While studying for my Master's Degree a few years ago, I came across a technique called the '5 Whys' used for problem solving. First developed by Toyota (TPS), the 5 Why's were designed to get to the root of problems that were hindering their success. I realize the method is somewhat criticized as not going deep enough in large corporate settings, but hear me out for this one.
Not so long ago I was watching my family eat out all too often. After working a full day, it was so convenient to just drive through a window and have food given to us in exchange for money. The kitchen was in a constant state of disarray, despite hardly ever cooking at home. Dishes always in the sink, on counters, etc. The last thing either of us wanted to do at the end of a work day was deal with it. So... we didn't. Until the weekend or until we needed baby bottles/sippy cups washed - Don't worry, we'd rinse them out before chucking them in the sink so at least nothing was growing in them by the week's end.
I have some really nice kitchen tools and enjoy being in the kitchen. The hang up, we found, was that we could just never get ahead on the dishes that needed to be done and counter tops were never clear for food prep, so we'd do the natural human thing - Avoid it like the plague. This was especially true at our old house - There was no dishwasher installed. We eventually purchased a portable dishwasher that did a pretty good job. For a while, we were doing well with it. But slowly, the dishes that wouldn't fit in for each load started piling up and we were just as behind as before.
Mostly, the items that were cluttering things up were big ones - Crock pots (Rinsed well, but not scrubbed out enough to be put away) cookie sheets, casserole dishes, mixing bows, etc. The stuff that didn't fit into the dishwasher or had to be washed by hand.
After learning of the 5 Why's in my management courses, I decided to apply this to my kitchen and see what I came up with. Sounds silly, right? I thought so too until it unearthed some harsh truths.
Here's how it started:
Example 1:
Q. Why don't I cook at home more often?
A. Because the kitchen is a mess.
Q. Why is the kitchen a mess?
A. Because we only clean what we need, when we need it.
Q. Why do you only clean what you need, when you need it?
A. Because it would take entirely too long to clean the rest of the room.
Q. Why would it take so long to clean up everything?
A. Because we have let things sit around so long it would be ridiculous to clean everything in there.
Q. Why have you let things sit around so long?
A. Because we're lazy.
Example 2:
Q. Why don't you buy more fresh foods?
A. Because the fridge is already full.
Q. Why don't you eat what's in the fridge?
A. Because most of it has gone bad.
Q. Why has most of it gone bad?
A. Because we have been eating out so often, we never cook anything at home.
Q. Why don't you cook at home anymore?
A. Because the kitchen is a mess.
Q. Why is the kitchen a mess?
A. Because we're lazy...
Example 3:
Q. Why are the counter tops so cluttered?
A. Because not all the dishes will fit into the dishwasher, so we would have to do multiple loads.
Q. Why don't you do multiple loads?
A. Because the clean things never seem to make it back into the cabinets.
Q. Why don't the clean items get put away?
A. Because Hubby always forgets to do it.
Q. Why don't you remind him about it?
A. Because then I'd have to do more dishes...
Q. Why don't you want to do more dishes?
A. Because I'm lazy...
No matter where I started, the end result kept coming back to either him, me, or both of us being lazy. I didn't like the way that looked or sounded. 'Lazy.' In everything else that my husband and I do, we are far from 'lazy.' We both have steady careers with good jobs in the fields we went for in college (we are VERY lucky for this one!). We have put a tremendous amount of time and effort into doing well in school, in our marriage, raising our daughter, and overall trying to be good people.
Why was it that for something so simple with so much potential to be beneficial, we were so 'lazy?' We really didn't have a good answer.
Despite identifying the issues at the time, the trend of 'bare minimums' continued for a few more months until finally, I'd had enough. It's hard to explain, but one day I just felt this was way too out of hand. I spent an entire weekend cleaning up things in the kitchen - Doing dishes, organizing the pantry, the cabinets, getting spice racks in place, cleaning the fridge, mopping the floors, clearing off the washer/dryer (they're in my kitchen, too), rearranging the freezers, getting the last of the boxes from when we moved in out of there, cleaning up the mail clutter that seemed to just sit on the counter, etc. etc. etc.
FINALLY - We have a functional kitchen space that we can cook in, do food prep in, and work with! We're still not perfect - I usually have a stoneware sheet that hasn't been washed off yet and there may be a few dishes still in the sink when I go to bed at night, but we've done well with little things like rinsing off the dishes as they go in the sink (I've had to almost flog my husband for this one several times for the surprise cereal/milk bowl stuck under something else in the sink...).
We are now to the point that Hubby enjoys cooking too - So much, in fact, that he makes breakfast for us on the weekends and usually dinner one night a week. He's been my right hand to empty the dishwasher (officially his job, now) to keep the flow of dish washing going. He's even learning what tools we do and don't have, and where they go in the cabinets. Any fear that he had about using the kitchen is long gone!
Sounds like silly, common sense doesn't it? For some, yes. For others, it takes a series of questions to get to the root cause. We also seem happier, as we cook together and even do dishes together. Our daughter even has her own stool to watch us from, and enjoys being in there with us while we cook breakfast.
In our case, it helped a lot to get us back on track and doing more at home. This in turn is helping us with better nutrition and a better awareness of what we're really eating. We're still not perfect - We eat something out usually at least once or twice a week but we're considerably better than how we were 3-6 months ago and have no plans to go back to the 'unusable' kitchen we used to have. :-)
Not so long ago I was watching my family eat out all too often. After working a full day, it was so convenient to just drive through a window and have food given to us in exchange for money. The kitchen was in a constant state of disarray, despite hardly ever cooking at home. Dishes always in the sink, on counters, etc. The last thing either of us wanted to do at the end of a work day was deal with it. So... we didn't. Until the weekend or until we needed baby bottles/sippy cups washed - Don't worry, we'd rinse them out before chucking them in the sink so at least nothing was growing in them by the week's end.
I have some really nice kitchen tools and enjoy being in the kitchen. The hang up, we found, was that we could just never get ahead on the dishes that needed to be done and counter tops were never clear for food prep, so we'd do the natural human thing - Avoid it like the plague. This was especially true at our old house - There was no dishwasher installed. We eventually purchased a portable dishwasher that did a pretty good job. For a while, we were doing well with it. But slowly, the dishes that wouldn't fit in for each load started piling up and we were just as behind as before.
Mostly, the items that were cluttering things up were big ones - Crock pots (Rinsed well, but not scrubbed out enough to be put away) cookie sheets, casserole dishes, mixing bows, etc. The stuff that didn't fit into the dishwasher or had to be washed by hand.
After learning of the 5 Why's in my management courses, I decided to apply this to my kitchen and see what I came up with. Sounds silly, right? I thought so too until it unearthed some harsh truths.
Here's how it started:
Example 1:
Q. Why don't I cook at home more often?
A. Because the kitchen is a mess.
Q. Why is the kitchen a mess?
A. Because we only clean what we need, when we need it.
Q. Why do you only clean what you need, when you need it?
A. Because it would take entirely too long to clean the rest of the room.
Q. Why would it take so long to clean up everything?
A. Because we have let things sit around so long it would be ridiculous to clean everything in there.
Q. Why have you let things sit around so long?
A. Because we're lazy.
Example 2:
Q. Why don't you buy more fresh foods?
A. Because the fridge is already full.
Q. Why don't you eat what's in the fridge?
A. Because most of it has gone bad.
Q. Why has most of it gone bad?
A. Because we have been eating out so often, we never cook anything at home.
Q. Why don't you cook at home anymore?
A. Because the kitchen is a mess.
Q. Why is the kitchen a mess?
A. Because we're lazy...
Example 3:
Q. Why are the counter tops so cluttered?
A. Because not all the dishes will fit into the dishwasher, so we would have to do multiple loads.
Q. Why don't you do multiple loads?
A. Because the clean things never seem to make it back into the cabinets.
Q. Why don't the clean items get put away?
A. Because Hubby always forgets to do it.
Q. Why don't you remind him about it?
A. Because then I'd have to do more dishes...
Q. Why don't you want to do more dishes?
A. Because I'm lazy...
No matter where I started, the end result kept coming back to either him, me, or both of us being lazy. I didn't like the way that looked or sounded. 'Lazy.' In everything else that my husband and I do, we are far from 'lazy.' We both have steady careers with good jobs in the fields we went for in college (we are VERY lucky for this one!). We have put a tremendous amount of time and effort into doing well in school, in our marriage, raising our daughter, and overall trying to be good people.
Why was it that for something so simple with so much potential to be beneficial, we were so 'lazy?' We really didn't have a good answer.
Despite identifying the issues at the time, the trend of 'bare minimums' continued for a few more months until finally, I'd had enough. It's hard to explain, but one day I just felt this was way too out of hand. I spent an entire weekend cleaning up things in the kitchen - Doing dishes, organizing the pantry, the cabinets, getting spice racks in place, cleaning the fridge, mopping the floors, clearing off the washer/dryer (they're in my kitchen, too), rearranging the freezers, getting the last of the boxes from when we moved in out of there, cleaning up the mail clutter that seemed to just sit on the counter, etc. etc. etc.
FINALLY - We have a functional kitchen space that we can cook in, do food prep in, and work with! We're still not perfect - I usually have a stoneware sheet that hasn't been washed off yet and there may be a few dishes still in the sink when I go to bed at night, but we've done well with little things like rinsing off the dishes as they go in the sink (I've had to almost flog my husband for this one several times for the surprise cereal/milk bowl stuck under something else in the sink...).
We are now to the point that Hubby enjoys cooking too - So much, in fact, that he makes breakfast for us on the weekends and usually dinner one night a week. He's been my right hand to empty the dishwasher (officially his job, now) to keep the flow of dish washing going. He's even learning what tools we do and don't have, and where they go in the cabinets. Any fear that he had about using the kitchen is long gone!
Sounds like silly, common sense doesn't it? For some, yes. For others, it takes a series of questions to get to the root cause. We also seem happier, as we cook together and even do dishes together. Our daughter even has her own stool to watch us from, and enjoys being in there with us while we cook breakfast.
In our case, it helped a lot to get us back on track and doing more at home. This in turn is helping us with better nutrition and a better awareness of what we're really eating. We're still not perfect - We eat something out usually at least once or twice a week but we're considerably better than how we were 3-6 months ago and have no plans to go back to the 'unusable' kitchen we used to have. :-)
You are an inspiration. From where I am sitting (with a crazy amount of pillows and heating pad), I can see my sink, piled high with big dishes and the stack of plates (all rinsed) next to it. I really just need to get to it.
ReplyDeleteWe have been mouse free for a month, but I am still looking at a dining room table full of the things that should be in my cabinets. For the record, Adam would still rather not put things away because he is freaked out by the potential for small furry mammals still. But it needs to happen.
I won't have a weekend at home for the next month, but I may have to spend my next day off working on it.
Thank you so much! I'd suggest just starting small. Like first, clear out the sinks. Tomorrow, get to the other things on the counter, etc. Just do a little bit at a time as you think about it and it'll make a world of difference very quickly.
DeleteAnd I know exactly what you mean about the mouse. lol. We had one in our rental here in Kentucky. I saw him half under the stove one night and it scared the crap out of me. We put out some poison and traps but I never did see signs that he took any of the bait. He's been gone ever since. I'm thinking he either died somewhere that we can't smell him (it's been a few months ago), or he made it back outside.
Remind me to tell you the story about my dad and the mouse in his shed sometime... lol. ;-)