What is your routine in the TF kitchen?

[ltlmrs]

I don't mean meal prep, I've got the soaking, fermenting, etc on a pretty good routine, but... I'm always in the kitchen cleaning. We have a dishwasher, but that doesn't clean milk bottles, mason jars , easy-cap bottles, stock pots, etc very well. I constantly have a pile of dishes and because I'm doing so much cooking and washing dishes I hardly ever have the energy to actually clean the kitchen: stove, oven, refrigerator, floor. Quite honestly, by the end of the day I'm so sick of the kitchen that I leave the dishes till the next day and then end up with several days worth of hand washables and an icky kitchen that I'm afraid to ferment in.

I read stuff in the mindful home threads about mamas who say they cook everything from scratch but only spend 20 minutes or so cleaning the kitchen each day. They can't make everything from scratch because I just don't see how if you don't use pre-packaged products like cream soups, canned veggies, etc you can clean up in only twenty minutes. I also see a lot of threads about keeping the counters decluttered and only pulling things out as you need them. Well, I always have a slow cooker or two going, sourdough rising, kombucha or kefir brewing, etc and I hate having cluttered counter tops in my tiny kitchen!

So, what's your daily and weekly kitchen routine? How do you keep your TF kitchen as simple as possible?

[tallulahma]

i cook everything from scratch most days, but we are pretty much grain free, so im not soaking grains anymore. we are also mostly eating local... so im not making legumes much... so no sprouting. we buy kombucha & yogurt too. thats helps.

the majority of what we eat is eggs, raw cheese, fruits and veggies. I roast a chicken once a week, then make soup, then bone broth. we get grass fed beef at the market.

we have a TINY kitchen... so i have no counter space at all. if i need the food processor i have to pull it out each time, etc. my counters are cluttered by default... but tht doesnt bother me as much as them being clean.


for me- im a neat freak about kitchens. i handwash dishes as they get dirty... i never have more dishes to wash than would take me 5 minutes. i clean as i go- so i chop veggies and clean up as im chopping. i have the three kids so if i wasnt on top of it it would go out of control quickly.

if im cooking, im cleaning- sauteeing veggies im also wiping down cabinets, sweeping, washing a few dishes.

i must admit though, i love being in the kitchen... i love having lots going at once... i miss my old kitchen where i had things soaking, sprouting, etc.

here- im in the kitchen 80% of the day- the kids art/craft section is on the table so they are in there with me.

[akmeg]

I cook mostly from scratch and I don't have a dishwasher, so I totally understand the huge amount of washing there is. I don't know that my routine will help much, because I don't feel like I'm always on top of it, but I guess I'm somewhat tidy.

I usually do my first sink of dishes sometime in late morning or early afternoon, ideally before dd comes home from school. This would include breakfast dishes and pots and pans and whatever lunch/snack dishes might be around.

In the afternoon I try to get all of those clean dishes put away and start making dinner. After dinner I usually rinse dishes and put away food and then relax for an hour or so before I wash dinner dishes. I know I should do them right away, but I'm so tired after making dinner that I usually just need to sit and read or chat with dh. I always try to start the dinner dishes by 7pm and they usually only take me about 10-15 minutes. At this point I usually wipe down counters and table and think about breakfast and lunches and spend maybe 5 minutes or so prepping those. (I should really add a quick floor sweep and mop here, and that would make my kitchen sooooo much cleaner!)

Then kids are in bed by 8. Later in the evening dh and I usually make post workout shakes so there are usually some dishes and the blender from that, but I wash those the next day with breakfast dishes.

I don't think my schedule is ideal, but my dishes are never in the sink longer than half a day, and I always wash at least twice during the day. As far as deep cleaning.....sweeping usually happens only 2 or 3 time a week, mopping only every other week or so, the fridge gets wiped down once a month or so, the sink gets really scrubbed (it's ceramic) only once a month. I do clean the stove top twice daily as I do dishes, and I try to immediately clean out under the burners if something spills over.

I'll be reading this thread for more inspiration!

(Oh, about the counter clutter, one thing I've started doing is puting my crockpot on a chair in the other corner of the kitchen while it's cooking. It frees up a lot of my limited counter space. I've also done that with my breadmaker. All of my appliances are in cupboards or on shelves in the laundry room until I use them, and then I put them right back. No room otherwise!)