Fifteen-Minute Kitchen Cleanup

 It’s the end of the day and you and the family just finished dinner. It was a miracle. You all sat down at the table and ate something home cooked. And now, as nice as that was, the kitchen is a DEE--ZAS--TER. And you’re exhausted. There’s food the baby threw on the floor. There’s greasy pans on the stove. There’s leftovers on the table. And the feasting hoards also known as your family members are suddenly nowhere to be found. Who is cleaning up this mess?

You could just flee the scene and power up that show you wanted to watch. Sometimes, this is reality.

But you’ll be giving yourself a lot of spoiled food, not only greasy but also crusty dishes, and unpleasant smells in the morning. And you may think your fly, ant, and mouse problems were taken care of by the exterminator, but even poison won’t deter opportunistic feeders from congregating when there’s an open invitation like the roast left out all night. 

Unfortunately, I speak from a lot of experiences waking up in the morning, wandering out to the kitchen, and seeing dinner still there along with the evidence that the uninvited guests had had a party with the free fare.

Bad.

Let’s not do this anymore. There’s no need. Even if you are tired, without help, and overwhelmed by it all. Between your speed dishwashing skills and your streamlined kitchen, it’s likely you can clean up this disaster, even mopping up the floor, in fifteen to twenty minutes. Really. 

When I’m really tired, I que up this podcast by Marla Cilley, the FlyLady. She’ll cheer you on while pushing you through getting your kitchen, living room, and bathroom clean in about fifty minutes. For kitchen cleanup at night, I just listen to the first twenty minutes of the podcast to blast out my kitchen. 

If you can’t bring Marla in to help, though, here’s a good breakdown to follow:

1. Start your music, get your shoes and apron on, get a drink of water. (1 min)
2. Get dishes out of kitchen sinks, fill with soapy water, and start soaking dishes (2 min)
3. Put food away and clear and wipe table (3 min)
4. Wash a few more dishes (3 min)
5. Clear and wipe stove (3 min)
6. Wash a few more dishes (3 min)
7. Sweep and mop the floor (3 min)

Ok. Here’s the steps again with some explanation:

1. Start your music, get your shoes and apron on, and get a drink of water. (1 min) 

No explanation needed, right?

2. Get dishes out of kitchen sinks, fill with soapy water, and start soaking dishes (2 min)

The point here is to get your sinks ready with screamin' hot water and get dishes soaking so that the hot soapy water can do most of the work for you while you’re cleaning something else.  

3. Put food away and clear and wipe table (3 min)

Serving food in dishes that have lids helps a LOT with this one. If you’re trying to make lunches out of the leftovers for tomorrow, which is a great idea, add more minutes to your clean up time or get someone else to do this job while you finish cleaning. 

4. Wash a few dishes (3 min)

Practice your speed dishwashing skills and see how many dishes you can wash, rinse, and set out to dry in three minutes. You’ll be amazed at how many dishes you can blast through in three minutes, especially after they’ve been soaking in screamin' hot water with soap.

5. Clear and wipe stove (3 min)

This is just spot checking. If your drip pans are awful, maybe take the worst one and chuck it into your soapy water. This is not a time to deep clean your stove and oven unit. This is a time to catch those spaghetti sauce splatters that come up easy now but will be semi-permanent by tomorrow morning. It’s not hard to make that stove shine in only three minutes, especially if you do a little bit every day.

6. Wash a few more dishes (3 min)

You’re on the home stretch with dishes right now! Go you!

7. Sweep and mop the floor (3 min)

I couldn’t believe it when the FlyLady told me I could do this job in three minutes, but it really can happen, especially if you consistently give your floors three minutes a day. I’m now a believer in what I like to think of as “flash mopping.” Are my floors perfect after a flash mop? Nope. But they were better than before. 

It is possible to do these steps that quickly if you do them frequently, are ok with imperfect but improved, and have a streamlined kitchen. Try it!

Dishes will take the most time. But even those will be much easier after you start practicing speed dishwashing and combine that skill with the kinds of skills professional chefs use while they’re cooking. That’s in our next lesson. For now, just try a not-perfect-but-done approach to closing your kitchen each night. You’ll love the results. 

Homework: Try cleaning your streamlined kitchen, including flash mopping your floor, every night for a week.