I have some cleaning hacks I LOVE, that I’ll be sharing over the next number of weeks! 😊
Cleaning Hack #1:
How to Conquer the 14er Mountain of Dishes
This came from years of living in an older house with no dishwasher and family of five that ate for a family of ten.🙃
This is THE LAUNDRY BASKET METHOD.
This was completely a game changer for me when I was praying to God and crying out to him for the bajillionth time and probably 8 years because with my health issues I often struggled keeping up with the dishes. I would get so far behind it didn’t seem like it would ever get done and when your body only functions for 4 hours a day and you’ve got 8 hours of dishes, what’s a girl supposed to do!?😪
I hated looking at dirty dishes all over the counters and table and stove and in the sink and everywhere else, but it was just overwhelming to my brain because I knew there was no way I was going to wash them all, rinse them all and dry them all.
This system for me was an answer to prayer. And it became an effective way for catching up dishes after a crazy busy week even after I was healthier, that could also engage my children, sparing my sweet husband whose job is cleaning all day long, even though he will come home after a 12-hour day and still wash the dishes! But we try really really hard not to have to let him do the cleaning. (Garin is my hero and the Wind Beneath My Wings.💞)
But whether you are flying solo, or have to feed an army of 10, this is a great hack when things get way behind.
Now we did not have a dishwasher and so this system is for those who have to hand wash dishes, but even if you do have a dishwasher you can still implement this when you get way behind.
Unless you have a really really good dishwasher if you’ve got caked on food sitting for days, you’re not going to be able to just toss it in the dishwasher and get it clean and how long are you going to stand there and keep reloading, unloading, reloading and unloading the dishwasher to catch up?
This really streamlines it when you get way behind. If you do have a dishwasher you can still throw a load in and be doing this system catching the rest up while your dishwasher is going. (Unless you have a portable dishwasher and then it won’t work to do both at the same time.)
One beautiful thing about this system is everything doesn’t have to be done tonight!
You can finish it the next morning or when there’s time, but once everything’s washed, and all the stuck on food and all the junk is done even if the pots and pans and dishes are still in the laundry basket somebody can grab them rinse them and use them without it taking more than a minute or two.
But encourage other family members or roommates to help finish the task. I like to have all of my dishes washed and rinsed and laid out on towels or dish mats in the evening. And then in the morning we can put them away.
This also a GREAT tip for high creatives, artists, and those with – whoa! – Did you see that squirrel video?! Oh, sorry — ADD.😝
ADD/ADHD CLEANING HACK. (Skip if you don’t need this.) Set timers. On a bad brain day, I do 7 minute timers and every 7 minutes I stop what I’m doing and go walk out the door up the steps to the deck back down and then set another 7 Minute Timer and do another 7 Minutes worth of work.
Most days I can do 15 or 20 minute timers. I have matured. There are days I can actually go for a whole hour without getting sidetracked. But there are also bad brain days where I set 7 minute timers.
The beautiful thing about 7 minute timers or 15 minute timers is when you get distracted the timer brings you back to what you’re supposed to be doing. So when you’re clearing the dishes and suddenly decide that all the stuck on food on the stove needs to be detailed over the next 2 hours just because it’s there and that’s what your eyes caught and you’re supposed to be doing, 7 minutes into trying to detail the top of the stove instead of throwing the dishes into the sink, the timer goes off and reminds you that you’re actually supposed to be putting dishes in the sink.
If you do not have a dishwasher or you have a very large mess covering all of your counters and table, try this laundry basket hack!
Depending on the size of your mess, your personal health and the number of people helping you, this can take anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. If you’re in our area, contact us and we’ll do it for you or help you to get it done!
You will need ONE to THREE tall laundry baskets. (If you have a large kitchen floor space, you can use the larger horizontal kind but if you have a small house or apartment you’re going to want the tall laundry baskets.) You will need to pick up a couple at Walmart if you do not have them and just store them in a closet somewhere or hang them from the ceiling (jk) when not in use.
For a Complete Supply List with the Reasons WHY we love these products, click HERE.
Our Recommended Supply List
(Please note: As an Amazon Affiliate, I (Christa) earn from qualifying purchases. Our hope and dream is that any income earned can help build this business and eventually, once we are in the clear, fulfill the dream of being able to provide “a bit o’ clean” to people that cannot normally afford them.)
1. Strong Dish Soap with Good Degreaser – We love Ginger Lily Farms Fragrance Free Foaming/Spray Dish Soap
– I pair this with
Norwex pump dish soap Forever Refillable BioZyme™ Set with Dispenser
and Blueland Powder Dish Soap
in my Kitchen, but for this current deep clean, the Ginger Lily Farms is the only dishwashing product you will need, unless you’re using a dishwasher and then you’ll need your dishwasher detergent. YES! You can use whatever products you have on hand this is just what we have found most time and cost effective.
2. Quality Spray Bottle for the Ginger Lily Spray
3. A few quality scrub brushes. I love these from Mr. Siga!
4. Some Durable Sponges.
We have two favorites. My first favorite is the Blueland Dual sided Loofah sponge.
Environmentally and globally conscious I find it the most used sponge in my kitchen.
My second favorite sponge is the Norwex EnviroSponges.
5. Rubber gloves for dishwashing.
Do you have a favorite brand of rubber gloves? Share with us if so! I have not yet found a quality rubber glove that I’ve been happy with. But if you are doing a thorough kitchen clean up, you are going to want some rubber gloves because we want that water hot and you don’t want to burn your hands.
Pre-Steps: If you have family members or roommates, invite them to join in the fun.
Pre-Step One: Go through the entire house and gather all the dishes. You can use a trash bag, you can use a reusable grocery bag, a box, whatever. But if we’re going to get the kitchen cleaned, we don’t want to clean the kitchen and find out there’s another two loads scattered around the house. Feel free to recruit some kids or family members to help you out with this. Send them on a dish hunt. Tell them, yes! The silverware counts too. (“…but you just told me to look for dishes!”😝) Next time you’re at the bank – yes, they do still exist – see if they have the gold dollar coins available and if you can (there were years I could not afford paper towels) stock up on $10 or $30 to hand out to the family members when they help you out. You could do it with quarters and dollar bills but I find the kids love the gold coins, and so do the adults…
Pre- Step Two: (Optional) If you would like us to cheer you on, AND the rest of your family/roommates are OK with it, make sure anything that would identify you, your peeps or your home such as pictures, address, etc or anything that would identify you is out of the photo, then take two or three photos or four photos of the mess. No AI! Just real 2D photos of real 3D messes in YOUR home (not someone else’s).😊
These are your before photos. When you are done, you are going to take after photos. AND if you post them on our blog or Facebook page to show what you have accomplished so we can applaud you and celebrate with you, we will send you a free downloadable gift!
Step 1. If there’s dirty laundry in the basket(s), then dump the laundry out. Don’t worry! You can put it back in later. SCRUB OUT THE LAUNDRY BASKETS, then use a sanitizing wipe or sanitizing spray to completely sanitize the insides. This is important, because your clean dishes that need to be rinsed are going to go here.
Step 2. Get your environment set up so that this can have an element of fun. Don’t take more than 8 minutes on this step, but get some music or audible story, get yourself a glass of water, some form of a treat, chocolate, chai tea latte, coffee, fruit whatever you like. (Sorry the alcohol has to wait until after the project is done…😊)
Step 3. Gather Your Supplies. I am going to do this particular list for people who do not have a dishwasher. You can adapt it if you have a dishwasher, but when your kitchen gets really behind, sometimes it’s more streamlined to catch everything up by hand and just have one load of the dishwasher running while you’re catching everything else up.
Please note: if you’re in a hurry to get the job done, you do not need to wait to order these things. Just use whatever you have on hand. But this supply list are items I have discovered over the past number of years that continue to save us time and money.
Step 4. You are going to completely detail your sink. If you have a double sink you’re going to detail all of it and both sides.
**Get everything out of the sink or double sink.**
Trust me on this, it’s going to work. Shove it somewhere. If you have floor space and you don’t have any counter space, it can go on the floor. If you feel the floor is absolutely too dirty, grab one, two or three kitchen size trash bags, fill them up with the stuff that was in the sink and put them on the floor.
Step 4. Remove everything on the backsplash and behind your sink, sponges whatever you have. If anything is mildewed and could go into the dirty laundry throw it somewhere in a pile where you can wash it immediately. If you have mildewed sponges and you have a clean new one somewhere, throw away the mildewed sponges and switch them out. When you have time and money purchasing the sponges on our supply list will save you a lot of headache. One of them can be tossed in the dishwasher and the other has a unique property that “inhibits the growth of…mold or mildew.”
Step 5. Scrub Your Sinks Inside and Out, using your sponge, try to scrub as quickly as possible the backsplash and just detail the area between the actual sink and the counter that has a tendency to get a little bit of mold. An old toothbrush, just don’t forget to throw it away, will get some of those hard to reach places. You can also use some stronger chemicals on it if you want to. We have allergic reactions to chemicals in our family so I stick with products that do not contain bleach or ammonia. But set yourself a time limit of between 10 and 30 minutes. Set your timer on the phone. And depending on how long it’s been since your sink has been detailed you should be able to knock it out pretty fast. The goal is to get it as clean as possible and then rinse it out really well. Dry the backsplash and the back counter in the counter around it. You are only washing the sink right now not your whole kitchen! You can just get a little bit of the sink counter around it, like 1 inch or so.
Step 6. If your hot water is not very hot, you need to boil a pot of water, either a large teapot or like a large spaghetti pot. Set that going and put it on high. Remember to use oven mitts when you take it off! You will add this hot water to your sink water when you’re washing dishes. Repeat as necessary. If your hot water gets to a very hot temperature then you don’t need to boil water. Fill your sink or double sinks 3/4 full with soapy water. Put plenty of dish soap in. If you are using our spray products just Spritz everything really well. The Ginger Lily Farms doesn’t have as much soap suds but it works very well. And for products that you use with sprays you can be spraying the dishes as you put them in.
Step 7. Find a sturdy jar or utensil holder that is clean, clean it if it’s not, to hold your silverware and utensils in. If you have a lot you might need more than one. This goes to the right of your sink if you’re right handed and have room. Or to the left of your sink if you’re left-handed.
Step 8. Fill up the sink or sinks with dirty dishes. If you’re using a spray product like Ginger Lily Farms, spritz some of the more stuck on plates and pans with the spray as you’re sticking it into the water.
There are two ways you can load the dishes, depending on your personality.
One you can just grab whatever’s closest and start throwing things in.
That messes with my OCD. I quickly scan through all of the dirty items and usually try to start with all the silverware and glasses first. Then I’ll do all of the bowls, then all the plates. And then finally the pots and pans. I don’t take a lot of time looking for items that are underneath or inside things. I just grab as much silverware and glasses as I can and fill up the sinks. It’s not a big deal if I get done with the glasses and the silverware and then two steps later discover I miss a few they just get tossed in.
But my sense of order and need for order prefers to do it this way so find what works best for you. The goal is to get the dishes washed!
Step 9. Allow a minute or two for the soap to sink in. This is a good time for your first break unless you’ve already taken a few! Take 5 or 10 minutes and have a treat, change your music or audiobook and get ready for the next step! It is best if you have a good Degreaser product such as the Ginger Lily Farms. Dawn also will work. I just didn’t like Dawn after they switched over to the new scent. It was making me sick.🤷♀️ I’ve actually never done this without a good strong soap so I’m not quite sure how it will work if you’re soap isn’t that strong, but just do the best you can.
Step 10. As fast as you can, wash the dishes in the sink(s)! Put the silverware in the containers to the side, you can even put a pot out to put things in that are smaller, knives, anything that’s liable to fall out of the holes of the laundry basket needs to go to the side. All of the larger items just fill up your laundry basket or baskets. As soon as you’re done with one sink load, or two sink loads, drain your water. Refill it with soap and keep washing! Remember to take breaks! Especially if you’re high right brain creative or you’re going to get bored. Go outside get some sunshine for 5 minutes after 45 minutes and come back in and tackle it some more.
Here is the best part about this system! — You are NOT trying to wash, dry and put away all your dishes!! You’re JUST trying to get them all washed and clean your counters so you have space to work.
Step 11. Once every dish from your kitchen and table, dining room, bathroom bedroom, is washed, and either in the tubs to the side of the sink or in your laundry baskets, quickly wash down your counters. If you have too much clutter consider grabbing a couple of boxes or reusable grocery bags to put things that you don’t use all the time in to be sorted through later. Create a space on your counter that is clean, so you have a place to work.
Step 12. Take a Bow. Wait for the silent Applause. You have done an amazing job! You have washed every dish! Now take a bunch of photos and send them to us so we can celebrate with you! Take a break. Have a meal. Go for a run. Or walk. Or a crawl. And NOW you can have that half glass of wine or that beer…😉
BUT WAIT! YOU SAY,
🤯🤯🤯
I know, I know… you are thinking, “…but I’m not finished yet…“
But You ARE finished washing ALL the dishes! They are all clean!
What comes next is up to you and depends on your circumstances. The beautiful thing about this system is the dishes are washed.
If you are exhausted right now, you have completed your job for the day. If you need a dish or somebody else needs a dish, they just need to find it, rinse it, and if they want to, they can dry it and use it.
The following are different scenarios for what can come next:
If you have young children, **get all of your sharp knives and anything potentially dangerous rinsed and dried first and put away.**
Drain your dirty sink water, make sure the sink is clean again, wash it out if you have to and rinse it thoroughly.
Then fill the sink with clear lukewarm or cool water.
Lay out some drying mats or clean towels on the counters.
Have the child or children set a 10 to 30 minute timer depending on their age and rinse as many as they can as fast as they can.
If they are very young you might want to do the glasses and breakable things yourself first, and have them rinse everything and put everything onto the towels on the counter.
Once everything is rinsed and out of the baskets stack the baskets and put them back where they belong.
If time permits things can be dried and put away, or they can stay out and be put away either the next morning or you can simply grab what you need from the towel when you need something.
Note: It doesn’t have to be like your mom did it. She was a great mom, but she wasn’t you. And that’s okay. So there are people that are going to look at this and think I’m completely crazy. And there are going to be people that look at this and think oh my gosh that’s what I’ve been missing all my life! Well maybe not quite that excited, but hopefully it’ll help a few others besides me….😊😊
If you have family members that are older, older children, roommates, ask everybody to chip in rinsing and putting everything on either drying mats that you lay on the counter or you can just use clean towels. In a jam one time when the laundry was dirty I even just laid out a bunch of paper towels and it worked.
If you live by yourself, you can determine for yourself whether you’re done and you’re going to tackle rinsing in the morning or whether you want to just keep going or whether you want to take a break and then come back to it and rinse and put things on the dish mats or towels.
But one thing that I want to conquer in this laundry basket method of conquering the 14er Mountain of dishes, is I’d like to help conquer –
the voices –
that have told us we’ve been doing everything wrong,
because we didn’t do it like our mother or Aunt or grandmother or somebody else did it.
This system may or may not work for you.
But we have a lot of unseen rules passed down sometimes from generation to generation, sometimes from the culture, from the internet, the screen, so many laws of how to look and how we have to act, and to everything there is a time and a season. Sometimes there’s a place for that. And there is something to be said for continuity.
But the kitchen and the dishes don’t always have to be clean. The truth is
Every day you need to eat.
You need to be kind to the people in your circle and to those around you.
There are a lot of unspoken rules that take away our TEMR (time energy money and resources) from the things that are important and keep us stuck and emotionally broke because we’re trying to do too much.
I want you to know that
it’s okay if you have to put your dishes in a laundry basket so that you can have some peace that they’re actually done.
Whatever system works for YOU. And if you have some unique ideas for your own situation and you want to talk them through, I would love to speak with you.
I hate having to charge money. I wish I was independently wealthy and I could give everybody free time whenever they wanted, but God is the only one that I know that can listen to everybody all the time.
If I have the ability to give you free time I will.
PM me.
It might only be 15 minutes, it just depends where I’m at in my week. Other than that my professional time is $33 an hour and if you want to do 15 minutes, I’m fine with that. I don’t have a degree — LOL well at least not the kind most people think.
I suppose one could say I have a degree from the School of Hard Knocks, but more than that I have a degree from the school of Grace. I’ve had a lot of Grace given to me in my life and I’m happy to share that with you. So if you want an organizational chat for 30 minutes or an hour just let me know.
I have two goals for you reading my blogs.
One is that you will not get stuck with unspoken rules that you’ve been trained for so many years that keep you from being at peace with the person in the mirror when those rules are not necessary for life or godliness.
And for the Christians out there the quote that we hear so often, “Cleanliness is Next to Godliness…” Just letting you know, that is not in the Bible. 🤷♀️🤯😊
God is less concerned with the outward appearances of cleanliness than he is with the inward cleanliness of the heart, but that is a dishwashing only he can do. 💞😊
The second goal from my blogs is to encourage you, if you are one of those people who can do everything well, please I beg of you…
Take an hour out of your time once a month or once every two weeks or even once a week and look around you and see who you can help to do things that you find easy to do, because there are many people that spend their lives with chronic illness that would absolutely love a non-judgmental, loving hand in the kitchen…
– IF they can get past those unspoken rules that tell them…
they’re not worth it
or their house is too dirty
or it’s just THEIR job to clean their home, regardless of how sick they are or past trauma or a myriad of other things that are true and real to keep people from Simply getting the nourishment and food and love and peace in their homes they should have.
The lies that you’re not actually supposed to let anybody help you.
I would love to see those unspoken rules destroyed. Because there are some laws that are meant to be broken and those are laws that God did not set up and often for those who strive to live a life for God the reason we have so much trouble obeying his laws and we find them so difficult is because there’s so many other laws that the world demands of us that are far more difficult that are draining our time and energy that we just believe firmly that we have to obey.
Sometimes you just have to step away and step out of the world and say, “I’m done.”
The world might say you can’t use a laundry basket to do dishes. I beg to differ.
Friend, today make sure you drink your water. And make sure you take your vitamins, and eat healthy food that will help your body for years to come, not cause it pain and suffering down the road. I know that Beyond everything you are so very loved and treasured by the Creator of the universe. Worship God. May our time and energy money and resources be used for his glory. May we Hallow his name and what we say and do because every breath comes from him and he deserves our thanks and our praise.
Wishing you the very best. prayers for your blessing and healing and as always, God’s Peace.