Skip to main content

Optimize Cleaning

Washing Dishes​

Washing dishes sucks. Here is how to minimize time spent washing dishes.

1. Coalesce Interrupts​

When doing dishes, there are two options for reasonable kitchen cleanliness:

  1. Do dishes after every meal, no matter what.
  2. Let the dishes stack up, and do dishes once, at the end of every day.

I prefer option 2, since there is a context-switching time for doing dishes, I'd rather incur that cost once per day.

2. Avoid Overwork​

How clean is too clean? Should all of my dishes be sparkling clean? Is it ok spend 50% less time cleaning, at the cost of missing a spot every once in a while?

I don't want visible food or grease on my dishes, but

3. Make use of idle time​

Soak dishes that can be difficult to clean. Particularly useful for crusty pans, the bottoms of deep cups, and dishes with cereal or other 'sticky' food on them.

Never dry dishes by hand. Air will do that for you, it just takes a few hours. In fact, you can use your dish drying rack as a cache for commonly used items. Why put something in a cupboard if you use it every day?

Laundry​

1. The Inside-Out Sock Conundrum​

I commonly find myself having to turn socks inside-out after doing a load of laundry. The reason for this is when I take socks off my feet and throw them in the laundry hamper, it is easier to pull them off while turning them inside-out. The problem is I'll eventually have to turn them right-side-out at some point in the future.

Therefore, when taking socks off, avoid turning them inside out.

General Housekeeping​

1. Everything should have a designated resting location​

Every space in my home should have a default 'resting' state. Everything where it is supposed to be.

2. Keeping all spaces relatively tidy​

When I'm finished using a space, I shall 'reset the room' and put everything back in it's default position.

3. Avoid Accumulation of Clutter​

Sorting objects gets harder the more objects there are. Therefore, decluttering is made easier when there is less to declutter. Every evening, I 'reset the house' and make sure I haven't missed any tidying up during the day.

4. Buy Shampoo (And Other Products) 12x Less Frequently​

Save 2X : Buy the largest bottles so you don't need to buy as often. The largest bottles are typically 800 ml, which is 2x larger than normal size ones.

Save 2X or more: Buy in twin packs or combo packs. This is only helpful if you have room to store the bottles, and know that you'll use an it all up eventually.

Save 3X: I would guesstimate that the average person uses at least 3x more shampoo than necessary, squirting huge handfuls of shampoo wastefully away! That means they spend 3X more on shampoo each year than I do. Not only do you spend less, more importantly, you don't have to replace the soap less often!