Big cooking days (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) create HUGE messes in our household. You spend the entire day cooking – and trying to clean as you go – but naturally, you’ll wind up with something that looks like a bomb the kitchen. Sometimes, you get so busy feasting, that when you look back on your kitchen, it’s all you can do afterward to put food away and leave the kitchen for “tomorrow.”
Here’s our kitchen after Easter. It was a MESS. Normally, I don’t cook too much for Easter for the three – now four – of us, but with a baby and a ton of veggie backlog from our CSA, I decided I wanted to make a HUGE amount of food. Wining Husband, Tiger Boy, and I decided that we’d clean the kitchen “tomorrow.”
The first thing I do when tackling a wrecked kitchen is get all the dishes out of the sink and sort them by type – utensils, cups, glasses, bottles, plates, bowls, mixing bowls and food prep items, and finally pots and pans.
I get the utensils to soaking (remember, Easter was two days ago*), and I thoroughly clean the drying area. I clean the counter, then the drying rack, and make sure that I have a nice clean space for the dishes to dry. I also take a moment to clean the drying rack – because ew!
Now you might wonder why I’m not using a dishwasher – well, let me answer that for you in a sentence. Our dishwasher doesn’t drain properly. That creates a problem when cleaning up. By all means, if you have a dishwasher, use it. Remember, though, that knives, pots and pans, wine glasses, and fine china should not go into the dishwasher.
Once the drying rack is ready, I go ahead and tackle as many of the utensils as I can. I stuff that drying rack full! Once it’s full, if there’s enough room in the sink and I’ve cleared out all the knives (because nothing is worse than cutting yourself with a knife while doing the dishes because you forgot it was in there), I move all the mugs into the soaking side of the sink. Then, I move everything over closer to the sink to await its turn.
Once another counter space is clean, I clean that area while dishes soak and I’m waiting for the dishes in the rack to dry. I wipe down the washed dishes with a clean dishcloth and put them away, then set about the next load. Once all mugs and utensils are clean, I move on to bread plates, then bowls, then dinner plates. Then I move on to the food prep dishes. Finally, I tackle cutting boards and then pots and pans. The only horizontal surfaces left to clean in the kitchen are the oven, microwave, appliances, and immediate sink area.
Once all the dishes are clean, I wipe down the cabinets with lemon oil, give the counters one more washing, and put all the dishes away. Then I clean the microwave, oven, and sink area. Finally, I tackle the breakfast nook, and sweep up the floors. All appliances get a good wipe down with a Clorox wipe.
Now, the kitchen is restored! Keep in mind, this isn’t a deep cleaning, it is just a cleaning to get the kitchen out of wrecked shape and into sanitary, cooking, condition. I’m glad I have leftovers, because I’m seriously beat.
*Note – I wrote this post two days after Easter. I got busy taking care of a sick baby…and so now it’s just now being published! Oh, and we finally got a new dishwasher!
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