My kitchen (and sanity) saver!

I recently heard this tip in a homeschooling seminar, and I've been putting it into practice for about 2 weeks now, and I have to share! Its amazing what its done for my kitchen and overall sanity. Its such a simple tip! Here it is:

Load and run the dishwasher EVERY night, even if its not a totally full load.

Then, every morning, it is there to empty, and there is room for that day's dishes to go into it immediately after use. No more dishes piling up in the sink, not even pots and pans, as they, too, go into the dishwasher at night. Brilliant! An added bonus, since there are clean dishes every morning, my children know without a doubt that every morning one of their jobs is to empty the dishwasher.

I used to only run the dishwasher when it was full to the brim. Sometimes that would take a day and a half or two days. Meanwhile, we'd run low on silverware, dishes would pile up as they waited for me to squeeze them into the dishwasher, and the children never knew when the dishwasher might need to be loaded. And the kitchen was a disaster! Which makes any mom crazy, especially if your homeschooling area is in full view of the kitchen!

So simple, but life changing for me! Many, many thanks to the wonderful woman who shared the tip in her seminar, although I can't remember her name.