to trash the countertop.

[Nick]

Fresco, I've still got the sink sheet specs and the countertop cut-out dimensions are 30 3/8" x 21 3/8" with 1 1/2" corner radius. The outside dimensions of my sink (PSR-3122) are 31" x 22". I'm not sure if the particular sink I have would fit in your present counter cut-out, but it might. Elkay also makes a model (PSRS-3322) that is 33" x 22" outside with the same bowl dimensions as mine. If your cut-out is larger than what I put in, then the 3322 might cover over the hole. Hope this helps.

[fresco]

The outside dimensions of this sink are 31 x 20.5, so it sounds like it may be possible. Thanks.

[fifi]

The big bowl/little bowl sink in my house was the exact same dimensions as a "standard" double sink. We checked it out because my sister wanted to replace her double sink. She hasn't done it yet but checked at the Home Depot store and they said it would drop right into the cut out she has. It wasn't an expensive sink, stainless Elkay brand if I remember right. One would think you could get a single sink in the same dimensions. Check a plumbing supply place. They might know more than one of the big box retail stores.

We had a discussion a few months ago on The Kitchen Sink that you might find interesting.

(Gosh... the search engine is working!)

[stephenc]

I don't clean until guests have gone.

I have a dishwasher, but I rarely use it. If I'm going to be rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, I might as well just wash them completely.

[bergerka]

I don't cook, but I do clean, and I get obsessive about the kitchen (and very moody if it stays messy or dirty for any length of time) Slkinsey cooks like a god, but also can do unbelievable amounts of damage to a perfectly clean kitchen in about three seconds flat.

I try to clean up the night OF a party, but if I'm too tired (read: trashed), I just organize everything, put the food away (we don't have a dishwasher. Well, we do, but its name is ME) and collapse and do them in the morning.

The unfortunate thing about being the kitchen fanatic, I find, is that the roomies come to EXPECT that you will do the dishes if they just leave them long enough. I have had to threaten to leave them on respective pillows before, and sometimes even that doesn't work.

K

[Fresser]

My chum Puddin' Buns managed a McDonalds for many years, and he preached the virtue of "Clean as you go." This system works well for me, as just yesterday I made a gargantuan pot of spaghetti sauce and managed to clean the entire stove and counter just as I put the sauce up to simmer.

How do you folks handle the fun cleaning chores?

[marie-louise]

We have a small kitchen, so to some extent we have to clean as we go, although I find it annoying when my husband empties the dishwasher when I'm trying to cook.

However, my real philosophy is "can't see it from the bedroom." IMO, there is nothing wrong with leaving a mess until the morning-I can do a load of dishes in the ten minutes that it takes to make my morning coffee. I need something to do then anyway!

[eunny jang]

I have a tiny postage-stamp kitchen, and not enough mixing bowls/pots/pans/utensils, so I HAVE to clean as I go; otherwise, I'd never finish cooking anything. After dinner, I usually have only the dinner plates, utensils, and any serving dishes to chuck in the dishwasher. A quick wipe-down of the counters, and I'm outta there.

[Suzanne F]

I'm somewhere in between. I clean as I go while cooking, but often leave everything in the sink after dinner, to be dealt with in the morning.

The day of the eG Potluck at Bobolink, I did almost all my cooking on that morning. Not enough time to clean up as well. When we got home, I just felt so . . . dirty -- and not from having stepped on a cow pattie. I just can't stand seeing stuff left there, soiled, when it could have been taken care of while something else is happening. Like Marie-Louise, I do the dishwasher empty/reload in the morning while the kettle comes to a boil.

[Holly Moore]

A honors graduate of McDonald's Hamburger University, I also had "clean as you go" pounded into me. Also, "time to lean, time to clean." Vance Christian, a professor at the Cornell Hotel School used to preach, when seeing someone leaning against or sitting on a prep area, "Don't put anything on a table you wouldn't eat," but that's a different subject.

Anyway, though my desk is a disaster area, and the rest of my house isn't much better, I still religiously follow clean as you go when bumbling about the kitchen.

Not only do I then always have a clean implement when needed, but at the end of the day I am not facing a mountain of dirty pots, utensils and counter tops. Translated: There won't be a mountain of dirty pots, utensils and counter tops awaiting me the next time I attempt to cook something.

[hwilson41]

I learned "clean as you go" the hard way, I suppose. But once you get used to it, now I find that if I'm cooking a multi-step dish that uses a lot of pots and pans, it's far easier to do on the spot as things simmer, sweat, or whatever. Have also found that if I'm using a number of larger pots, such as Creuset, cast iron skillet or a big stock pot, it's far easier just to soap, wash, rinse and dry than to take up a huge amount of space in the dishwasher. Save the d/w for small utensils, glasses, etc., that don't need so much space. You can wash three measuring cups and god only knows how many glasses, spoons, etc., in the same space as a 5 Qt Creuset pot requires.

THW

[bloviatrix]

I'm in Suzanne's category -- a combination. Certain things I clean as I use, others end up in the sink until after dinner.

My problem is that Blovie uses the kitchen as well, and has the philosophy of "if I leave it, someone else, i.e. me, will annoyed and clean up." He also can't master the concept of wiping down the range-top as soon as you get something on it. He thinks it makes more sense to let the gunk build up and then spend an hour sweating at the end of the week. (it's only been 9 years. Maybe by our 20th anniversary I'll have him trained )

[Smoky "T"]

I'm a fanatic about cleaning as I go. Hate...hate...hate a cluttered kitchen. And dishes in the sink, forget about it.

It drives my Mom crazy when she comes to visit cause I'm always putting her drinking glass in the dishwasher. Sorry I can't help it.

It's the only room in the house I'm that way about though so I don't drive my husband to crazy with my anal ways. Besides it makes it easier for him to do the dishes after dinner, which god bless him he does most nights.

[andiesenji]

I clean as I go also, not because I don't have room, but that is the way I was taught and old habits are hard to break. I never leave anything in the sink because I have a housekeeper who does not approve. She is a "old world" girl and sincerely believes cleanliness is next to godliness. She knows to stay out of the kitchen when I am doing my thing because it annoys me to put down a spoon and when I reach for it again it has been washed and put away.

One of the reasons I got my Hobart dishwasher was so I could clean pots rapidly when making multiple batches of things. I have a great many pots and pans but have my favorites for certain purposes and often feel that if I use a different pot the recipe won't turn out as it should.

I know that polenta never turns out as well as it does when I make it in my old copper polenta pot. It may be my imagination but I swear it is not as creamy when made in another.

I really like the heavy duty disposable "cloths" for wiping down the counters and stovetop and sinks because I never trust sponges and dishcloths to be totally free of germs, molds, etc. I always was soaking them in a bleach solution and sometimes would get it a bit too strong and end up with a sponge that fell apart or a dishcloth with holes.

I have a spray bottle filled with a 10% solution of bleach that I use to spray on and wipe down the counters, etc.

I keep a large shaker filled with baking soda for sprinkling on those gooey grease spots that appear on the cooktop around the burners like magic. Taking a barely dampened cloth and scrubbing with the dry baking soda is the best way to remove this "gunge" without difficulty or damage to the surface. I also use the barely dampened "cloth" dipped into the dry soda to polish off any burnt on spots on my chrome small appliances.

Try it, it is easy and does a wonderfuly job of polishing. I have been using it for many years.

I buy baking soda in the industrial sized box at Smart & Final.

[Suzanne F]

. . . My problem is that Blovie uses the kitchen as well, and has the philosophy of "if I leave it, someone else, i.e. me, will annoyed and clean up."  He also can't master the concept of wiping down the range-top as soon as you get something on it.  He thinks it makes more sense to let the gunk build up and then spend an hour sweating at the end of the week.  (it's only been 9 years.  Maybe by our 20th anniversary I'll have him trained )

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Ummm . . . no, dear, don't count on it. HWOE still hasn't mastered those tricks in 30 years. That is, he has mastered the "if I leave it, someone else will deal with it" bit, but not the "clean up NOW" bit. Then again, if all he leaves for me to follow up with is the salad spinner, cutting board, and "his" chef knife, I shouldn't really complain.

[Lady T]

That is one thing I've noticed about living alone: nobody's making messes but yours truly, and no complaints if yours truly doesn't clean it up.

That said, however, the house rules are: (1) Everything -- everything! -- is in the dishwasher by the time I hit the sack in the evening. (2) The trash is to be out (and empty wine bottles put out for recycling), the dishwasher is to be empty, and everything is to be put away by the time I leave for work in the morning. This vastly reduces the 'ick!' factor of getting up early in the morning and having to face a sinkful that hasn't improved overnight, and it also allows me to hit the market as needful after work and come home to a kitchen which is clean and ready for the fun of cooking dinner.

(edited for clarity)

Edited October 6, 2004 by Lady T (log)

[jgarner53]

I want to know what kind of chromosonal deficiency creates the blind spot for the stove that my husband seems to have. It's the only explanation I can think of for why he never wipes it down.

Due to my astonishing lack of counter space, the place where I do most of my prep is also where the clean dishes go after they're washed and rinsed, so clean as I go is a challenge. Dishes pile up to the left of the sink, and I do wash up when I get a break (like when the sauce starts simmering, or something goes into the oven.

[maggiethecat]

I admire all you clean-as-you-go types, but I've never got the hang of it. I keep a sink of soapy water handy, and toss the soiled and sticky stuff into it as I proceed to litter every square inch of counterspace with drips of tomato, onion peels and carrot tops.

I then spend a frenzied two minutes before dinner wiping off the counter and cleaning up the utensils in the sink. And yes, I fill up the sink after dinner and make sure the dishes are washed up before bedtime. Getting up in the morning is tough enough for me without the added agony of a dirty kitchen.

I will let things soak overnight if I've had a party. Tackling that mountain is only slightly more painful with a hangover.

[Carrot Top]

I want to know what kind of chromosonal deficiency creates the blind spot for the stove that my husband seems to have. It's the only explanation I can think of for why he never wipes it down. 

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I don't know the exact name for it, (you would have to ask a scientist but they are all at the coffee shop right now) but it is the same chromosonal deficiency that creates the blind spot for...uh...avoiding the edge and the back of the john when they aim for the center.

I could take this a bit further in terms of blind spots....you know, those places that men just can't seem to find without some really good training but...nevermind.

[Cusina]

That is one thing I've noticed about living alone: nobody's making messes but yours truly, and no complaints if yours truly doesn't clean it up. 

That said, however, the house rules are: (1) Everything -- everything! --  is in the dishwasher by the time I hit the sack in the evening. (2)  The trash is to be out (and empty wine bottles put out for recycling), the dishwasher is to be empty, and everything is to be put away by the time I leave for work in the morning.  This vastly reduces the 'ick!' factor of getting up early in the morning and having to face a sinkful that hasn't improved overnight, and it also allows me to hit the market as needful after work and come home to a kitchen which is clean and ready for the fun of cooking dinner.

(edited for clarity)

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Boy, I dream of this. Beautiful lovely dreams wiped to a sparkle. Cupboards of rinse aid induced gleaming glassware greeting me in the mornings. A clean bleachy smell. *sigh*

My reality is so not there yet. I have every good intention of cleaning as I go but by the time I've been interruped for the billionth time during supper prep to help with a homework question, add a band-aid to a scraped knee, answer the door and let in the cable guy or to pick up a child from piano lessons I just can't seem to get things together. I'm schlogging through the last hand wash dishes at about 10:30 p.m. on my way to bed if I'm lucky. If not, they greet me in the morning. I'm so glad though, that our current house does not have an eat in, family style kitchen. It's the old fashioned variety that stands alone. Thank god, because I can enforce my one firm rule: nothing in the kitchen that doesn't belong there. Your plastic dinosaurs, your Barbie accessories, your soldering irons, nail polish and stickers are banished from this place forever. Out out! In our last house we had one of those "heart of the home" kitchens that seems so appealing when you are home shopping but was, in reality, a magnet for every damn little thing. It's no fun having to clear the counter of mittens, golf tees, plant food and permission slips before you can even start dinner. And the DESK in there. Which was supposed to be a lovely place for me to rest while making a grocery list, was piled sky high with everything known to suburban momkind. Ridiculous. No more desks in my kitchen, ever.

Oop, sorry, I didn't mean to plant my rant in your nice little clean thread...

[Lady T]

Oop, sorry,  I didn't mean to plant my rant in your nice little clean thread...

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Not to worry. That's what the thread's for, after all. Just give us a moment to repot your rant in a nice ceramic pot, water it gently, and set it on a sunny windowsill...

Um. Just kidding.

I didn't mean to brag, truly I didn't; I'm enough of a force of entropy in my own home (I'm an editor. Paper breeds catastrophically, not only on my desk, but on my dining room table, the chairs, the TV, the bed, and every other flat surface in the joint.) that it seemed reasonable to assume that my rules were pretty common, if not downright lenient.

[Jujubee]

Well, I have a confession. I use to be a clean as you go person (meaning I would load dirty stuff in the dishwasher and wash the odd pot or knife as I was done with it) when I cooked and cleaned only for myself. Now I have an agreement with my husband: I cook, he cleans. So I don't clean as I go anymore. I just leave it all for him.

In my defense, the reason I started doing this is because he considers himself done for the night when the dishwasher is started and the pots and knives are washed and drying in the rack, NOT when everything is dry and put away. Thus, when I start cooking dinner the dishwasher and drying rack are still full. Actually, we got in a fight over this because I like washing up as I go along to get clutter out of the way. But he wouldn't budge, and I hate getting home late from work and then having to clean (put away stuff) before I even start cooking, so I've just learned to live with it.