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September 15, 2014 by Kate

Re-Set Your Kitchen With An After-Dinner Routine

Are you worn out after dinner? Is it hard to get your kitchen back in order after supper? Use this to help you plan your own after-dinner routine that will help you simplify your kitchen cleaning and prepping process.



After dinner, our whole family is exhausted. My sons are worn out and ready for bed, my husband is tired from a day after work, and I’m completely brain-dead after a day of caring for my beautiful, curious, energetic preschoolers.

We’ve created a great bed-time routine for our boys, and my husband loves putting the boys to bed so he can spend some time with them after work. Once everyone has gone upstairs, I have about 30 minutes of uninterrupted time.

I used to stumble around and try to clean up the kitchen, pay bills, check Facebook, take out the trash, look at a magazine, or just do whatever I saw that I wanted to do. Then I realized that this time in the early evening is an opportunity for me to “re-set” my home for the next day, and get a lot accomplished with some focused effort.

First, I had to figure out what needed to be done. Of course, this will be different for every family. I started to make a list of things I needed to do after dinner to “re-set” my kitchen and prep for tomorrow. Here’s what I came up with:

  • Clean the table– We have a basic white kitchen table, so I do this with Windex and paper towels. If the paper towels are very wet after cleaning the table, I save them to do spot cleaning on the floor.
  • Clean the counter tops – Wipe them down and get rid of the weird crusty things that seem to accumulate on them every.single.day. 
  • Sweep the floor – I use our stick vacuum for this. So easy! It’s good to do this before the kiddos fall asleep so it doesn’t wake them up.
  • Spot-clean the floor – We always end up with milk splashes, gobs of spaghetti sauce, and other weird spots on our floor. I use leftover paper towels and my love, Windex, to clean these up. I limit myself to ten spots. Otherwise, this could turn into a bizarre Windexing the floor activity.
  • Load the dishwasher – I try to do this as I clear the table, but there’s usually more stuff to put in the dishwasher. I do a quick sweep of the house to pick up stray sippy cups, snack bowls, and glasses. Once it’s all in, I turn it on!
  • Clean the sink – Again, I use Windex. And sometimes a scrub brush to get rid of the disgusting-ness.
  • Make snacks for the boys – The boys take a small snack with them to school. By making this in the evening, our mornings go so much smoother.
  • Make AM milk for the boys – Every morning our boys drink milk with breakfast. Prepping their sippy cups the night before takes one more step out of our hectic morning routine.
  • Enjoy a glass of water – I try to drink water throughout this entire process. I think of it as my last shot at hydrating before going to bed.
If I can be focused on the above tasks, our kitchen is looking pretty good by the time my husband is done putting the kids to bed. That means we have more time to spend together without having to worry about cleaning up the kitchen.
By having a list of things to do after dinner, I eliminate the need to think about what needs to be done next. As a mom of young children, I just really don’t have a lot of brain power at the end of the day. Having my list helps to make the whole process more automatic.

Your list will most certainly be different than mine. It took me a few days to refine my list and figure out what things I could reasonably do to be able to re-set my kitchen. I added things, and took things off my list before I came up with my routine. You will probably need to brainstorm and go through your routine a few times before you find something you like.

My routine changes. My husband isn’t always home to put the boys to bed, so sometimes I shift some of the tasks to the next day, or do some things later in the evening. It’s on those days that I realize how lucky I am that my husband puts the boys to bed, and loves to spend quality time with them! 

Sometimes I like to work in quiet, and sometimes I listen to one of my favorite podcasts. Last night one of my good friends called, and I was able to talk to her while I cleaned up. I wasn’t distracted from our conversation, because I had my list.

What are some things you do in the evenings to re-set your home?

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Comments

  1. Lydia says

    September 15, 2014 at 10:13 pm

    Sounds like a great routine to get into! Wish that I had a dishwasher to load. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Kate Marie says

    September 15, 2014 at 11:51 pm

    I think I’d be a hot mess without it. Or we would just use paper plates all the time. If I didn’t have the dishwasher, I’d definitely take a lot of the other stuff out of my routine. And, I’d probably ask for more help or time from the poor husband.

    Reply

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