I’m no longer allowed to peel potatos. Apparently, getting a couple bits of peel on the counter instead of in the sink is a heinous capital offense. Nevermind that the potatos were skin-free. Suits me fine. I don’t much like peeling potatos.
My husband will announce that the dishwasher is filled to capacity, and if there’s anything left, it will have to wait for the next load. After he leaves the kitchen, I’ll go in there and finish filling it. He leaves big gaping spaces between the dishes, and doesn’t understand how they can get clean if they’re touching eachother.
Better idea: Wad them up and put inside the matching pillow cases.
Re the pointy-things-down-in-dishwasher rule, my ex-wife gashed her wrist pretty badly on an up-pointed steak knife once. Very scary moment; required a couple of stitches. Pointy things go down now.
Me, I live alone, but female visitors regularly compliment me on the state of my house. My current girlfriend wants me to train her to keep her own.
Well, which is it? Hapless husbands want to know.
You’re the bestest wife ever. Be cloned so we can all have you.
Many women are insuffrable, screwballs when it comes to floors. I got sick of my wife criticizing me both when I tried to mop and vacuum and, conversely, when I did not. My mother did the same thing when I was growing up. The odd thing was that one of my jobs in high school was industrial floor duty at the local supermarket and I was known as being very good at it.
I got tired of the criticisms one day about five years ago and I simply refuse to clean floors in my own house now. I will clean up the kid’s spills or sweep up an obvious mess but the methodical cleaning has to be done by my wife and MIL from now on. I think that 5 years later they are starting to understand the consequences of being demeaning, sexist, insufferable bitches in this specific area. I never criticized my wife when she couldn’t handle an 18" chain saw to process the myriad of trees that fall within our property every year. I don’t criticize her for the many things that I can do and she can’t for that matter whether it be changing a tire or climbing up a 30 foot ladder to take care of something at the top of the house. I expect the same consideration and perspective.
Like the commercials that try to make men look like dimwits, I think that many women do the same and I simply won’t cooperate with it.
There needs to be sufficient space so that the jets of water can reach all surfaces. When pieces rest on each other, sometimes whole sections are missed. One thing to always check - make sure your spoons aren’t spooned. If you put a large pot over a small pot so that you can’t see the smaller pot, chances are it’s not going to get clean.
I don’t know how else to describe it, but I know a good load when I see it. 
Actually, you can fold fitted sheets. I learned by being beaten by an abusive ex boyfriend until I got it right.
Fold it into quarters, nesting all 4 fitted corners together. I did it by sort of pushing my fist into it, and holding it up, while tweaking the folded edges straight. Then lay the whole thing flat on a large surface like a bed, and carefully smooth the portion of the edge that the fitted corners are on so that they fold down, sort of like making a home made envelope. Smoothe all the edges and folds, and you end up with the sheets folded sort of in thirds. I probably should make a youtube vid for it, but I can show someone in person in about 5 minutes.
Just like I can fold tshirts, and iron the creases into a navy dungaree shirt properly=)
I shouldn’t have said they don’t fold - they don’t fold easily or truly tidily and therefore are barely worth the bother of trying (unless, of course, someone is going to beat you - my baby sister learned to keep house the same way - not a good way to learn - you have my sympathies for that).
Yep, that’s how I do it - Mom taught me from when we had extra sheets. But they aren’t really tidy no matter how much smoothing you do - so she doesn’t bother.
It’s okay for the edges to touch, and each of the dividers are intended to hold a dish.
Hooray! I’m doing something right! Or…um…I’d be doing it right if I actually had a dishwasher, which I haven’t for years. But when we move in February I’ll have one again, so this thread is very timely.
{{{{aruvquan}}}}
clap - clap - clap - clap … I’m speechless!
I recently discovered that cleaning the dishes and wiping down all the counters failed to result in a “clean” kitchen because the tile grout on the countertops was not bleached white.
In other news… one of my favorites… for real… How to fold a shirt
You don’t have to rinse with a modern dishwasher. Just knock the big pieces off into the trash. Seriously, rinsing is a huge waste of water unless you know your dishwasher is a piece of shit, and then go get a new dishwasher.
Dishwashers will wash dishes without rinsing. The only prep you need to do is scrape off solids bigger than a corn kernel. The drain pump is made to chew up the small stuff. If your machine won’t clean without pre-rinsing, use the pots-and-pans setting. Unless you’re on a tight schedule, turn off the hot dry feature to save power. The dishes are hot from the water, and the fan will get them dry.
We used to have a lot of issues about editing. I’d catch my wife refolding laundry, rearranging ornaments on the Christmas tree. We went for a few years of my refusing to touch the tree before she saw the light. After a few weeks of having all her clothes laid flat in a stack, she agreed to accept my work without editing.
On nights when I was cooking, we got into meal-hijacking problems, and ended up with something very different from what I had planned. Finally, we came to trading weeks. We plan out suppers on a calendar on the front of the refrigerator. On my week, she’s not allowed to alter my plans, and vice versa. We still help with chopping and such, if help is asked for. If she slips and tries to hijack the kitchen, I’ll either chase her out or hand her a spoon and walk away.
Leaffan, you never said who keeps telling you you’re loading the dishwasher all wrong, although I assume it’s your SO.
Me, I learned how to load it via an ancient and obscure method known as RTFM. Way back when I bought my house I also put in a new dishwasher and proceeded to read the manual while the guys were installing it.
I found out all sorts of neat things, like the fact that, as Zsofia says, you don’t need to rinse before loading it. Sure, there are some items, like pans with baked-on cheese, that you’ll need to clean first, but except for stuff like that, “pre-washing” or pre-rinsing or whatever you want to call it is just a waste of time and water. Also, and this surprised me at the time, the manual stated that all silverware should be placed with their business end UP, and the handle down. I guess the water sprays catch them better or something.
Anyway, that’s my two cents worth of contribution.
OK, I don’t complain about my husband’s housekeeping skills too much. There are some jobs he just doesn’t do, like cleaning the bathrooms. But, he does all the laundry and outside chores, and he’s practically rebuilding our house from scratch, so I try not to give him a hard time about it.
BUT…he does one thing that drives me batshit insane. He uses regular Pledge dusting stuff to clean up messes on the wood floor. You may wonder, if you don’t have a wood floor, what’s wrong with that? Well, the product is not designed for floors and it makes them EXTREMELY slippery. We have one preschooler who runs around constantly, and one baby who will be learning how to walk in the next month or so. And we have these hazard spots on the floor that you can’t see, but if you hit them just right, you can go flying. And the most annoying part is, PLEDGE MAKES A FLOOR CLEANER, AND WE HAVE SOME UNDER THE KITCHEN SINK. All you have to do is squirt the stuff and wipe it up. It works great, and it’s not slippery. So WHY won’t he use it? Why why WHY?
I think he’s trying to drive me crazy.
Thank you. I feel better now.
Mop a floor? That’s what pets are for.
Let the dog lick up all the solid bits on the floor, and then have a rousing game of Spin the Cat.