Clean while I cook, Clean after each meal. No dishes in the sink left in the sink, especially at night. I HATE waking up to dirty dishes.

I try to clean while I cook, unfortunately I just don't like cleaning in general though. I wish I could hire full time help...
www.compartmentlife.com

I fully support the notion that the person who cooks for everyone shouldn't be stuck doing the dishes!!! However, this hardly works out in our unfair universe. So I just make a deal to unload the dishes & my roommate loads them. I take care of any hand washing since I'm the one who usually dirties the undishwasherable dishes

I turn on the radio to my favorite tunes that make me want to move. And I like pointing a fan at the dishes so they dry super fast 'cause I just want to get outta there!

I clean while I cook, but alas, there are always "after dinner dishes". I usually make dishes the last thing I do before leaving for the office each morning because I hate coming home to them. Like making my bed does for my bedroom, it truly makes the whole kitchen look cleaner when there are no dishes in the sink.

I often clean before I cook, because otherwise it can be difficult trying to navigate the kitchen (rinsing vegetables or straining pasta is hard when you don't have a clean sink.) But to avoid having to clean before I cook, I often try to set aside ten or twenty minutes at the end of the day or after dinner to do a quick clean of my apartment, which includes doing dishes, wiping down countertops, etc.

I wash dishes as I cook and after I eat.

I wash while I cook but rarely after. Then I'll go like 4 nights in a row without cooking and end up with a sink full of random dishes until it becomes too overwhelming. Yuck I know but laziness prevails sometimes.

i was a dish procrastinator until i got kittens. now, i don't leave anything out on the counter or on the sink for more than an hour before i wash it and stack it in the drain rack. i guess this is a good thing as i no longer ever have to face a mountainous pile of many days' worth of dishes, but... ugh. i still hate doing them.

all i have to do is picture that pile of dishes crawling with roaches the next morning. thats my best motivation to not leave anything in there overnight :]

I'm definitely not a clean-while-I-cook gal. Not as efficient, but it means I get plenty of use out of all of my mixing bowls! This is weird and out of the norm, but I like to wash dishes in the morning, while my coffee is brewing.

Oh how I wish I had a dishwasher! I just can't stand dirty dishes in the sink, so I wash them as soon as they appear. How do I train my husband to do the same?

I am one of the a few people who don't care for dishwashers, and just love washing dishes by hand (well, with gloves on). It's definitely helpful to wash while cooking. There are a few pots that would need to be soaked for awhile, so I do that when I'm done eating. I just love the cleanness I can create from that pile of grease and mess. =)

Definitely clean while I cook. I hate eating and having to clean afterwards.

I live with a roomate who's all about cooking but not cleaning. So when she cooks, I'll stand by the sink and wait for her to finish with something and wash it right away. She calls me a maniac but I can't stand dirty dishes and she turns the kitchen into a real mess every time. Drives me nuts.

I'll clean everything before I begin to eat. I'll usually leave my plate in the oven or microwave to keep it warm while I finish cleaning. Once everything's done, I'll sit down and ENJOY my meal knowing all I'll have to wash are my plate, silverware and glass.

We have a dishwasher now (she bought it), yet she keeps leaving her dirty dishes in the sink, which is right by the dishwasher. I laugh now, but at times it makes me pretty upset.

I have a dishwasher, and I am still awful at keeping the kitchen clean of dishes. I seem to wait till I have a full load, and then unload and reload.

Even if the dishwasher is empty, I'll still stack dishes and wait till I have a full load to fill the dishwasher.

It's a character flaw. At least I realize it, and have always had louvre doors to close off my kitchen from the living areas.

I clean while I cook, and as soon as the meal is done. It seems that no matter how many dishes I actually wash the next time I turn around there are more in the sink!! As the only adult in the house the chore of washing dishes falls solely on ME... and so I feel like the dishes are a never ending job of mine that I can't catch up with

My dishes go directly into the dishwasher after they are used. When the dishwasher is full, I run it.

I make sure the dishwasher is unloaded before I cook any major meal. This way, after I use something, into the washer it goes. I put water, and a squirt of soap in my still warm pans after the food is served, and wash them out right after we finish eating. No scrubbing for me!

Since the children have moved out my dishwashing routine has changed. I clean as I cook, but husband does not. When I cook I clean and when he cooks I clean! But...I absolutely hate to unload the dishwasher and rack, so that is now his chore. It does not take very long to clean up when it is just two.

I fill the sink with soapy hot water while I cook and let everything soak. If I have time to do a quick sponge and rinse, I do, but otherwise, just leave them there and add the dinner dishes in later. If there's a lot, then everything is pretty much ready to just stick in the dishwasher with no additional rinsing needed.

I used to leave dishes for days sometimes, but I have turned over a new leaf! Now I try to wash as I go along, and if there are any left by the end of the night, I wash them before I go to bed.

I clean after cooking, or sometimes the next morning. But what drives me absolutely batty is trying to cook in a dirty kitchen, so I try to avoid that if at all possible.

Also, I hate dishwashers. But I am glad to have one. I use it as a giant draining rack and love it! I always drip-dry my dishes; I'm not someone who thinks that they aren't done until they're put away. I leave the dishwasher open overnight, but it's nice to be able to close the dishwasher and thus hide the dirty dishes at a moment's notice.

The other thing I find with hand-washing everything is that the things that can't go in the dishwasher (knives, some pans, plastic things) don't go unwashed. I grew up in a dishwasher household and there would always be a (neat) little pile of things that were a little harder to wash (because you had to break out the dish soap and sponge/brush). It would always sit there for a few days before someone finally got it together to wash those things.

I unload the dishwasher as soon as it's done so that the next time I cook, I can toss in utensils and prep tools as I go. Then when everyone is done eating, (your family, I wouldn't ask guests to do this) have them scrape and/or rinse their own plate and stick it in the dishwasher. Afterwards, there is very little left to do besides washing the cookware and wiping down the counters. Many hands makes for light work, and all that.

I feel your pain stepanka...used to have roommates that were the same way. I never understood why they didn't just put the dish in the dishwasher...its literally right there! and only takes probably 5 seconds longer than dropping it in the sink...but such is life...

HATE to do dishes. By hand especially. My back will start to have spasms if I was by had because of the way I stand. Hubby got me a dishwasher for mother's day best gift ever. Otherwise I would have otherwise slacked off doing the dishes till I ran out!

If there are a bunch of dishes, this is how I do it:
Separate dishes into like piles on the counter (bowls, plates, pots & pans, glasses, etc.). Dump all utensils into dish bin in sink. Squirt in some soap, and water just to cover the utensils. Wash them all, put them in the other side of the sink when they're cleaned (but not rinsed). Then add the next pile of dishes to the dish bin. Rinse the utensils, adding more water to the dish bin if necessary, just to cover the dishes. The dishes in the bin get a chance to soak. Start washing the dishes in the bin. Repeat the process until all piles are clean.
Here's the order I do the piles:
1. Utensils
2. Plates & flat things (cookie sheets, cutting boards)
3. Bowls
4. Glasses
5. Pots & pans
(Essentially, I do the things that use the least water first. They're also the things that fit the best into the dish rack. It's much better to do plates first and line them up nicely in the dishrack, then to do glasses first, and then try to fit the plates in around them.)

If I don't have a bunch of dishes to do, or if I have a big pile and I don't want to do them all at once, I make myself wash FIVE things every time I go into the kitchen for a snack. (Utensils only count for 1/2 of an item.) By the end of the day, they're all done!

My husband and I take turns. I'm always a lot faster than him though because of my system. I wash all easy things first (like cups that were only used for water or juice, measuring cups, spoons, etc). I leave everything that has something stuck on it under soapy water in the other sink until I'm done with all of the easy stuff and then I get to the hard stuff. Normally takes me around twenty minutes to do an entire sink full.

I'm a HUGE fan of the clean while you cook policy. I make a lot of Indian food and those odors stick around if you don't clean those pots & pans immediately! I have to admit that's a blessing in disguise because I'm a terrible procrastinator so they may stay in the sink for an extra day or two.

I have no tips to share because i let dishes pile up and do one big wash at night before i go to bed. Works for me and roaches are not a problem.

I have a big yellow bottle of "JOY" perched on my sink...it makes me smile to think you can buy joy in a bottle! I loooooove washing the dishes - the sensuous feel of hot, soapy water and the pleasure of admiring my happy dishes. My thoughts drift off to delightful meals and memories associated with friends and family and food. I use a sponge and pour loads of soap onto it and soap up each item (glasses first, then plates, then cutlery and finally pots and pans). I don't fill the sink with water - I just use one of the larger pots of a big bowl. Once the dishes are soapy I rinse them in hot, hot, hot water (In Peace Corps, I boiled water to rinse our dishes.). I let them air dry on the counter while I quickly wipe down the stove and the counter tops...and then I put my lovley friends into thier respective resting places.
"Ginn"
In Sunny SC

Oh how I wish my roommates had a dishwashing routine! I too clean up after I cook, and sometimes after them. We have a "run the dishwasher when it's full and unload it if you see it's clean" rule, but sometimes dishes will pile up until someone needs a certain pot. Growing up, though, my mom would let us leave things in the sink throughout the day and then do a load every single night. Probably not very green, but beats washing dishes after so many people!

I am also one who likes to wash by hand, don't have a dishwasher. All food scraps, fat, bones (all organic) goes into my high heat compost. I then fill two pans; organic soap in one, very hot water in the other. When I wash and rinse the dishes I then water my flowers with that water. I air dry on bamboo rack...put them all away the next morning as I'm making Turkish coffee...

I do once a month cooking so the night before, the kitchen gets a total cleandown and I map out my cooking plan for the next day. Then I wash up in between the different dishes I make (I only have 2 pans and a 2 ring gas hob) ..no dishwasher ever, just a small sink.

Depending on how busy I am that week I will either wash my one plate and one cup after I use it, or let it accumulate..if it accumulates, I do a big wash in the sink on a Saturday morning. Glasses first, then cups and cutlery then plates. I dry as I go because I dont have the counterspace or a drainer and my oiled wood worktops don't like water.

i was so relieved to read fjernsyn's comment about hating dishwashers! i always feel so weird for not using ours...

i usually do the dishes in the morning after my husband leaves for work. i've never been a huge fan of doing them at night!

I usually have a few left in the sink at night like the last water glass we use before bed. Luckily my only adjoining neighbor here is clean, unlike the last apartment, so I don't have to worry about her bugs migrating to me. Oh, the woes of southern living. haha

When it's time to do dishes I have no set method. If I'm having a productive day I load as I go. If not, I empty the dishwasher and reload it before dinner. It's usually not full so I throw in the dinner dishes and them run. If it gets backed up due to sickness or sheer laziness I sort everything into nice piles so I can arrange as much as possible into the washer. Then I get the big pots and pans by hand. I always wash the sink when done and wipe down the counters every time.

somebody posted: "I fully support the notion that the person who cooks for everyone shouldn't be stuck doing the dishes!!!"
In my old dorm we often ate together. We took turns cooking, and the rule was the person who cooked did the dishes as well. It worked great, because some were clean cooks and some were not, and it made all of us clean up our own messes. This only works if you take turns cooking though....

Dishes have become the reason I dread cooking!! Glad to hear I am not the only one. Here's a post I did showing how many dishes were used in one batch of cupcakes...clearly I need to adapt some of these tips :)

http://kinistyle.blogspot.com/2011/01/cupcaking.html

I fill a sink full of hot, soapy water and put dishes in during the day. Saves water and everything is properly rinsed for the dishwasher by the end of the day. I make sure the kitchen is completely clean before I go to bed. I hate waking up to a mess.

I wait till I have to make the decision to wash dishes or go buy paper plates. I hate paper plates, so I usually go out dinner.

I am on a big budget and have been making my own cleaning supplies, as much as possible. I filled a spray bottle with half white vinegar and half water, and just a little dish washing liquid, like "Dawn". I live alone and the plates sometimes stack up before I load the diswasher (bad, I know). However, I always rinse them, spraying with my spray bottle, and stack them neatly in the other sink, even if they do wait a day or so to make it to the dishwasher. I guess I prewash to the max so I don't feel so bad about how long it takes me to actually unload and load the dishwasher. It isn't located in a handy place in the kitchen. One more trick I have learned, when I burn something in a pan. I fill it with hot water plus one dishwasher tablet. It lifts that stuff off if you let it soak overnight.

Clean up as I go, then if too tired to wash up the plates etc. at night, stack neatly in sink to wash first thing in the morning. I want to see the kitchen tidy when I wake up, clean surfaces if not a completely empty sink. Wash dishes as e_lud does...confess that because I'm a design freak, I make sure the colors stack together nicely in the bamboo drainer. Some just look prettier next to each other than others ! (I know.) I count myself amongst the blessed because all three loves of my life felt that if I cooked, they cleaned up. I didn't even have to ask.

I own a 17 year old dishwasher named Tony. He's not as reliable as he used to be. but I'm learning to do them myself.

With no dishwasher, at some point you just have to learn to enjoy the mundane. Feel the water on your hands. Breathe in the steam. In the winter, the warm water is divine. I also put a bird feeder right outside the kitchen window so I can see the beauties alighting upon it while I wash. It is a time of serenity for me.

I have a bad habit of letting them pile up, but then I put on The Ditty Bops and sing along while I wash and it's not too bad.

Washing the dishes in the sink with the radio on is a real treat. A bit like ironing with a good movie. Or any cleaning on your hands and knees.

Frankly, I don't even care how big the pile of dishes is anymore. As long as I can listen to my podcasts on my headphones while my wife watches her soap operas I am happy because I am being entertained. I actually look forward to it. It's the only reason the kitchen is sparkly clean.

My boyfriend and I have what we both think is the sweetest deal around: I cook, he does the dishes. He loves everything I make (even the less successful cooking attempts) and is willing to work for it! We don't have a dish washer. His system is a double sided sponge (with a green scratchy side) and a bottle of dishwashing soap - he says doing dishes gives him a moment to meditate in his head. Apparently, for him, there is nothing else like it.

I used to be terrible with them. Like, weeks. Now I usually ask myself the question, am I going to want to do this later? No, so I wash everything right away now. I realized I could do them, and that it wasn't really a big deal.

Oh, and I realized there's something important to a kitchen and kinda magical, actually. It's restful and calming. And that's regular soap and running water.

At the bare minimum, get the pots, pans, etc into soaking water immediately after cooking - considering usually food needs to cool, I'll try get them rinsed for the dishwasher. Same with dishes after the meal - even if it has to come up to a coin toss who does dishes, they are also immediately rinsed for the dishwasher.

I clean while I cook and after eating. I don't leave dishes in the sink and generally empty out the dish rack.

I'm also a "clean while I cook" dishwasher. If I don't scrub the cooking dishes right after use and prior to eating (that can be too hot!), I always give them a good rinse.

I always clean, dry and put dishes away after I've eaten off of them. I try to use hot water (as hot as I can stand) to reduce dry time. And I always have at least two towels on hand in case one gets too wet.

I plan the cooking, eating, and cleaning into my mealtime when I'm planning what to cook - that way I always know what to expect. In a lot of my recipes, I make a note on the bottom for which dishes I'll need to use so I can get everything prepared before hand and know what I'll have to clean.

My roommates are a different story. They leave dishes for an inordinate amount of time. So our deal is that they can only fill one side of our double sink, it cannot stack above the faucet, and they cannot take up more than 1/4 of the counter space. My old roommate used to be really bad about dishes (both sinks, all the counter space), so I've got a pretty lucky deal now. But we help each other out too.

@TerryClark - I like the way you think! I am the same way...

Pre-dishwasher days: Things dirtied while cooking got put in the sink to soak, then everything got washed at the end of the meal. On work days, I'd sometimes wash the breakfast dishes, sometimes leave them in the sink to be washed with the dinner dishes. My goal was simply to wash dishes at least once a day, so that nothing hung around in the sink to attract bugs.

Now I have a dishwasher. Having grown up handwashing dishes for a family of nine, I love having a dishwasher. Since I live alone, I run it every two days. If it isn't full, I'll find other stuff to put in it--the light difuser bowls from the ceiling lights, bottles and jars from the bathroom, the glass tray from the microwave, the stove top burner grates, anything that won't get ruined in a dishwasher goes in. Saves on dusting and handwashing. I run the dishwasher about 9 pm and empty it the following morning while waiting for the kettle to boil for tea. There are still a few things that need handwashing, like the good knives and wooden cutting boards, and those get done every evening.

I am an absolutely crazy dish washer... my roommates... are not. We do not have a dishwasher, so everything must be done by hand. I always do my dishes after I cook and after I eat. Having food just sitting around grosses me out. Most of the time I end up doing my roommates dishes as well.

I prefer washing dishes in the morning while my coffee is brewing. I have a dishwasher, but it does a terrible job. The dishes have to be clean before they go in. I don't see the point of double washing, so I prefer to wash the dishes by hand. My husband insists on the crappy dishwasher. Also, he prefers the dishes done after dinner each night, and I prefer them done in the morning. I wash and clean as I cook; he makes a huge mess (but he's getting better) when he cooks.

Double sink. Left side of counter for dirty dishes; right side of counter for clean dishes. No counter dish rack necessarily -- lay down dish towels on the counter and let the dishes air dry. Left side of sink for washing and right side of sink for rinsing. Rubber gloves a must. Cooper scrubbie sometimes necessary. A window view to day dream is essential. Always always always clean as you cook. Anyone can make a mess of a bunch of pots. Cleaning while you go is the sign of a true virtuoso, capable of keeping all that kitchen chaos in control, just like a real chef.

I cook; Hubby cleans up...and I dry because then we can chit chat and be the oh-so-gag-me-adorable couple splashing each other and playfully towel snapping the other back...it's quality time here people, that makes the chore more bearable.

I will admit to being a horrible dish washer. Part of it is that I'm very tall and standing at the sink to wash the dishes gives me a horrible back ache. Another part of it is that I'm a huge perfectionist. If I can't get them super duper spotless clean, I'd rather just not do them. This is why I don't let my son do the dishes, even though he asks! (He's 8). And part of it is total laziness, lol. I work all day, come home, make dinner for the kid, give him a bath, read him a bedtime story and tuck him in. Suddenly, it's 9PM and I haven't even got to sit down for 15 minutes to relax. It's either stand there and do dishes, thereby crippling me with pain...or lay on the couch and decompress from the day for 15 minutes, play with the cat, etc. before it's time to go to bed myself! I've gone weeks before without doing them. I've actually just replaced all my dishes with easy-to-wash ones only kept a set of 4 plates, 4 small plates and 4 bowls in the cabinet. That way, if there aren't as many dishes available to dirty, there won't be as many to wash, even if I wait and let them all get dirty before I wash them. Ug. i HATE HATE HATE doing dishes :(

My husband cooks and I clean.
I'm the slowest dish washer in the world. It takes me forever to wash and rinse every bit of soap off the dish. To solve this (and to conserve water) I got a countertop dishwasher for our small kitchen. The dishes go in while the pots and pans are in the sink getting prewashed by the discharge. After the wash cycle is finished I wash the pots and pans by hand. I also use that time listening to the radio to catch up on the day's news.
It's so nice to wake up to a clean kitchen.